Our popular Kids Après is back for March Break! This is a great chance to bring your youngsters by the museum to experience a bit of history with colouring, button-making, LEGO and more. Entry is always by donation. Children must be accompanied by an adult.
Posted in Arts & Artists, News & Events
Tagged crafts, Kids Apres, LEGO, scavenger hunt
The past year has been one of great exhilaration, vision and accomplishment for the Whistler Museum & Archives Society. Together with the Board of Trustees, staff and volunteers, the museum continued to advance its mission to collect, preserve, document and interpret the natural and human history of mountain life in Whistler, and broaden our program offerings.
2018 marks the busiest year in the museum’s history, with over 12,800 exhibit visits and an additional 10,600 people partaking in the museum’s many events and programs. These programs included our long-running Valley of Dreams Walking Tour, which educates guests and locals alike on the pioneer history of the region, tales behind the development of the mountains, and the 2010 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games. The tour is currently in its 22nd year and runs daily throughout June, July and August.
Walking tours have been run by the museum for 22 years, making it our second longest running program (beaten only by the Annual LEGO Building Competition).
The museum’s Discover Nature program was another highlight from the past year. This program, which runs in July and August, included a Discover Nature Station at Lost Lake Park and a nature-based walking tour. Our friendly interpreters used the touch table items to engage participants and to encourage questions about the marvels of natures. Participants also had the opportunity to dig deeper into any of our items on display (or things not on display) to discover fun facts about some of Whistler’s local organisms.
Other museum program highlights this year included Kids Après, Crafts in the Park (in partnership with the Whistler Public Library), Nature 101 training seminars, our 3rd annual Mountain Bike Heritage Week, Feeding the Spirit and, of course, our long-running Speaker Series.
Brandywine Falls, now a provincial park, was once the Conroy family homestead and then a bustling resort run by the Gallagher family. Photo: Whistler Mountain Collection
My personal favourite Speaker Series event we held this year was with Julie Gallagher, who grew up at Brandywine Falls, and whose parents Ray and Ruth Gallagher ran a resort in the current location of Brandywine Provincial Park. After delivering a riveting talk on April 28th, Julie offered to take staff and guests on a walk through Brandywine Falls the following day, describing where many lost structures were located, and even showed us a few remnants of structures just off the main viewing area that I personally have walked past many times but would never have noticed if she had not pointed them out.
One of the major accomplishments of the museum this year was the completion of Coast Mountain Gothic: A History of the Coast Mountain Gothic Arch Huts, a virtual exhibit with the support of the Virtual Museum of Canada. This exhibit explores the story, design and construction of Coast Mountain Gothic Arch Huts and the people and organizations who brought them to life. This was a major endeavour that took over two years to complete and was also the museum’s first fully bilingual exhibit, with all interpretive text available in French. You can check our the exhibit on our website under exhibits: VMC – Coast Mountain Gothic.
The VOC building the Harrison Hut in October 1983. Photo: Jay Page; UBC-VOC Archives, October 1983.
Given our lack of physical space in our current location, we are glad to have the opportunity to tell Whistler’s stories through our Museum Musings column every week – thanks to the Pique for allowing us to share 52 Whistler narratives in 2018 that would have otherwise been left untold. We are grateful to everyone who reads our column and attends our events. Thank you for your continued support and we’ll see you in the new year!
– Brad Nichols, Executive Director
Kids Après is back at the Whistler Museum for March Break! There will be LEGO building, a scavenger hunt, colouring and button making at the museum, as well as chance to explore the museum’s exhibits. All ages are welcome; children must be accompanied by an adult.
Posted in News & Events
Tagged button making, crafts, Kids Apres, kids crafts, LEGO building
Kids Après at the museum is back for Family Day this year! Come by February 11 – 13 and 17 – 20 from 3 – 6pm for colouring, button-making, LEGO, hot chocolate and, of course, exploring our exhibits.
Entry to the museum is by donation. Children must be accompanied by an adult.
We’ll be holdings Kids Après again every day during March Break (March 20 – 31), just in case you can’t make it out this month.
Our popular Kids Après is back for Family Day Weekend, February 7th to 9th from 3-6pm. This is a great chance to bring your youngsters by the museum to experience a bit of culture, colouring, button-making, LEGO, and more. Entry is always by donation. Children must be accompanied by an adult.
We’ll also be holding Kids Après everyday during March Break this year. Hope to see you and the kiddies joining in on the fun!
As any museum, archive or gallery employee will tell you, the way into the industry is more often than not through volunteering. Even if you aren’t exactly interested in a career in cultural heritage, or if you already have a career path set, volunteering in such an environment usually provides a very pleasant and enriching experience for everyone involved.
I (Assistant Archivist, Trish, here!) began my career by volunteering at museums in London, England and Rochester, New York. By simply offering my time, my life and career reaped huge benefits. The experiences, friends and connections have been unreal!
Okay, enough gushing about my experience with volunteering. The point of this tangent is to let you all know that the Whistler Museum is accepting volunteers for some of our upcoming events and we would love to have you!
We are currently looking for volunteers for two ongoing events/activities:
1. During February and March, every Thursday from 3pm-6pm we are hosting Kiddies Après. This is a very enjoyable craft-filled event. We are looking for those with experience and enthusiasm in working with children to help run these events.
2. The Museum is launching a pilot project in which we offer guided tours of our exhibits. The tours will be roughly 20 minutes and offered by staff as well as volunteers. We are looking for volunteers who are able to participate as guides as little as once a week. We currently have Rosemary Malaher volunteering every Thursday starting at 11:30am. We would like to fill more days with tours beginning at 11:30am and/or 1:30pm. If you are interested in volunteering for a tour position we can discuss a time and day that works best for you and us.
We want you to get as much out of volunteering for us as we will get from you, so tell us about your interests and what you would like to get out of the experience! We are very open to your suggestions and alterations.
If you are interested in volunteering, contact: collectionassistant@whistlermuseum.org
