National Volunteer Week 2015

Celebrating our volunteers at the Musée Héritage Museum comes naturally because they are "part of the family" and we would not be able to do all the things we do without them!

   On April 9, 2015 the museum hosted the Arts and Heritage Foundation of St. Albert  membership and volunteer appreciation night event to thank all of the members and volunteers in our organization. 

  Our guests had a chance to see our current exhibition, Wus'kwiy, Waskway--From Berry Baskets to Souvenirs before we set up a new exhibition the following week.

Creating designs with our teeth!

After viewing the amazing birch bark bitings, and moose or caribou hair tufting examples in our exhibition, we invited our guests to try creating their own birch bark bitings on transfer paper or "tuft" using yarn.

Learning to tuft using yarn instead of moose hair.

Edna and Vino hosted the museum volunteer table at the annual Volunteer Appreciation Luncheon held at the St. Albert Alliance Church on April 15, 2015. The St. Albert Community Information and Volunteer Centre organizes this luncheon each year as part of the National Volunteer Week festivities in our community and they do an amazing job. 

This is the 12th consecutive year of the National Volunteer Week campaign to recognize the millions of volunteers across Canada. We were thrilled to have many of our volunteers join us for this luncheon to appreciate their hard work.

Over 300 people at the Volunteer Appreciation Luncheon

Musical acappella group, Hoja, performed at the luncheon. Mayor Crouse joined in with his air guitar. Such an awesome performance.

The staff at the museum want to say a big thank you to our volunteers who contribute so much of their time and energy to the museum and heritage sites.   We simply would not be able to provide the quality experiences and programs to our community without the help of our volunteers. It is our pleasure to hold appreciation events to honour the spirit of the volunteer that wants to give back to the community. We are truly grateful.

Thank you volunteers!

New exhibition sneak peek: Francophones in Alberta

Musée Héritage Museum staff are back in the temporary gallery space installing a new exhibition this week, Francophones in Alberta: Courage and Determination. As always, staff and volunteers are very involved in the installation.

The first step is taking down our previous exhibition: Wus'kwiy/Waskway--From Berry Baskets to Souvenirs. This requires removing the berry baskets and other souvenirs so that they can be safely stored.

Kevin and JP carefully packing the birch bark baskets for storage.

Kevin came up with the exhibition design and research. Willing to help paint too!

Always a pleasure during install week!

Once we removed the baskets from the exhibition area, we decided to go ahead with our plan to change up the colours again!

Once the painting was done, we moved the display cases into place. We will next bring out identified artifacts from our storage to display in the cases. Tune in next week for a look at the finished product.

Megan sewing fabric for use in the exhibit cases

We are now ready to bring in artifacts and install our exhibition panels.

Kevin preparing the mannequin for a wedding dress.

Please drop by next week to see what the gallery looks like when the new exhibition opens on April 21, 2015! Opening reception April 23 from 6pm - 8pm.

SPRING BREAK AT THE MUSEE HERITAGE MUSEUM!

Spring Break programs at the museum were a blast this week – with Fossil Fun on Tuesday, Our Night Sky on Wednesday and An Easter Celebration on Thursday. 

On Tuesday, March 31 we learned all about fossils in Alberta and had the chance to look at some real sample fossils from the museum’s collection. We also made our own “fossil” samples to take home, and created Q-tip skeletons of local animals.

Wednesday, April 1 was a blizzardy day (April Fool’s!), but some "real troopers" made their way down to the museum to learn about Our Night Sky. We shared legends about the stars and the moon, identified constellations using constellation tubes, and created our own constellations, with accompanying names and/ or legends, to take home.

In our own community early settlers used the sky to guide them when they travelled through the night by dog sled between Lac St. Anne and St. Albert.

Thursday, April 2 was an Easter Celebration with many participants coming to take part in an old-fashioned Easter egg hunt throughout the museum. We also told a timeless Easter tale, one that has been shared with children in our community for many years, and created beautiful Easter crafts to display for the holidays.

All in all, as mentioned before, our programmers and visitors had a blast during our Spring Break “staycation.” Make sure to check out our regular monthly Saturday programs (the second Saturday of the month) until June, and watch for information about our summer programming at the museum, Father Lacombe Chapel, St. Albert Grain Elevator Park and the Art Gallery of St. Albert.  

Happy Easter everyone!