RECHARGE. INVIGORATE. ENLIGHTEN.

We’ve all seen them in waiting rooms and corporate boardrooms. Those posters with inspirational quotes and an image of a sunrise over a magnificent landscape, meant to motivate us in life. Over his desk, Tom Reitz, Manager/Curator at the Waterloo Region Museum has a hand-written quote from somewhere long forgotten. It reads “I work in a place that is infused with beauty and where time slows down.” “It’s not motivational at all,” says Reitz. “It’s the best description of a museum that I’ve found.” Museums are amazing places, for all kinds of reasons, not the least of which are the visitors’ experience and the collections of objects that museums collect, preserve and exhibit. “But what museums really collect are stories,” Reitz says. Stories that connect us – to each other, to your neighbourhood, to the community, to this place we call home and sometimes to the world beyond Waterloo Region. The staff at the Waterloo Region Museum in Kitchener has the privilege of working with objects that for tens of thousands of people represent their family traditions. And every day of the week the museum receives offers of more artifacts. And while some of these people may just be cleaning their attic, the museum believes that there is a common sentiment behind each donation. Families want to share with the community the stories that are silently held in those objects. It’s the museum’s job to uncover, interpret and share those stories with the community. The colourful Waterloo Region Museum located on Homer Watson Blvd. in Kitchener will have lots of stories, local and distant, to share with the community through the coming year. Tales of the high seas take over the museum from February through April, as the exhibit

Shipwreck! Pirates & Treasure makes its Canadian premiere. Developed by Floridabased Odyssey Marine Exploration, the exhibit includes hundreds of objects from shipwrecks around the world along with family friendly interactive activities including a hurricane simulator and a robotic marine salvage arm. Beginning in June the Waterloo Region Museum partners with the Fashion History Museum to present Street Style exploring the connections between the design of women’s fashion and architecture over two centuries. With clothing drawn from both museums’ collections, some never before on public exhibition, museum guests will be intrigued at the connections made between the construction of buildings and the fabrication of dresses.

Museum Mysteries, on exhibit from June through December, invites families to step into the extraordinary world of mysterious and unique objects from the museum’s collection. In the words of the carnival barker, “we’ll amaze you with oddities, rarities and out of this world stories!” Local stories, and lots of hands-on family fun, abound in Doon Heritage Village when it opens for the season on May 1. “Here, more than anywhere,” says Reitz, “time stands still, or at the very least slows down.” Located next to the museum, the village and its two farms interpret rural life in the year 1914, and are an oasis of beauty and calm in the southwest area of Kitchener. The Waterloo Region Museum and Doon Heritage Village, which combined comprise the largest community museum in Ontario, are owned and operated by the Region of Waterloo. Admission to the museum and village is a combined ticket price, and the museum offers free parking.