Walking Tours to celebrate Heritage Day - August 5, 2013

Heritage Day is August 5th, 2013! This annual Albertan holiday was created in 1974 by the Alberta Government in order to celebrate the cultural heritage of Alberta and all of its people. This day is celebrated each year on the first Monday in August.

Staff at the Museum and Archives are celebrating our local heritage in style, by offering three separate Historic Walking Tours for Heritage Day. You can learn so much by taking a stroll - things you may walk by everyday but never think twice about! Now, you get the chance to get some of those questions answered by joining us on one or all of these historic walks.

The schedule is as follows:

               11am   Learn about the Pioneers of the Peace with a tour of Mt. Pleasant Cemetery.  Meet at the cemetery.

              1:30pm   The town’s built heritage will be the focus of a stroll along the historic streetscape of 102 Street.  Meet at the Museum.

 

               1 - 4pm   Interpretive tours of the NAR Station - drop by anytime.

Dress for the weather as tours will go rain or shine! No pre-registration required.

 

For more information on the tours, please contact the Museum at 780-624-4261 or www.peacerivermuseum.blogspot.com or www.peaceriver.ca

 

 

Heritage Places Open House at Peacefest

This Saturday, during Peacefest 2013, the Heritage Places Committee (HPC) will be on hand, ready to answer any questions you might have about heritage buildings and landscapes in town. Information about the heritage places designation process and the work that has been completed to date by the Committee and the heritage consulting firm Donald Luxton and Associates, can be viewed.

The HPC would like to collect any stories and information that you may have about heritage properties in town to help us appreciate the families and businesses associated with each place. Or, maybe you have a suggestion for a heritage property that we should study in the future.

This Municipal Heritage Places Program started in Peace River 3 years ago. The first year, we studied 10 properties, including such places as Mount Pleasant Cemetery, the Telegraph Office and Athabasca Hall. This year, the program continues with 12 new properties for study, including The Ground Level Youth Centre, Ruth Kidder’s home and Our Lady of Peace Catholic Church.

If you have any stories to share about heritage properties, stop by and see our committee members from 11 am to 6 pm at Riverfront Park, this Saturday, July 13, 2013.

Free Silver Maple Trees

Courtesy of Wikipedia

The Peace River Museum was gifted 6 lovely Silver Maples from Sustainable Resources! We would love these to go to those in the area that would be willing to plant and look after these beautiful trees. As noted below, these are maple syrup producing trees! If you are interested in having one of these trees, please drop by the Museum. We are open seven days a week until the end of August from 10 am to 5 pm.

According to Sustainable Resources, "The Silver Maple is a native of Canada's deciduous forest. Usually found along the banks of rivers and lakes, several of these trees have adapted well to the Peace Country...The Silver / Sugar maple trees served as inspiration in the creation of our current national flag which flew for the first time in 1965.

The tree is capable of reaching heights of 20 - 30 metres and a diameter of up to 1.5 metres. And yes, in 15 to 20 years, you should be able to tap this tree to produce maple syrup. It takes about 35 - 45 litres of sap to produce a single litre of delicious maple syrup."

Museum Summer Events

June Artist                     The artists for the month of June are carver and painter Dave Matilpi and metal sculptor David Wilson. Both artists derive inspiration from the natural world with bold imagery. This is an exceptional exhibit!

June – October              Roots of the Peace – a bountiful harvest, is the latest exhibit at the Museum depicting the early story of mixed farming in the Peace as well as featuring a contemporary look at local organic producers and gardeners. Watch for announcements of speakers during the summer – bee keepers, gardeners, organic farmers.

July 1st                          The Museum is open on Canada Day and we have free admission!

July 12th-13th             The Heritage Places Committee and the Peace River Museum will be hosting an Open House during PeaceFest to inform the public about Peace River's Municipal Heritage Buildings Program. Learn about what buildings qualify for designation, the benefits to designating your home as a Municipal Heritage home and the process for designation. We will also have information on the heritage buildings in our town.

