Frequently Asked Questions

The new Elgin Street atrium entrance will be completed by Canada Day 2017. The completion of the NAC’s main banquet room, the Panorama Room, will be completed by January 2018.

Yes. Southam Hall will be renovated in the Summer of 2016 in time for the start of the 2016-2017 season in October.  Learn more here.

Patrons should not experience discomforts from the new building materials in the renovated Southam Hall. The NAC has chosen seat and floor materials and finishes with low levels of volatile organic compounds (or VOCs). In addition, Southam Hall’s new seats are pre-fabricated outside the NAC, meaning that any off-gassing is likely to be finished either by the time the seats are installed this Summer, or well before Southam Hall opens in the Fall.

If you come to a performance and you experience any issues relating to the new materials in Southam Hall, please contact us.

The NAC has a significant collection of visual artworks that were created by artists across Canada and throughout the world. We have taken every precaution to preserve and protect our collection of visual art during construction. We are very grateful to the Canadian Museum of Nature, which is storing CD 318, Glenn Gould’s piano, for us. Many artworks will remain at the NAC. Others, such as the Jessie Oonark tapestry from the main foyer, and the Governor General’s Performing Arts Awards exhibit, are being carefully stored off-site. We had to use a crane to move the 1,200-pound Musica sculpture by Leonardo Nierman, normally situated on the terrace overlooking Freiman Lane! Our artworks and artifacts will be reinstalled once construction has been completed.

In December 2014, the Government of Canada announced a historic $110.5 million for a major renovation of the National Arts Centre’s 47 year-old building. The announcement signaled a major vote of confidence in the NAC and its role as a catalyst for the performing arts across Canada.

Brilliantly renewed by the renowned architectural firm Diamond Schmitt Architects, the new NAC will have large, light-filled and accessible public spaces that offer breathtaking views of the city, and a magnificent new transparent entrance on Elgin Street.

Central to this project was the re-orientation of the NAC to the city, and its transformation to become far more welcoming to the nation’s capital and its people. Our beautiful new public spaces overlooking Confederation Square will not only be inviting, they will also offer a wide range of activities and events for the public to enjoy from morning to night. The rejuvenation project will also renew the Fourth Stage, expand the Panorama Room, and address significant deficiencies, from lobbies that are ill-equipped for large crowds, to insufficient washrooms and a lack of wheelchair access.

Yes.  The NAC will incorporate a patterned ceramic frit into the glass of its newly-renovated sections to greatly reduce the potential of bird strikes. These bird-friendly designs are in accordance with Canada’s Fatal Light Awareness Program (or FLAP) and are even more stringent than Toronto’s guidelines, which are among the most stringent in North America. (Note:  The City of Ottawa does not have bird-friendly building guidelines, which is why the NAC looked at industry best practices, i.e.  in Toronto, Calgary, Vancouver, San Francisco and New York.) The NAC’s bird-friendly guidelines were approved by the NCC in January 2016. The NAC will work with the NCC to put into place a monitoring program for the first year of operation to assess the success of the bird-friendly measures.