This year, Museum Week ends with the theme #WordsForTheFutureMW. The words for the future we choose to share today come from our 2019 Visitor Book, where visitors from around the world left their mark and shared their comments about their experience at the St. Catharines Museum. As we enter the summer months of 2021, I was curious to learn what our visitors were saying about the Museum back in Summer 2019. It turns out, there’s a few lessons for the future we can gather from our visitors.
Museum Chat Live! – E609: Museum Work in a Pandemic
On this episode of Museum Chat Live!, we consider how museum work has changed over the past year in the face of a global pandemic. As with many professions and fields, the pandemic has laid bare the challenges in museum work, but has also brought clarity to our strengths and resilience. We’re here to get into the nitty gritty and ask how museums have had to drastically shift focus, innovate to reach audiences, remain relevant in our communities, and continue our overarching purpose, as custodians of the past, to preserve and interpret history in entirely new ways.
Museum Classroom: Historic Moments in Canada – Pandemics in History
Trigger: The following lesson plan explores the historical and present-day impact pandemics have had on Canada and St. Catharines’ communities […]
Yearbook Flip – High School Graduation
This year, due to the circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic, the graduation ceremonies of the Class of 2020 in St. Catharines and beyond look very different. This change in tradition and ritual does not diminish the incredible accomplishments and exciting opportunities ahead for the Class of 2020. Rather, it marks the special resiliency of this graduating class. This is a moment to create new rituals and new markers to celebrate this cohort of young people who are already proving they have what it takes to make real progress and positive change for our future.
Yearbook Flip: High School Humour
One of the many things that makes old high school yearbooks such vibrant, lively archival materials is the humour found within their pages. Our yearbook collection dates back to 1913, and even the earliest yearbooks, which read more like student newspapers, have sprinklings of inside jokes, light quips, and satire. It is an encouraging reminder that the youthful spirit of teenagers spans across generations.
Museum Chat Live! E503 – Learning from the 1918 Influenza Pandemic
In early 2019, the St. Catharines Museum opened a temporary exhibition called Outbreak. The exhibit explores the 1918 Spanish Influenza pandemic and tells a larger story about public health and disease in St. Catharines and Canada. We opened Outbreak to commemorate 100 years since the influenza pandemic, but we could have never guessed just how relevant this exhibit would become in light of the global pandemic we are currently facing.
Museum Classroom: Legacy of a Pandemic (Intermediate/Senior)
Your story matters. You have two options for recording your experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic and to reflect on how it has impacted you, your family, and your community.
Museum Classroom: Legacy of a Pandemic (Primary/Junior)
To help you reflect and share your experiences, we’ve created the Legacy of a Pandemic Activity Booklet for you to compete. The booklet includes all sorts of creative and reflective prompts that you ca do independently or with siblings and/or parents/guardians.
Legacy of a Pandemic
As historians, it is our job look at the current global pandemic with a historical lens. How can we ensure that the stories and experiences of the people in our community living through the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic are preserved for future generations?
It is part of the mission of the St. Catharines Museum to collect and tell the collective story of our community, and, understanding this unprecedented time, we hope to document how the current health crisis is impacting our community for future generations.