The building is made of four constituent pavilions which together form a single building; however their exteriors were designed to be visually distinct from one another, giving the appearance that the pavilions are separate buildings. Three of these pavilions are situated in a U-shape around a fourth "Memorial Hall" pavilion; with the Confederation Centre Art Gallery located in the northeast pavilion of the U-shaped building complex. The art gallery pavilion is three storeys, and has a low geometric massing that is used throughout the entire structure. It includes seven exhibition rooms, which comprise over , an art education facility named The Schurman Family Studio, a contemporary outdoor sculpture court, a conservation lab, a preparation workshop, administrative offices, and temporary and permanent collection storage rooms. There are two access points for the art museum pavilion, an entrance to the south that provides access from the inside the other pavilions of the Confederation Centre of the Arts, and an entrance to the north that provides access from the outside. As of June 2017, the art museum's permanent collection includes over 17,000 works by Canadian artists. The permanent collection began in 1964, and has a mandate to develop exhibit Canadian visual arts, with and its collection reflect on Canadian identity and the origin and evolution of the country. Works in the collection were either directly purchased from the art museum, bequeathed to, or donated to the art museum. The collection includes digital media presentations, drawings, installation art, painting, photography, printmaking, sculptures. Most of the museum's holdings are works of contemporary art; although its collection does include works from the 19th and early 20th centuries, including works by Fanny Amelia Bayfield, Kathleen Daly, Cornelius Krieghoff, and George Pepper. The museum's collection includes specialized areas, like the Confederation Mural Collection, which includes works by Jean Paul Lemieux, and Jane Ash Poitras. The collection also includes works by indigenous Canadians, including Robert Houle. The museum's permanent collection also includes a specialized historical components, featuring a specialized research collection of works by Robert Harris, and the Lucy Maud Montgomery Collection, which includes sixteen novel manuscripts from the author. The Expo 67 Collection of Fine Craft features works made for the 1967 World's Fair.