A new year for the Museum
This year, we’ve decided to forgo the traditional end-of-year wrap-up for our first blog of the year. Instead of bragging about our visitor statistics and the popularity our programming (both great!), we’ll talk about what’s coming up for early 2019.
However, I’m afraid I am going to immediately cheat and go back to last fall when we held a vernissage for our current special exhibition. Called A Noteworthy Woman, the exhibition is about the life of Viola Desmond and the new $10 dollar bill that features her. Senior Deputy Governor Carolyn A. Wilkins, our Director Ken Ross, Russell Grosse of the Black Cultural Centre for Nova Scotia and Wanda Robson, sister of Viola Desmond, spoke to a crowd of 130 guests at this, our first exhibition opening. In the audience were community stakeholders as well as colleagues from national museums, including the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. A Noteworthy Woman will be on display here at the Museum until May 12, which more than qualifies it as a 2019 event. Check back periodically about future programming to accompany this exhibition.
The irrepressible Wanda Robson, sister of Viola Desmond, was a very special guest and a big hit at the opening event of A Noteworthy Woman.
A Noteworthy Woman has a number of artifacts from Viola’s life that have never before been exhibited.
Museum Director Ken Ross takes Wanda Robson and Senior Deputy Governor Carolyn A. Wilkins on a tour of A Noteworthy Woman.
Warming up this Winterlude
And now on to the future—well, the Museum’s near future, at least. Our agenda for 2019 includes participating in a number of local community events and festivals over the year. The first big festival is Winterlude, the National Capital Region’s big winter fest taking place from February 1 to 18. There’ll be plenty of action on nearby Sparks Street with live entertainment on the Capital Pride stage. Outdoor food, ice sculptures and chilly carnival games will line this popular pedestrian mall, and we’ll be right there every Winterlude weekend with activities for the entire family. Making puppets, building your own tea brick or doing some hands-on learning with a Métis fur trapper are just a few of the activities visitors will enjoy as they come out of the cold and into the Museum this February.
Educator and trapper Archie Martin returns in 2019 with his travelling museum of furs and trapping gear.
February is also Black History Month, and on February 23 we’re inviting you and your family to learn about Viola Desmond’s life, work and the inspiration she has become for Canadians. Join poet Nadine Williams as she reads her poem, Viola’$ Ten. Then, in a poetry-writing workshop, you will have a chance to write your own verse about someone you find inspiring.
Fraud, social justice and keeping the kids occupied
During March Break, many families will be looking to museums to provide activities for kids, and we’ll be doing just that with story times and conducted tours of A Noteworthy Woman. Our hands-on crafts, such as making your own bank notes, are money-themed activities designed to entertain and inform. Special guests this March will include our friends from the Royal Canadian Mint and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police who will answer your questions about coins and counterfeits. If it looks like March’s special guests reflect a theme, that’s because it’s also Fraud Prevention Month, an event that couldn’t be more appropriate for us. Check the Museum website next month for details or, better yet, follow us on Facebook!
Counterfeiting is always a popular subject during Fraud Prevention Month. You get to handle the real thing (well, the fake thing).
But enough of events. We are just getting underway with our educational programming and will introduce two new school programs this spring.
- Inflation Busters is a game-based program for students in grades 10–12. How do you plan for the future or run a business when you don’t know what things will cost? Get a grip on inflation in this fun and informative game.
- Also coming off the program assembly line is Trading Planets. For grades 4–8, it places students in an interplanetary economy where they learn that trading without a common currency is very difficult indeed.
Who knew that learning about money and economics could be fun? We did!
I doubt your credit cards will work off planet Earth, so you’ll need “spacebucks” from our Trading Planets program.
We look forward to seeing you at any of our events or programs this season. Or just come in to see the Museum anytime! Keep informed about everything that’s happening here on our webpage and stay in touch by following us on Facebook and Twitter.
We want to hear from you! Do you have an idea for a blog post you’d like to see?
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The Museum Blog
December 21, 2016
A Bank NOTE-able Woman III
By: Graham Iddon
Desmond truly exemplifies a Canadian who has overcome barriers, is inspirational to others, has made a positive change to society and in so doing, left a lasting legacy.
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Blog posts
December 1, 2016
Why We are Not the Currency Museum
By: Graham Iddon
But a few years before it closed, the Currency Museum officially became an arm of the Communications Department. And this was the crucial factor that would change the future mission of the Museum.
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Blog posts
November 15, 2016
A Field Trip to Montréal and the MTM Auction: 2
By: Paul S. Berry
Several parties were bidding on lot #14 until it reached $10,000, at which point the contest was only between me and the gentleman who had underbid the previous lot.
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Blog posts
November 2, 2016
A Field Trip to Montréal and the MTM Auction: 1
By: Paul S. Berry
The sale room was a hive of activity. About 20 people sat at tables scrutinizing lots, heads bent down with magnifying glasses pressed close to their faces.
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Blog posts
September 29, 2016
Royal Canadian Numismatic Association
By: David Bergeron
The 63rd annual convention of the Royal Canadian Numismatic Association (RCNA)—Canada’s money collector show—was held in Ottawa from 20-24 July 2016.
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Blog posts
August 30, 2016
Gold Rush! and Mining the Miners
By: Graham Iddon
Mining the Miners is our third temporary exhibition at the CMH (we reopen in 2017) and it is indeed about the Klondike gold rush. It’s always nice to be able to dovetail our exhibits with those of our host.
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Blog posts
August 5, 2016
New Acquisitions
By: David Bergeron
When I was a kid, I liked going to Canadian Tire with my dad because he gave me the Canadian Tire money that he would receive along with his change.
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Blog posts
June 27, 2016
Repairing Steel Dies
Before they were to be placed in collection storage, these broken dies were evaluated for further conservation treatment. Ultimately, the decision was made to repair the breaks.
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Blog posts
June 15, 2016
New Acquisitions
By: Paul S. Berry
In May 2013, staff of the Bank of Canada Museum visited BABN and were able to select for the National Currency Collection more than 650 steel dies (small, engraved metal or “intaglio” plates) and other production tools formerly used by the company to prepare the intaglio printing plates.
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May 24, 2016
A bank NOTE-able Woman II
By: Graham Iddon
On 15 April, the public consultation to select an iconic Canadian woman to appear on a bank note closed. Over 26,000 nominations were received following the Bank of Canada’s open call—a great success.
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Blog posts
