Hands-off learning

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This article was published 10/06/2020 (2100 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Signs, signs, everywhere a sign.

Putting up dozens of new signs will be among the tasks staff at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights will be working on in the next week. Officials announced today the six-year-old museum and its boutique will reopen on June 17; the ERA Bistro will remain closed for the time being.

“It will certainly look a little different compared to before the pandemic,” says Jacques Lavergne, the museum’s vice-president for visitor experience.

The CMHR was forced to close on March 14 after the COVID-19 pandemic began spreading quickly across Canada. As of June 17, the museum will be open five days a week, Tuesday through Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and will become Canada’s first national museum to reopen since the coronavirus outbreak, owing to Manitoba’s few COVID-19 cases.

The province allowed museums to open on May 4 as part of the first phase of reopening after the pandemic. The Winnipeg Art Gallery opened with new safety measures on May 5 and the Manitoba Museum will open its doors to the public on weekends starting Saturday (see sidebar).

To meet with social-distancing guidelines, though, human rights museum officials knew staff and visitors would have to adapt to the new normal and that would take time to find solutions to COVID-19 problems.

One of the problems CMHR staff foresaw was the museum’s entrance, where visitors often congregate while purchasing tickets. The solution they chose is a new online timed-entry ticketing system that can be accessed through the museum’s website, humanrights.ca. Visitors will have a choice of three daily time slots to begin their self-guided tour, says museum spokeswoman Maureen Fitzhenry.

Once inside, however, one of CMHR’s hallmarks — its size — is a social-distancing plus, Lavergne says. The giant six-year-old tourist landmark is spacious and allows visitors to enjoy the exhibits while keeping two metres apart from each other.

“There’s a lot of real estate here,” he says of the museum’s seven levels, 24,155 square metres of interior space and 4,366 square metres of exhibition space. “Distancing is available with effective signage to tell people where they can go.”

Some of those signs will indicate the museum’s innovative touchscreen exhibits are closed. The coronavirus can linger for days on certain surfaces and provincial regulations say they must be turned off, Lavergne says.

The Israel Asper Tower of Hope, a popular attraction that provides a view of The Forks and Winnipeg’s downtown skyline from atop the museum, will also be closed.

“It’s not that large of a space,” Lavergne says, adding visitors will have to wait until restrictions ease further before ascending to the museum’s highest point.

What will be open are new exhibits focusing on the rights to health. The pandemic has put health issues at the top of people’s minds since the CMHR closed in March, and new exhibits focusing on health-care issues and on Canadian politician Tommy Douglas, who many call the father of medicare in Canada, will add insight, Fitzhenry says.

“This is a place where you can find hope and see the good that people have done for others,” she says.

Most other permanent exhibits, such as one focusing on Viola Desmond, the Black civil rights activist who challenged the segregation of a Nova Scotia cinema in 1946, and a 360-degree surround film about Indigenous worldviews, remain, says CMHR president and chief executive officer John Young.

The human rights museum is also taking over outdoor spaces at The Forks on July 15 with a new exhibition, ARTiculate Our Rights, which will feature 13 installations of 26 works of art created by young Manitobans, says Fitzhenry. The project, which considers the future of human rights, was to be part of Manitoba 150 celebrations; an indoor component has been postponed to 2021.

The CMHR will also offer #FrontlineFridays, free tickets every Friday to essential workers such as health-care personnel, firefighters, police, janitors and grocery store workers.

“We’re showing our appreciation for those who went above and beyond,” says Fitzhenry.

alan.small@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter:@AlanDSmall