Holiday Hours and Reminder to Visit our Gift Shop!

Christmas is fast approaching!

We want to remind everyone that our Gift Shop includes a variety of locally produced art and products including soaps, sugars, cocoa and teas from Hedgerow in Manning; honey from Falher; handmade jewelery; and books from local authors.

We are open from 10 am to 5 pm, Monday to Saturday .

We are closed December 24th, 25th and January 1st and resume normal hours on on January 2nd.

Come by and check out our Gift Shop and our current exhibit: From Peace River to Paris: Fashionable Furs of our Century which features not only our fur collection but information on historic and contemporary trapping in the Peace Country.

Reminder: Alberta Trapper's Association President to speak at the Museum

Gordy Klassen, president of the Alberta Trapper's Association, is coming this weekend to the Peace River Museum to speak to historical and contemporary trapping in Alberta. He will be here on November 17th at 7pm and the event is free.

You can also visit Gordy Klassen's webpage at www.trappergord.com

We invite all our hunters, trappers and interested community members to come and hear Gordy speak!

Peace River Archives #87.1489.14

Daniel Wheeler Featured Artist

Dan Wheeler has been pursuing his passion for capturing shape, form and light textures through the lens of a digital camera for over thirty years. The black and white works on exhibit for the month of November portray the soft shapes of a lily, a snow dusted dove of an historic sculpture at Dunvegan, the lines of aspen trees draped by prayer cloths in the Kootenai and the shadows of a window at the historic St.Augustine Church.
Dan likes to draw the viewer's eyes to the details his camera finds once he has explored the object or scene as a whole. His love of hiking and climbing offers an abundance of opportunities to slow down and really see his surroundings. Dan produces his own photographs and has recently experimented with sugar cane paper, a renewable resource, as a medium. This exhibit will be up for the month of November and there is no fee to view.

From Peace River to Paris: Fashionable Furs of our Century

Just in time for the winter months, we invite you to view our current exhibit "From Peace River to Paris – Fashionable Furs of the Century" featuring fur coats and accessories from our collection. The exhibit includes the story of trapping in northern Alberta, both from a historical and contemporary perspective. The opening reception will be held October 27th from 3 – 5pm with guests Dave Cummings from Fairview and our own Ruth Kidder speaking about their history with furs and trapping in the Peace at 3:30pm.
Excerpts from the Record Gazette newspaper demonstrate trapping activity in the 1950s:
1950-12-07  Little Red River - Trapping is underway. It is reported there will be a plentiful supply of fox while supplies of other furs will be moderate.
1951-01-18  Peace River District - Severe weather and heavy snow at the start of the winter season provided a setback to trapping operations, when combined with higher prices in most lines has made operations more attractive.
Squirrels continue to provide the bulk of the catch with weasel in short supply. Red and cross fox are reported to be in more plentiful supply than last year.
1951-06-14 - North Salt Prairie - Louis Auger came out from fur trapping Saturday. He says water and lakes are high, making it difficult to get furs this year.
Visit the Museum to read more about the Record Gazette coverage of trapping in the Peace.

As part of this exhibit, Alberta Trappers Association President, Gordy Klassen will be the next speaker at the Museum on November 17th, thanks to the support of the Peace River Trappers Local 1195.

Peace River Museum nominated for Community Spirit Award!

The Museum is honoured to have been nominated for this year's Peace River & District Chamber of Commerce Davis Awards! We are a part of a great community and we appreciate and enjoy the support of Peace River residents, organizations and businesses.

We would love it if you would vote for us! The deadline is Tuesday, October 9th at 4:30 pm. You can vote by going to the Chamber's facebook page or their website which has voting forms.

Thank you to all for your support!

Alberta Archives Celebration: School Memories!

Do you remember this style?

Or perhaps these ones?

October is the Alberta Archives Celebration and the Peace River Museum, Archives and Mackenzie Centre is asking our communities in the Town of Peace River, Town of Grimshaw, MD of Peace #135, MD of Fairview #136, Northern Sunrise County, Clear Hills County, and County of Northern Lights to search through their records and remember their school days! The Archives has a great collection of yearbooks (where we found these lovely graduates!), but we are looking to expand that collection. We are interested in donations of yearbooks, photographs, newsletters, reports, school board minutes and any other pieces related to any of the schools in the North Peace Region, historically and all the way up to present times.

