Remai Modern opens its doors

A day that was years in the making finally came in Saskatoon.

Remai Modern opened Saturday morning with around 7000 ticket holders expected to grace the lavished doorways of Canada’s newest modern art gallery.

“This is a thrill, a thrill of a lifetime to be here and seeing a new art gallery open,” Bill Bollstad said, driving from Regina and showing up over two hours early.

The 60-year-old thought in his lifetime he wouldn’t ever see something like this in the prairies.

“I’m really excited to be spending the day here,” he said. “I’ll stay as long as I can until they boot me out.”

Other lucky ticket holders were walking around with the same feeling.

“I was open-minded. I was prepared to be disappointed and I am very pleasantly surprised,” Susan Nazarenko said, who tells 650 CKOM she enjoyed all the art.

“I am really impressed with this,” she said. “We’ve only been on the main floor and up here and then we’ll go to the second floor later.”

There were 7,000 visitors confirmed for the museum’s free admission on Saturday and Sunday.

One of the most talked about spaces is the Picasso Gallery on the third floor. Visitors can see 406 Picasso linocuts – the world’s largest collection of Picasso linocut prints – and a related collection of 23 ceramic works by the famed artist.

The Remai Modern will be closed Mondays, except for stat holidays. As such, the museum will reopen for general admission on Tuesday at 10 a.m.