Canoe museum offers on-site activities, virtual tours
Funding from COVID Emergency Community Support Fund and United Way
The Canadian Canoe Museum, 910 Monaghan Rd., is welcoming everyone on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. with many precautions in place to protect both their visitors and their team’s well-being.
“We have increased hand sanitizer stations throughout the museum, Plexiglas at our admissions desk and store, mandatory masks, increased cleaning schedules, as well as physical distancing and one directional signage throughout the galleries,” says Rachelia Giardino, marketing and social media specialist. “We encourage all visitors to review our website at canoemuseum.ca/COVID/ for up-to-date information, and to learn what to expect at their next visit.”
The museum is offering onsite programming for children such as scavenger hunts and canoe cut-outs in the galleries.
“While we have made the decision to remove some children’s interactives in the museum that are difficult to clean, such as our puppet theatre, we have put in place additional precautions and have added to our scavenger hunt offerings, with a new intermediate hunt for those over eight years of age, and an all-ages Close-up Challenge,” she continues. “Our scavenger hunts and markers are sanitized after each use to ensure your safety. Included with admission, they can be picked up by our front desk.”
The museum has been adding to their CCM From Home children’s program to bring the museum virtually to adventurers of all ages to be engaged in learning and play. Their printable canoe and kayak cut-outs and canoe-themed postcards based on boats in their collection allow you to colour and craft miniatures. Children can also create puppets to colour and perform in a shadow theatre, then use the hashtag #CCMfromhome to share their creations online.
“We are excited to announce that we will be running virtual tours for seniors, thanks to funding through the Government of Canada’s COVID Emergency Community Support Fund and the United Way of Peterborough,” says Giardino. “Live virtual tours will connect seniors — who are living in long-term care, retirement residences and at home independently — with a museum guide as they explore exhibits and artifacts, providing an opportunity to interact with museum staff and each other. Seniors can go to canoemuseum.ca /virtual-tours-for-seniors/ for more information or call 705748-9153 ext. 203.”
It’s important for the community to continue to support the museum, which has been greatly impacted by COVID-19, according to Giardino.
“While the pandemic has changed how we work, our work of inspiring connection, curiosity and new understanding continues in innovative, new ways,” she says. “Visiting the museum helps contribute to regional economic recovery through tourism and supports our local community. Our community’s support helps ensure the continued care of our world-class collection of canoes, kayaks and paddled watercraft.”
The museum has produced video tours, available online, of three noteworthy canoes from their collection.
Entitled “The Stories They Hold,” the virtual tours explore William and Mary Commanda’s birchbark canoes, whose work in revitalizing the cultural practice of canoe building in Indigenous communities has been nationally and internationally recognized; Gordon Lightfoot’s canary yellow canoe that he immortalized in song; and the artistic interplay between May Minto, a female canoe builder, which was uncommon at the time, and wildlife painter and environmentalist Robert Bateman.
“The canoes in our collection carry rich stories that tell the history of Canada,” says curator Jeremy Ward.
“Whether the stories they tell are of ancient connections to waterways, the latest innovations at the Olympics, or expressions of cultural reclamation, pride and endurance of Indigenous peoples today, canoes let us form new understandings of connections to our environment, other people and ourselves.”
The video tours can be viewed at canoemuseum.ca /CCM-from-Home.
Visitors must bring their own face masks, or purchase one there. More information at canoemuseum.ca.