St. Vital Museum displays to get a facelift

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 12/08/2020 (1910 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The St. Vital Museum is closed for the foreseeable future, as three very talented people revamp its displays.

The people doing the work some with outstanding qualifications and are easily the most talented group hired by the museum.

Rae comes from a fine arts and museum conservation and restoration background She graduated with top academic honours at the University of Manitoba and did her postgraduate studies in cultural restoration in Italy.

Kyle recently graduated with a PhD in museum studies from the University of Leicester in the U.K. His speciality is in queer art histories and diversity in art spaces.

Chris comes from an archival studies background. He graduated with a master’s degree in history in 2020 and did an internship at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg.  He has also worked with the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.

The trio were hired under the Canada Summer Jobs program and the museum thanks Northern Affairs Minister Dan Vandal (MP Saint Boniface-Saint Vital) for his guidance.

Museum directors hope to reopen from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturdays sometime in August, with Tuesday to Friday visits by appointment only. Check www.svhs.ca for details on the reopening.

A good time to see the renovated museum will be during Doors Open Winnipeg when the museum will be open between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. on Sat., Sept. 12 and from noon to 4 p.m. on Sun., Sept. 13.

On sad note, the St. Vital Historical Society lost a good friend and a hard worker June 27 with the passing of Shirley Blaikie.

Shirley, 87, and Mae Morgan, combined to clip stories about St. Vital residents from newspapers and other printed media. Volunteers then entered the stories into the computer database.

“Shirley had a great knowledge of, and interest in history,” Morgan recalled. “Before the St. Vital Museum, Shirley helped organize and improve the various St. Vital Historical Society locations. You might say she was a cheerleader for the museum — a place to gather and display historical wonders of St. Vital.”                                                                            

Bob Holliday is president of the St. Vital Historical Society and a community correspondent for St. Vital. Email him at docholliday90@me.com