The materials we receive will be used for genealogy research, programming and for use in exhibits as well. If you have any questions please feel free to contact our Archivist, Wendy Dyck, at 780-624-4261 or museum@peaceriver.net

Alberta Culture Days this weekend!

The Town of Peace River will be participating in Alberta Culture Days this weekend from Friday Sept. 28th to Saturday Sept. 29th with Culture Scene 2012. The weekend will include live performances, art displays and workshops around Peace River from our vibrant arts and culture community!

You can like the Town of Peace River's Facebook page for detailed itineraries and a map of the events taking place this weekend. We hope everyone can come out and celebrate the Culture of Peace River!!

The Museum will be open our regular hours this Friday and Saturday from 10 am to 5 pm with members of our staff also out and about on Saturday volunteering with the Main Street Event.

Museum hosts Minister of Culture

We were pleased to host Honourable Heather Klimchuk, Minister of Culture on August 31st. Also travelling with her were John Tuckwell, Director of Alberta Culture Communications; Barb Toker, Public Affairs Officer; Jeremy Block, Chief of Staff & Shannon Marchand, Assistant Deputy Minister. Touring the Minister was our very own MLA, Honourable Frank Oberle, Associate Minister of Services for Persons with Disabilities.
Minister Klimchuk was especially interested in the local partnerships that have been created in the heritage sector in the north. The Museum invited some our partners to attend and it was wonderful to share our time with representatives from the Sir Alexander Mackenzie Historical Society, Peace of Art, Peace River & District Genealogy Society, our own advisory board and the Heritage Places Committee.


Minister Klimchuk poses with Sonia Rosychuk, the artist who created the fascinating teepee installment on our property.

  It was a lovely time of touring and sharing ideas and issues. Thank you to the Minister and her team for coming to visit and to the Honourable Frank Oberle as well.

Author and Wildlife Photographer visits the Museum

Hälle Flygare, well-known wildlife and nature photographer, recently visited the Peace River Museum, Archives and Mackenzie Centre with fellow photographer, Dr. Robert Berdan. They were on their way to Yellowknife to capture the Aurora Borealis with their lenses.

Flygare’s association with the Museum and Alexander Mackenzie’s overland route from the Fraser River to the Pacific Ocean has been a long and productive one. Flygare played an integral role in the establishment of a Master Development Plan for the route Mackenzie took on his way to the Pacific Ocean. It was once called the Alexander Mackenzie Grease Trail, but convention suggested the word “grease” be dropped, although its historical validity was appreciated. It is now referred to as the Alexander Mackenzie Heritage Trail, which covers, not only the prehistoric trade trails, but also the 100 kilometres of Bella Coola Valley and coastal fiord not grease trails, as well as the Tweedsmuir Park alpine section Mackenzie hiked “that no sensible Indian would have used as a pack trail,” according to an account in In the Steps of Alexander Mackenzie, Second Edition, by John Woodworth.

Paddler Teresa Griffith regaled visitors with her tales

On Thursday night, August 16, the Museum played host to veteran paddler Teresa Griffith, owner of Flow North Paddling Company, as she regaled all those who attended with stories about her time kayaking and canoeing the Peace River in order to create the GeoTourism paddling guide of the river. She also spoke a bit about her time as Captain of GeoTourism's replica York Boat on its inaugural voyage in 2011.

Attendees were inspired by Teresa's speaking, because she brings personal experiences and feelings into her tales. Her experience is vast; she has spent many days paddling on the Peace River.

This talk was the perfect accompaniment to our current exhibit Paddling Through Time: 220 Years of Canoeing on the Peace, and the Museum thanks Teresa and her husband Darren for spending a wonderful evening with us. 

Veteran Paddler Teresa Griffith to speak at Peace River Museum

In conjunction with our current exhibit, Paddling Through Time: 220 Years of Canoeing on the Peace, and the upcoming, Paddle the Peace, Teresa Griffith, owner/operator of Flow North Paddling Company, will be visiting the Museum. She will be speaking on August 16th at 7 pm about her trips on the Peace River as a solo kayaker and on the York Boat through GeoTourism Canada.

