Holiday Programs at the Museum!

Staying home over the holidays? Come to the museum to help us ring in the new year with our NEW holiday drop-in programs with a suggested donation of $2 per participant. 

Programs will take place at the Musée Héritage Museum in St. Albert Place Monday Dec. 29, Tuesday Dec. 30 and Wednesday Dec. 31-- check out the details below!

We will be open Monday, December 29 for our “Winter Landscapes” program, discovering how people lived (and travelled) in the early settlement of St. Albert, throughout the long winter months. We will look closely at real historical objects, and make some winter landscape crafts.  

Program times:  10 AM and 1 PM (for one hour).

On Tuesday, December 30 come learn about “New Year’s Around the World,” through stories, a fun game, and a celebratory craft.   

Program times:  10 AM and 1 PM (for one hour).

On Wednesday, December 31 we will have a New Year’s Celebration from 10 AM-12 PM (drop-in), with snacks, drinks, and crafts to get you ready for the New Year’s Eve.

Akins children on sled, 1926. St. Albert Historical Society fonds, Musée Héritage Museum

Take Your Best Shot People’s Choice Winners Announced!

The votes are in! 

The winners of our first ever People’s Choice with our annual Take Your Best Shot youth photo contest are in. 

One person from each category of Grades 3-6, Grades 7-9, and Grades 10-12 were chosen by you, the people! 

Congratulations to Jemimah, Candace, and Holly, whose photos are reproduced below. Make sure to come in and see the exhibition before January 18, 2015.

Jemimah, Grade 3

Candace, Grade 7

Holly, Grade 10

Take Your Best Shot Reception and Prize Presentation

On Thursday, December 4, 2014 the Musée Héritage Museum hosted the Take Your Best Shot special reception and prize presentation for all of this year’s contest participants. 

Take Your Best Shot Exhibition

Photographers, and their families, stopped by to see the exhibition, make sun prints, decorate cookies, and visit with Ruby from iHuman. 

Decorating snowman cookies

Everyone who drops by to see the exhibition can vote for their favourite photos in our "People’s Choice Award" category (voting ends December 14) and the winners will be announced December 16. 

Prizes from McBain Camera were awarded to those who placed 1st, 2nd and 3rd in each of the age categories.

 Scroll down to see some great pictures some of our prize winners!

Tori presenting the prizes to our winners

Ellie, our 3rd place winner in the Grade 3-6 category

 Candace, 3rd place winner in the Grade 7-9 category.

Sean, 1st place winner in the Grade 10-12 category

Take Your Best Shot - Now Open!

Come see the creative subjects local youth chose to photograph this year!  

The 4th annual youth digital photo exhibit, Take Your Best Shot, is now open! This year's theme is "Shape Search," so we asked youth to take a picture of something with an interesting shape. The words and images from youth in Grades 3-12 are featured in the exhibition.

Join us at the special reception and prize presentation this Thursday, December 4, 2014 from 6-8:30 PM at the Musée Héritage Museum. Prizes will be awarded starting at 7 PM - thanks to McBain Camera for the prize gift cards!

Installation of Take Your Best Shot, including designs by Maiya (Grade 2), as well as a fun interactive craft

And...don't forget about our NEW special display of shutterbugs Grade 2 and under in the Discovery Room! We will be accepting photos for this display throughout the exhibit. Send them in to torim@artsandheritage.ca.

"Famous shapes from St. Albert's landscape," set up by the Archives

The shape of the Sturgeon River

The top 3 photos have be chosen in each of the three categories, Grades 3-6, Grades 7-9, and Grades 10-12, by our jury: Rene from McBain, Chris from the Gazette, and Tracy from the Art Gallery of St. Albert.

Winners were announced in a previous 

post from October 31, which is available here. We also have People's Choice to be awarded in each category. Come and vote for your favourite before December 16!  

     

Building Station and installation

Accompanying display of antique cameras

The Take Your Best Shot exhibition is open until January 18, 2015.

Snowflake Festival 2014 at the Musée

St. Albert's annual Snowflake Festival was this past Friday, November 21, 2014. 

Along with a number of other organizations in the Perron District, the museum participated in this exciting yearly family event. 

After the big light up, visitors came inside to look at our newest exhibit, the annual Take Your Best Shot Youth Photo Exhibition,  and enjoy some holiday cheer in the form of hot apple cider and candy canes.  

Our programmers had crafts to keep the kids entertained - thanks to our great volunteers Marian and Chantal for helping out! Check out the photos below to see what fun everyone had at this year's Festival:

Chantal assisting visitors in making holiday cards

Visitors playing at the Building Station in the Take Your Best Shot exhibit

Visitors enjoying the Take Your Best Shot exhibit

Roy helping visitors make 3D snowflakes

Councillor Hughes checking out the archives display

Remembrance Day Reflection

Remembrance Day 2014

Remembrance Day is always a special time, and this year’s ceremonies were poignant reminders of the service and sacrifice Canadian soldiers have made throughout our nation's history.