July – August                 Our Artists of the Month are Sherri Beaton for July and May Brown for August. Come enjoy the great talent of local artists at our monthly exhibit!

                                        Keep an eye out for Heritage days coming up August 3-5th. The Museum will be doing historic walking tours. More details to come.

                                        The Museum will be offering heritage interpretive tours this July and August at the NAR Station, Twelve Foot Davis Gravesite, Mackenzie Cairn and St. Augustine Mission Church. Our partners in this new heritage tourism project include the Municipal District of Peace, Northern Sunrise County, Alberta Infrastructure, Peace River Correction Centre and Young Canada Works. The tours begin July 4th and run until August 22rd - please see schedule below:

 

 

From left to right: Mackenzie Cairn, St. Augustine Mission Church, NAR Station, Davis Gravesite

 

St. Augustine Mission (Shaftesbury Trail, River Lot 22, Highway 684): Sundays 11am - 3pm and Thursdays 10 am - 1 pm

 

Northern Alberta Railways Station (9409 - 100 St Peace River): Mondays 1pm - 4pm

 

Mackenzie Cairn (Shaftesbury Trail, River Lot 19, Highway 684): Thursdays 2pm - 4pm

 

Twelve Foot Davis Gravesite (Fairgrounds Road off Highway 2 south) Fridays 1pm - 4pm

 

Run for Heritage!

This Sunday, June 9 the Peace River Running Club will be hosting their annual Heritage Run at the Museum. There will be a 5 x 2km Relay, and 5km walk, 5km run, 10km run and a half marathon.
The start time is for the half marathon is 9 am and other runs begin at 9:30 am. The fee is $30 for each runner and registrations can be dropped off at the Museum or sent to:
 P.O. Box 7101
Peace River, AB T8S 1S8.

The Museum is extremely grateful for the work that Running Club does each year to host the Heritage Run! We encourage all walkers and runners to join us for the run and everyone else to come and cheer them on.

See you Sunday!

The runners are off at last year's successful Heritage Run!

Alberta Heritage Quilt Project to visit the Peace River Museum

This coming Monday Peace River and area residents have the opportunity to have their historic quilts documented.

Lucie Heins, Assistant Curator at the Royal Alberta Museum, is visiting the Peace River Museum on Monday, May 27th to document heritage quilts from our area for an online database and share her expertise in this area. She is inviting the public to bring in quilts that are pre-1970 and were made in Alberta or brought to Alberta by immigrants.

Lucie will be documenting these quilts between 1 and 4:30 pm with individuals needing to call in advance to book an appointment. Spots are already filling up so please call soon to book at time. Individuals bringing in quilts are asked to also bring in as much information as they can on the quilter and the story of the quilt. The Museum has hosted two quilting exhibits, one in 2008 and 2010 and we know there are so many beautiful quilts in our area! We hope many will take advantage of Lucie's visit to Peace River and to document our history through textiles.

The same evening, Lucie will be speaking on "Quilts and the Settlement of Canada" between 7 and 8 pm at the Museum. This event is free and open to the public. Quilters and textile artists of all levels as well as history buffs will enjoy Lucie's presentation.

Culture Trail

This past Saturday, May 11th, the Museum played both host and participant for the Culture Trail. This idea came about from the ever popular Garden tours that can be found in so many cities and towns. If it can be done for flowers and trees, then it can be done for arts, heritage and culture!

The group started out at our Museum to enjoy a frosty moccachino while admiring the art on the walls and in the cases. The Museum currently has up "A Retrospective of Art in the Peace."This exhibit brings together the work of 47 different artists who have been a part of, are currently a part of, or have inspired others in Peace of Art, formerly the Peace River Art Club.

From the Museum, we hopped in our cars and headed over to Claire's House of Frames, where Claire was on hand to tour us through her space and explain the art on her walls. As a treat, she even brought out some pieces from the back workshop that are waiting to be matted or framed, including some done by her mother.