We are excited to host Teresa and invite anyone interested in our beautiful Peace River to join us on Thursday, August 16th at 7 pm at the Museum.

 

Celebrate Heritage Days at St. Augustine Mission Church

The St. Augustine Church Restoration committee, with members from Alberta Culture, Historic Sites, Infrastructure Alberta, Peace River Correctional Centre, Peace River Museum, Archives and Mackenzie Centre staff and board, MD of Peace, Sir Alexander Mackenzie Historical Society and Peace River Genealogy Society, have collaboratively been working to make the site of the St. Augustine Church available for special public events.

The work is still in progress, but the first opportunity to tour the site is coming!

Celebrate Heritage Days on August 6^th with a drive along the historic Shaftesbury Trail. Stop for a tour of the St. Augustine Mission Church between 11am and 3pm. The Museum will be there to interpret the site’s history. For more information call 780-624-4261 or email museum@peaceriver.net.

For more information on this and other Alberta Historic Sites, please visit the Alberta Register of Historic Places: https://hermis.alberta.ca/ARHP/Details.aspx?DeptID=1&ObjectID=4665-0430

Artist of the month: Peggy Smith

The Peace River Museum is pleased to host our current artist: Peggy Smith. Peggy does custom airbrush work on anything from ski-doos to clothing and has an incredible eye for detail and colour. We invite everyone to come view her work during the month of July.

For more information on Peggy and her art, visit the Record Gazette website here:
http://www.prrecordgazette.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=3594898

Thank you to our community!

The Town of Peace River's Heritage Places Committee and the Peace River Museum would like to thank everyone who came out to the pancake breakfast this past Saturday. Through your support, we were able to raise over $1500 towards the preservation of heritage sites in Peace River. We would also very much like to thank the AUPE (Alberta Union of Provincial Employees) who contributed the remaining monies to make our fundraising total $2000! Through the matching funds with the Municipal Heritage Partnership Program, this translates into $4000!

To view some of the already studied historic sites, please visit: http://www.peaceriver.net/images/stories/Museum/2012_02_22_museum.pdf (Note: This is a large pdf and may require some time to download.)

If you know of a historically significant building or site in Peace River, please let us know using this survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/9NTHZRJ

If you have any other questions regarding this program and the work being done by the Town of Peace River, please contact the Museum at 780-624-4261 or email us at museum@peaceriver.net.

We truly appreciate the support of our community in preserving and sharing Peace River's rich history!

Pancake Flipping at Peace Fest!

The Town of Peace River and the community representatives for the Heritage Places Committee are working hard to promote and protect heritage buildings and sites within the town.
We are pleased to have been asked to participate in this years annual PeaceFest pancake breakfast at the Peace Country Co-op on Saturday, July 14th from 8:30 - 11 am. Our Heritage Places Committee will be grilling and flipping and serving up a storm and would greatly appreciate your support!
The funds earned will help the committee and Town of Peace River to inventory significant heritage places within the town.

Canada Day!

In just a few days, on Sunday, July 1st, the Peace River Museum and the Town of Peace River are set to celebrate Canada Day! The festivities start at the Museum at 11:30 am with bag-piper Josh Craigen, "O Canada" will be sung by Tenille Brennan, the flag will be raised by the RCMP in their official Red Serge with Air Cadet Squadron #124,  Mackenzie Moose will be out to play and of course there will be inspirational speeches. Come and join us for the opening ceremonies decked out in your red and white and bring your decorated bikes and strollers.

The Museum is offering FREE admission on Sunday from 12 - 4 pm in honour of Canada Day! Come and see our exhibits about paddling through time, the fur trade, and rocks and fossils.

After the opening ceremonies, the biking and walking parade will head over to Riverfront Park for entertainment, games, and food (for purchase). All of this fun happens from 12 - 3 pm at Riverfront Park. The Town is still looking for volunteers to help out at the park, if you have some time to give and want to have some fun, contact Community Services at (780)624-1000.

