AGO's permanent collection saw significant growth in the late-20th and early-21st century. The museum's permanent collection grew from 3,400 works in 1960, to 10,700 in 1985. As of March 2018, the AGO's permanent collection holds over 98,000 pieces, representing many artistic movements and eras of art history. The museum's collection is organized into several "collection areas," which typically encompasses works from a specific art form, artist, benefactor, chronological era, or geographic locale. Until the early 1980s, works collected for the museum's collection was primarily Canadian or European artists. Its collection has since expanded to include artworks from the Indigenous peoples in Canada, and other cultures from around the world.