It’s just been announced that B.C. philanthropist Michael Audain has donated $2 million, through the Audain Foundation, to the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria.

The gift will go toward a planned 10,000-square-foot expansion, called the Next Gallery. The AGGV has cited an urgent lack of space. A glazed hallway is to link the original 1889 building to the new space. Still, the donation is contingent upon the facility receiving the necessary additional funding from the province in 2017. Audain is chair of Vancouver’s Polygon Homes Ltd. and oversaw the opening of the Audain Art Museum in Whistler in March. He is a former chair of the Vancouver Art Gallery.