Don't forget the fireworks display, thanks to the Town of Peace River and Northern Sunrise County, at 11:59 pm on Sunday evening.

HAVE A FANTASTIC CANADA DAY AND WE WILL SEE YOU AT THE MUSEUM!

Heritage Run 2012 a huge success!

Sending an armful of thank you’s to this year’s Heritage Run volunteers and participants!


The Peace River Museum, Archives and Mackenzie Centre extends a huge THANK YOU to the Peace River Running Club and all the runners and walkers who participated in another very successful Heritage Run on June 10! This annual event draws runners and walkers from the whole region and this year was no exception. In the crowd of 116 participants, communities represented were Grande Prairie, Dawson Creek, Fairview,St. Isidore, Manning, Grovedale, High Prairie, Dixonville, McLennan, Calgary, Spruce Grove, Donnelly, Berwyn, Grimshaw and Peace River.

The course of 5km, 10km and 13.1km takes place each year along the historic banks of the Peace River, beginning and ending at the Museum. Sponsors generously contributed to the fabulous door prizes for volunteers and competitors and healthy snacks for everyone at the end of the run. Those sponsors include Penn West Energy Trust, Mathieu Hryniuk Barristers and Solicitors, Invision Chartered Acountants, Dr. David Blench Smiles Design, Caribou Cresting. Weaver Welding Ltd., Peace Country Cycle and Fitness on the Go Ltd!

Each year, the Museum is the beneficiary of the efforts of the Club and all the participants. Last year, the benefits were doubled in a Community Facility Enhancement Grant for new compact shelving for the Diane Gayton Collections Room. This year, the benefits will also be doubled with a Municipal Heritage Partnership Grant for the Town’s Heritage Places preservation initiative.

The annual Heritage Run preserves the community’s health and its heritage!

Voting begins for the History Fair projects

Rourke Whalen and Kye Walton, who competed with their history fair project on the assassination of Thomas D'Arcy McGee, at the local level at Good Shepherd School in Peace River and then the regional level in Grande Prairie, have now completed their video and it is up for voting.

The students of 200 projects across Canada were selected for Young Citizens. These students were given video cameras and asked to make a 3-4 minute video which the public will now vote on. Voting runs from June to August, and at the end 30 finalists are selected. From those 30, 6 will be selected by a panel of judges to visit Ottawa, Ontario, to attend the Governor General's History Awards and the National History Forum.

TJ Flynn, Communications Coordinator for the Town of Peace River and Megan Purcell, Collections Technician with the Museum, served as experts on Rourke and Kye's video. TJ, the expert on the Irish Fenian movement, and Megan, the expert on Thomas D'Arcy McGee and his assassination.

Rourke and Kye, as well as TJ, Megan and the rest of the staff at the Museum invite you all to visit the site and vote for this wonderful video. Congratulations Rourke and Kye !http://www.canadashistory.ca/Kids/YoungCitizens/Profiles/2012/Rourke-W.aspx

The Second Annual York Boat Voyage comes to Riverfront Park

This Sunday, June 3rd, the second annual York Boat Voyage will be docking at Riverfront Park in Peace River. This ten metre long, historic replica York boat was built in 2011 by GeoTourism Canada for the inaugural expedition along the Peace River. It is back in the water this year with some veteran paddlers and some new crew members to do the voyage all over again.
The crew plans to have the York boat docked at the Park around 4:30 pm. They invite everyone down to Riverfront Park to see the boat and talk to the crew.
http://www.geotourismcanada.com/yorkboat2012/default.aspx

The Museum helps narrate the story of the assassination of Thomas D'Arcy McGee

Tuesday afternoon, the museum was honoured to be asked by Rourke Whalen and Kye Walton, two grade 6 students from Good Shepherd School, to help with their Heritage Fair project. Rourke and Kye participated in the local Heritage Fair, held in Peace River at Good Shepherd School on April 26. From there they went on to the Regional Fair held in Grande Prairie on May 4 at the Montrose Cultural Centre. Their project, along with 199 more, from across the country, have been chosen to move on to the next level. These students were given a video camera and asked to make a 3-4 minute video which the public will then be asked to vote on.

