Gold Rush show heading for China
Exhibition will feature in Guangzhou in 2015
The Royal B.C. Museum will step into the global spotlight when its upcoming gold rush exhibition travels to China in late 2015.
Gold Rush! El Dorado in B.C. will showcase links between Chinese immigrants to Canada and their participation in the gold rushes of the 1800s.
“We’ve also recently built some really great relationships with China,” said Angela Williams, the museum’s chief operating officer.
Gold Rush will run from May 13 to Oct. 31, 2015, in five galleries within the museum’s temporary exhibit space. It will examine the impact of B.C. gold rushes of the late 1800s in a historical and modern context.
Graphic panels drawn from the exhibition will be featured in the Guangdong Museum of Chinese Nationals Residing Abroad, in Guangzhou, China, for four months starting late next year. Many of Canada’s earliest Chinese immigrants came from Guangdong province.
The exhibit will be at the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, Que., from March 24, 2016, to Jan. 15, 2017. The Gatineau museum is a partner in the Gold Rush exhibition, along with other institutions that have loaned artifacts, Williams said.
Part of the exhibition focusing on First Nations may also go on show in Bogota, Colombia. A 120-piece collection of gold artifacts from the Museo del Oro in Bogota will be featured in Victoria. The exhibit will also be featured in regional B.C. museums at dates still to be decided.
A gold box by the late First Nations artist Bill Reid is part of the museum’s collection and will be shown in this exhibit. The museum’s Turnagain Nugget, the fourth largest nugget found in B.C. and weighing 1,617 grams, will also be featured.
The exhibit is being designed to “explore how everything changed with the gold rushes of the late 1800s, as class and racial barriers were broken down and people seized the extraordinary opportunities that glittered before them,” according to the museum.
“This event was a particular turning point in the history of B.C., as greed and dreams laid down the foundation for all that has come after. It is a story that will be of interest to people of the province, Canadians across the country and all who visit here from around the world.”