Next stop on our tour was the Peace River Municipal Library, where we enjoyed juice and coffee and toured the Art Gallery which currently features the pottery of Trudy Plaizier and the woodturning of Mark Ladd.

From there, we headed up Shaftesbury Trail, with a quick stop at Mackenzie Cairn to enjoy the scenery and celebrate the fact that he departed from that spot 220 years ago. After the short historic stop, we continued on to Berwyn 50th Ave Workshop, where Sharon Doucet had 3 of her students working on their respective pieces. As we browsed Sharon's display pieces and watched the students working, we enjoyed chocolate cake and raspberry squares.

 

 

 

 

Our final stop saw us in Grimshaw, at Peggy's Smith gallery, Stroke of Genius, where Peggy has stocked the shelves with the artistic genius of many local artists. Peggy also explained her own airbrush painting style while the group enjoyed punch, brownies and cream puffs.

The Museum would like to thank all those that hosted our group with stories, artistic tidbits, and tasty treats as well as those that experienced art and culture with us!

Keep your ears open and check back here to see when our next Culture Trail will be.

Art Exhibit Opening was a Success!

INSPIRED BY THE PEACE!
On Friday evening, April 19th, the Museum hosted the opening reception of the current exhibit, A Retrospective of Art in the Peace. This event was very well received and a grand ole' time was had by all! The Museum welcomed over 70 people to this event, which featured refreshments, fabulous music by three of Sharon Krushel's students and Danya Auger with her flute, and much mingling and chatting. Artists were on hand to speak to guests about their works and their inspirations for their work.

The exhibit celebrates 25 years since the art club was established as a society and it also celebrates  Peace River artists of the past who offered classes and enthusiasm for the pursuit of art. The Museum is grateful to artists and art collectors who have loaned works of art from early members of the art club, such as Isabel Levesque, Marilyn Moro, Fred Fox and Doreen Hutchinson, as well as works from contemporary members of the Peace of ART club.

Below are a few photographs from the evening's festivities.

 

The Museum sincerely thanks all those who attended this opening reception as well as all of the artists and community members who have loaned personal works or works from their private collection.

April and May Events

As spring is slowly but surely arriving, the Museum has a few events on the go for the months of April and May:

Val Palmer is our Artist of the Peace for April! Come enjoy her selection of her etchings and drawings.

CIBC celebrates 100 years of continuous operation in the Town of Peace River this year. Until April 27, the Museum has a small exhibit in our foyer featuring a model of the first incarnation of the CIBC building, it's log cabin home from 1913.

Thursday, April 18: This month's travelog will feature select countries in the continent of Africa with Larry and Jeanette Kaytor. It will be at 7 pm at the Library.

Friday, April 19: ‘A retrospective of Art in the Peace’ – in this exhibit, the Museum and Peace of Art (formally known as the Peace River Art Club)  have collaborated to celebrate the club’s 25^th anniversary. Works featured include some very early ones, right up to contemporary pieces. You can meet many of the artists whose works are on display and enjoy the incredible variety of art that makes up this exhibit during the opening reception on April 19th from 6:30 - 8 pm.

'A Retrospective of Art in the Peace'

PEACE Project students will be displaying artwork for during the month of May, coordinated by Sue Johnson.

Saturday, May 11: Culture Trail - Explore the art on exhibit in Peace River, Berwyn and Grimshaw through a self-driving tour of galleries, shops and museums. Car pooling is encouraged, as we travel to several locations to view the art and enjoy refreshments. Check back on our blog for more information as we get closer to this artistically inspired tour.

Thursday, May 16: The last Travel series will be held May 16^th at the Library, 7pm, with traveller Pauline Spinney and her trip to China.

Monday, May 27: Lucie Heins from the Royal Alberta Museum will be set up at the Peace River Museum, Archives and Mackenzie Centre to photograph and document local quilts and quilters for the Quilt Index project (www.quiltindex.org) between 1 and 4:30pm. She would like quilters to bring their quilts for this documentation. Lucie will present a public session “Quilts and the Settlement of Canada” the same evening from 7-8pm at the Museum.