Rourke (far right) and Kye (far left), along with TJ Flynn (middle left), the Communications Coordinator from the Town of Peace River, and Megan Purcell (middle right), the Collections Technician from the Peace River museum, narrate the story of the assassination of Thomas D’Arcy McGee.

Information on the Heritage Fair can be found at http://www.canadashistory.ca/Kids/Heritage.aspx.

Congratulations Rourke and Kye on getting to the next level of the Canadian Heritage Fair and thank you for including the museum in this exciting project!

Paddling Through Time Exhibit Opening

      Paddling Through Time is the Peace River Museum’s new exhibit and it features the stories of several impressive canoe trips along the Mighty Peace River. From explorers Alexander Mackenzie and David Thompson to a unique 1967 Centennial trip to Montreal. The exhibit opening June 2^nd from 6:30 to 8pm  will be an opportunity to meet some of the crew from the second annual York Boat Voyage which will be launching  from Dunvegan May 31^st.

The Alberta Quilt Project

The art of quilting has changed in many ways since the time of our grandmothers and great-grandmothers. The Alberta Quilt Project has been documenting quilters, rural and urban, to capture current craft production trends. Discover what makes Alberta Quilters distinctive in this talk by Lucie Heins, the Assistant Curator of Western Canadian History at the Royal Alberta Museum.

Speaker: Lucie Heins
Place: Peace River Municipal Library 9807-97 Avenue, Peace River
Host: Peace River Museum, Archives and Mackenzie Centre
Date: Monday, June 4th, 2012
Time: 7:00 pm
Admission: FREE

For more information contact the Museum at museum@peaceriver.net of 780-624-4261.

Artists of the Month!

For mid-May and June we will be hosting a mix of art from the students at the Dixonville school. A variety of works from students from grades 2 through 9 have filled up our art wall and we invite and encourage our community to come and admire the budding talent of these enthusiastic students!

Paddling Through Time: 220 Years of Canoeing on the Peace

We are embarking on a new exhibit at the Peace River Museum: "Paddling Through Time: 220 Years of Canoeing on the Peace"
The exhibit follows the early explorers, Sir Alexander Mackenzie and David Thompson on their early travels on the Peace River. It meanders on in time to early settlers finding a new home and politicians and boosters promoting to those searching settlers.
Flowing forwards, we come to the Canada's Centennial in 1967 and a brave group of voyageurs who retrace Sir Alexander Mackenzie's historic voyage across Canada (minus the detour to the Arctic Ocean!).
We will bring it forward in time to current uses of the river with kayaks and canoes and supply some fun games for children while exploring our Peace River!
The exhibit begins on May 21st with an official opening on Saturday, June 2nd (stay tuned for more details) and will run until September of this year.

Heritage Buildings Open House

This Thursday, May 10th, the Museum will be hosting an Open House about the town's Municipal Heritage Places program which is in development.

The Town’s Heritage Places Committee will be in attendance, along with heritage professionals who will explain municipal heritage designation and review a draft of the application process that the Town will eventually administer.

We are also asking residents to stop by to make their suggestions about historic places in Peace River that are significant to our history. If you know of a historic site or building within Peace River and are unable to attend, we have an online survey that can be filled out and submitted to us here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/9NTHZRJ

Peace River is a town rich with history and we encourage everyone to come out this Thursday, May 10th between 4 and 7 pm to help us preserve and manage these unqiue sites!

Last week to see "Barbed Wire Solution"

A reminder that this is the last week for our current, travelling exhibit, "The Barbed Wire Solution: Ukrainians and Canada's First Internment Operations, 1914-1920".

This is also the last week to register for the genealogy workshop on Saturday, May 12th, "Open the Trunk: Beginning the Search for your Eastern European Ancestors." with the president of the Edmonton Branch of the Alberta Genealogy Society, John Althouse. The workshop will be from 10am - 4 pm (lunch provided) at the Peace River Library. The cost is $15. Please email (museum@peaceriver.net) or call us (780-624-4261) to register! Also with your registration, you receive free admission to our current exhibit.

