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.