2014 marks the 100^th anniversary of the beginning of the First World War, a conflict in which over 60,000 Canadians lost their lives.  After the recent tragic deaths of Canadian soldiers in Quebec and Ontario, the meaning of Remembrance Day was brought very much to the present day.

The Musee Heritage Museum was open from 10:00 am to 1:00 pm on November 11^th, with staff attending the Remembrance Day ceremony at the cenotaph, just down the street from the Museum’s front doors.  It was great to see such a large crowd in attendance for the Remembrance Day ceremony on St. Anne Street.

The weather was cold, so it was nice to have the museum open and many people dropped in to see the exhibitions and warm up.  We provided coffee, hot chocolate and snacks, including some homemade bannock, courtesy of a special friend of the museum (thank you Theresa).  Theresa's mother, Dorothy, had served in the CWAC’s during World War II, and her uniform was on display at the museum for Remembrance Day.

We also had special exhibitions on display to commemorate the 100^th anniversary of the start of the Great War: an honour wall telling the stories of the numerous men (and one woman) from St. Albert who served in World War I; and the Brigadier-General Raymond Brutinel exhibit.  

Our Discovery Centre and Education Space were also set up with military artifacts, war posters, and interesting facts.  We even had some World War II uniforms that visitors could try on!

When the day was done, we had welcomed more than 400 visitors at the museum!  Thank you to everyone who braved the cold and came downtown for the Remembrance Day ceremony at the cenotaph, and to the Musee Heritage Museum, to help us honour our veterans and our fallen soldiers. 

Take Your Best Shot: Winners Announced!

We are happy to announce we received almost 40 entries to this year’s Take Your Best Shot digital photo competition! The jury has now met and chosen 3 winners from each category, with prizes of $200 (1^st place), $150 (2^nd place), and $100 (3^rd place) from McBain Camera. 

Our special prize reception will be held on December 4 from 6:30-8 PM, with prize presentations beginning at 7 PM. Congratulations to our winners, and to all those who submitted this year. We had many beautiful pictures to choose from – all of which will be included in the exhibit on display at the Musée Héritage Museum from November 21, 2014 - January 18, 2015.

Grades 3-6:

1.     Kiera, Grade 6

2.     Jemimah, Grade 3

3.     Ellie, Grade 5

Grades 7-9

1.     Maya, Grade 7

2.     Taryna, Grade 7

3.     Candace, Grade 7

Grades 10-12

1.     Sean, Grade 11

2.     Sian, Grade 10

3.     TJ, Grade 12

NEW THIS YEAR:

Starting November 21, come down and vote for the People’s Choice Award! We will also be having a special display in the Discovery Room for up-and-coming photographers Grade 2 and under. Submit your photo to torim@artsandheritage.ca at any time to be included in this special exhibit.

"Take Your Best Shot" Photo Submissions Due Soon!

Our annual Take Your Best Shot Youth Digital Photo Contest is up and running! This year the theme is “Shape Search.” 

We are looking for creative interpretations of this very open-ended theme. Where do you see shapes in your life? How does nature create shapes? How can you create shapes, and document them?  

            We will be creating three groups for entries, with a chance to win first, second, and third place in each group. The groups are: grades 3-6, grades 7-9, and grades 10-12.  Entries will be judged on: choice of subject, creativity, quality of photo, and written description. Winning entries will be displayed at the Musée Héritage Museum from November 21-January 18, 2014 with a special reception and prize presentation held December 4.

NEW THIS YEAR: We will have a special display for up-and-coming photographers grade 2 and under in the Discovery Room!

Submission by Serena for Take Your Best Shot 2013

The upcoming deadline for submissions is October 14, 2014. Please email your submission to caitlinc@artsandheritage.ca, or drop it off on a CD at the museum. Winners will be notified by November 7, 2014. Entries for the special display can be sent to torim@artsandheritage.ca.

Archives Week 2014

Each year during the first week of October the Archives Society of Alberta (ASA) celebrates Archives Week. This week is intended to promote archives across Alberta and the Musée Héritage Museum Archives is proud to participate in this event.

To celebrate the Musée Héritage Museum Archives will have a special display in the foyer of the museum, highlighting some of the donations received by the archives over the past year, including items from a recent donation related to Brigadier-General Raymond Brutinel. The Brutinel archival materials complement the current exhibit on display at the museum about the fascinating life of Brutinel.

Our Archivist at the museum will be conducting special tours of the archival storage space on a drop in basis, from Oct 7-10, 10 am to 5 pm. The tours will give our museum visitors a look behind the scenes to see how, and where, archival items are stored.

The ASA theme for Archives Week this year is "Creepy Alberta!" The ASA has created a web exhibit and calendar with images from across the province that "capture the strange, weird and eerie from Alberta's archival holdings".

The calendar will be available for sale at the Musée Héritage Museum alongside a newly published book about Brutinel.

In addition the Musée Héritage Museum Archives will have some "creepy" photos posted in our Discovery Room where we invite kids and families to come in and draw a creepy image of their own. After all, creepy is in the eye of the beholder!

Please drop by and join us this week as we celebrate Archives Week and learn more about the archives that care for the documentary heritage of St. Albert and the region.