Ukrainian Demonstration Night

The Peace River Museum, Archives and Mackenzie Centre is pleased to host an afternoon with young dancers from the Muzyka Dance Club of Peace River, along with a demonstration of ‘pysanky’ (Ukrainian egg decorating) by Selma Kurylowich of Grimshaw.  These expressions of Ukrainian culture will take place April 28^th between 2 and 4pm at the Museum.  For more information, please call 780-624-4261. This is a free event!

Peace River's Upcoming Events for April-August

This spring and summer are gearing up to be busy! The Museum and our community has a number of events coming up. We will be posting more details as they draw closer, but here is a list to put on your fridge to remind you! We hope you are able to join us for these events over the next few months.


Ukrainian Culture Demonstration Come see dancing and pysanky (easter egg) decorating on Saturday, April 28th from 2-4 pm at the Museum.

Municipal Heritage Program Open House Thursday, May 10th from 4-7 pm Come learn about the process of applying for municipal heritage designation for historic places in Peace River. (NOTE DATE CHANGE)

Open the Trunk: Beginning the Search for your Eastern European Roots This genealogy workshop will be held Saturday, May 12th from 10-4 pm (lunch provided) at the Peace River Municipal Library. Cost is $15. Please call the Museum to register (780-624-4261).

A Journey Through Time: 220 Years of Canoeing the Peace This exhibit will run from Monday, May 21st until Saturday, September 8th at the Museum. An official launch party for the exhibit will be held Saturday, June 2nd.

12 Foot Davis Gravesite event Friday, May 26th from 4-7 pm. Bring the family for fun and a BBQ at the site of this well-known historic landmark overlooking our valley. This event is a joint project between GeoTourism Canada, Northern Sunrise County and the Town of Peace River.

Quilt Talk Lucy Heins of the Royal Alberta Museum will be here to discuss a North American-wide database of vintage and contemporary quilts and quilters on Monday, June 4 at 7pm  at the Peace River Municipal Library

Peace River's 17th Annual Aboriginal Gathering and 9th Annual Pow-Wow will be held on June 8th and 9th at Peace River's Ag Grounds. For more information, visit the Peace River Aboriginal Interagency website.

Annual Heritage Run will be held on Sunday, June 10th. More information will be available soon.

Canada Day Peace River's annual Canada Day celebrations will begin at the Museum and continue on to Riverfront Park for the afternoon. The Museum will be open from 11 am to 4:30 pm and admission is free for the whole day! Keep an eye out around town for informational posters closer to the event.
Peace Fest This annual event will be held Friday, July 13th and Saturday, 14th. Visit their website for more information.

Heritage Days will be August 6th. The Museum will be hosting their regular heritage walking tours downtown and at the cemetery. More information will be released closer to the date.
Paddle of the Peace will be taking place on Saturday, August 18th. Join others in a peaceful paddle from Strong Creek to Peace River! More information will be released closer to the date.

Tririver Triathalon is annually held in Peace River. This year it will be on Sunday, August 26th. For more information, please email Bruce Stewart at Margnbruce@persona.ca.

If you have more culturally-oriented community events this spring or summer that you would like posted, please send an email to museum@peaceriver.net. You can also drop off a poster for our door!

Easter Hours

The Museum wishes everyone a happy (or should we say a hoppy) easter!

Our hours over the holiday weekend are:
Friday, April 6th: closed
Saturday, April 7th: 10 am - 4:30 pm
Sunday, April 8th: closed
Monday, April 9th: 10 am - 4:30 pm



Artist of the Peace: Wendy Stefansson

Our art wall is being shared! dale nigel gobel and Wendy Stefansson are teaming up to showcase art with an underlying Ukrainian theme.

Wendy speaks of her own art: "Matryoshka dolls are traditionally interpreted as representing multiple generations of women within the same family; or alternatively as a group of sisters in descending order of age...In this work, though, I used them as a self-portrait. Each one expresses an ealier incarnation of my self..."

We welcome everyone to come view Wendy and Dale's art through April along with our current exhibit, "The Barbed Wire Solution: Ukrainians and Canada's First Internment Operations, 1914-1920"

Unique opportunity to ply the Peace River!

We hope you were able to come out last year and see the arrival of GeoTourism Canada's York Boat! This year the historic York Boat will again be travelling up the Peace River in June. GeoTourism is looking for some adventurous individuals to join their crew.

From GeoTourism:
"The tour is schedule for June 1-14, 2012. The adventures starts at historic Dunvegan and descends the river to Fort Vermilion, some 540 km (338 miles). Crew members may take the option to the top half (Dunvegan to Notikewin) or the bottom half (Notikewin to Fort Vermilion), although crew members wishing to do the entire trip will be given priority.

Overnight camping at various river landings will be done with a historical view but also lend itself to some modern conveniences. Because this is a promotional tour crew members should be aware that the tour will possibly coincide with various public events and meetings with school groups.

Individuals should possess good teamwork skills and good health plus be able to commit to a 7-14 day tour to promote the history of the Peace."

If you have any questions or would like to register for the crew, please contact Jason Penner at peacevw@telus.net or 780-624-1347.

Artist of the Month: dale nigel goble

The Peace River Museum will be hosting an artist from Duncan, British Columbia! dale nigel goble has created lovely silk screen prints of matryoshka dolls which tie in perfectly with the Ukrainian theme of the Museums' current exhibit: The Barbed Wire Solution. His exhibit, entitled: babushka (triptych), is a neat, colourful exhibit and we invite everyone to come and view his work!

For more information on dale nigel goble, please visit these links:
http://www.dng23.com/index.htm
http://www.maplemountaineditions.com/artists.html
http://www.dalenigelgoble.com/

Municipal Heritage Survey

In 2011, the Museum, the Heritage Buildings Committee and the Town of Peace River hired Donald Luxton and Associates with a grant from the Alberta Municipal Heritage Partnership Program.

Through this grant and the hard work of our committee, we were able to study 10 historic buildings in Peace River. The link for the report can be seen here. (NOTE: It is a large pdf document and may need sometime to download fully.)

This year, the Museum and Committee would like to keep the momentum going! We are asking you to suggest buildings that are at least 50 years old that hold a historic importance to our community. It may be the design of the building, the person(s) who lived there, the business(es) which operated there or a specific architectural feature, which gives you the sense of history of our community.

Preserving a diversity of structures in our community not only conserves and showcases the historical evolution of Peace River, but it also makes our neighborhoods more appealing and engenders community pride.

If you have suggestions, the survey can be filled out here. Paper surveys will also be available around town and can be mailed to or dropped off at the Museum at 10302 99th Street Peace River, Alberta  T8S 1K1.

If you have any questions, please call the Museum at 780-624-4261.

Barbed Wire Solution: Speakers Dr. David Leonard and Peter Melnycky on Ukrainian settlement and internment

In conjunction with the Museum's current exhibit:  Barbed Wire Solution: Ukrainians and Canada’s first internment operations 1914-1920, the Peace River Museum, Archives and Mackenzie Centre is pleased to host a lecture with authors and historians, Dr. David Leonard and Peter Melnycky. Both historians have written extensively on the early settlement history of Alberta. Peter Melnycky will speak specifically on the internment of Ukrainian Canadians and Dr. David Leonard will share his research on the arrival of Ukrainian pioneers to northern Alberta in the early 1900s .

The lecture will be held at the Museum March 1st, 2012 at 7pm. (No admission required.) For more information please contact the Museum at 780-624-4261 or museum@peacerivermuseum.net.
Peter Melnycky has written on the history and material culture of the early Ukrainian settlement community in Canada and is a historian with the Historic Places Stewardship Section of Alberta Culture and Community Services. His most recent publication, In the Shadow of the Rockies, addresses the history of the internment camp in Banff National Park.
 
Dr. David Leonard, well-known author of several books about the Peace Country and recipient of the Alberta Order of Excellence (2007), is a historian with the Historic Places Stewardship Section of Alberta Culture and Community Services.

Visiting Artist presents his view of Peace River

As some of you may have read in the Record Gazette, Calgarian photographer, Royce Howland, has been visiting in Peace River with his friend, Dan Wheeler. Royce Howland of Vivid Aspect Photography and Dan Wheeler of the Peace River Art Club, spent two days with our staff taking pictures of the Museum's collections from their artistic perspective.
Royce will be here tonight! Tuesday, February 21st to show us that viewpoint at 7 pm. There is no admission and we would love to see anyone interested in Royce's art and a unique perspective on the Museum's artifacts.

Reporter Erin Steele on Ukrainian Internment

The Peace River Museum, Archives and Mackenzie Centre would like to thank Record Gazette reporter, Erin Steele for her excellent article about our current exhibit: The Barbed Wire Solution: Ukrainians and Canada's First Internment Operations, 1914-1920.

We encourage our readers to check it out at: http://www.prrecordgazette.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=3456599

The Peace River Museum is an Andrew Family Grant finalist!

The Peace River Museum is happy to announce that we selected as one of the final six for the Andrew Family Grant through the Rotary Club!

Our proposal is to use the funds bequested by Dorothy Wittmeyer (nee Andrew) for two purposes. The first is to establish a five year position at the Museum which will focus on educational and outreach programming and collections management. The second will be to establish a Andrew Family Heritage Endowment Fund which will make funds available to groups with heritage related projects.

The Rotarians from Eugene, Oregon will be visiting in early February and we hope everyone in the community will make them feel welcome. We will be presenting to them during their visit and we wish luck to the other groups presenting as well. To whomever the funds are awarded, we know it will be for the betterment of our great community!

For more information on this grant, please visit the following links:

Andrew family forged a Peace River bond (written by our very own Beth Wilkins!)
http://www.prrecordgazette.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=3387421

And then there were six: applicants short-listed for Andrew Grant: http://www.prrecordgazette.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=3448918

Deadline to apply for grant that will benefit entire community rapidly approaching:
http://www.prrecordgazette.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=3411290

Andrew Grant Application Form:
http://www.prrotary.ca/images/PDFs/andrewgrantapplication.pdf

Exhibit Opening! Barbed Wire Solution

The Peace River Museum will be officially launching our new exhibit:

The Barbed Wire Solution: Ukrainians and Canada's First Internment Operations 1914-1920

The opening will be held on Thursday, January 26 from 6:30 - 8 pm. Join us for Ukrainian paska bread, coffe and tea and learn about this little known and extremely important piece of Canadian history.

Brrrr....Looking for something to do indoors?

The Museum is a great place to visit on those days when you need something to do indoors! Our Current Exhibits include young artist, Courtney Auger and a travelling exhibit from the Ukrainian Canadian Research and Documentation Centre: The Barbed Wire Solution: Canada's First Internment Operations, 1914-1920.

We also have our rocks and fossils, including a chunk of meteorite from space, the molar of a woolly mammoth and even the tooth of an Albertosaurus dinosaur!

The Sir Alexander Mackenzie Gallery has a variety of furs and fur trade artifacts. You can pet a brown bear or a wolverine and explore the lives of the early traders and trappers, including how they stayed warm in these cold, northern winters without the benefit of modern heating and transportation.

We welcome everyone to come and warm up at the Museum!

Artist of the Peace: Courtney Auger

For January, the Museum's art will be featuring a young artist, Courtny Auger. We are excited to feature a developing artist and to showcase the variety of styles and techniques Courtney has explored.

According to Courtney, "My preferred style of art is surrealism, surrealism is like a fantasy and it's the way I see the world...it's with this kind of mind set that I have created my version of wonderland..."

We invite everyone to come view Courtney's work this month!

2012 is here!

We hope everyone had a lovely holiday season and safe New Years!
The Museum is busily preparing and planning for our next year of exciting exhibits.

If you are looking for calendars to help plan your next year, the Museum has three different unique and historic options:

The Archives Society of Alberta has put together a 2012 calendar: Archives in Living Colour featuring colour photography from the collections of Archives across Alberta. Our own Archives is featured in December! This calendar is $5.To see some of these photographs as well as many others, please visit this year's online exhibit: Archives in Living Colour.

Soul of Canada has put together two lovely calendars, each with approximately 100 archival photographs and packed with research and information on Canada's Petroleum Pioneers or Canada's Work Horses. These calendars are $20 each.