Tourism Ontario

Different members of my family visit several times a year from out West and it is not surprise that they all want to visit the local tourist attractions in our area.  As Peterborough is in driving distance of many attractions we have visited many of the places over and over again.  I was worried that I would tire of the site-seeing but I think the trick is to observe the location through your visitor’s eyes.  It is nice to watch the reaction of someone standing on the glass floor of the CN Tower and being just as scared as I was the first time I stepped on it!  Canada’s Wonderland is another “have to go to” place and although I am mainly the purse holder it is a joy watching my company have fun.  I have been to Niagara Falls numerous times with the most recent being a couple of weeks ago with my daughter; it was great having the last laugh after she realized why they give rain ponchos for the Maid of the Mist ride!  So whether I was touring the Bird Kingdom or watching my daughter mingle with William & Kate at the Wax Museum – it never gets old!

Connecting with YOU our supporters and visitors

With so many social media options floating around in cyber space these days, it’s sometimes hard to know which ones will help you develop relationships with your visitors and audience.

We have been avid Facebook and Twitter users over here at the Museum for a couple of years now, and as you well know, we are frequent bloggers. However, our website redevelopment project has brought to the table a whole new range of social media tools that can help us connect more often, and more meaningfully, with those who care about us.

More on Why Kids Love Visiting the Museum

Kids love coming to The Canadian Canoe Museum, because there are so many ‘hands on’ exhibits for all ages. One great hands-on area is featured in the Canoes to Go exhibit where children can try their hand at fishing. When they have finally tired of fishing (this could actually take quite a long time)…

You can take a leisurely amble through the A Walk With Kirk exhibit and find yet another fun thing that will capture your attention. Sit down in front of the Trip Shed and use your imagination to build your idea of the perfect museum to house all of our wonderful watercraft and exhibits.

This is what you start with…

Family Fun at the Canoe Museum for International Museum Day

Join us on May 18th to celebrate International Museum Day at The Canadian Canoe Museum!

Most of you probably know that we care for the largest collection of canoes, kayaks and paddled watercraft in the world – but, did you know we also use our exhibits and collection as inspiration for engaging and interactive family fun?

Cool 3-D canoe puzzle

Talk to Us at Our Town Hall Meeting!

You’re invited to a Town Hall Meeting at the Museum on Wednesday May 8th in the Education Room at The Canadian Canoe Museum, 910 Monaghan Road, Peterborough, from 7:00 to 9:00pm.

As you may have heard, The Canadian Canoe Museum is exploring the feasibility of moving to a new on-the-water location in downtown Peterborough. We care deeply about our audience, our community and our supporters and we want to hear your thoughts about our future.

Join us on Wednesday May 8th from 7:00 to 9:00pm to hear an update about this exciting idea and engage in a lively discussion. We need your help to reach our goal of being a locally-loved and nationally-significant cultural heritage institution on the waterfront in downtown Peterborough. Refreshments will be served. Call 705.748.9153 or email info@canoemuseum.ca to R.S.V.P.

If you can’t join us in person, you can call (705.748.9153), write (The Canadian Canoe Museum, 910 Monaghan Road, Peterborough, ON K9J 5K4) or email (info@canoemuseum.ca) to tell us what you think. We will also be setting up an online way for you to share your thoughts–stay tuned for a separate announcement. Your participation is important to us, and we look forward to hearing from you.

Nick Offerman at The Canoe Museum’s Small Craft Rendezvous

Join us SATURDAY JUNE 22nd at The Canadian Canoe Museum for the Small Craft Rendezvous, a day devoted to all things watercraft.  Take in live demonstrations of canoe canvassing (Carlisle Canoes), back-country cooking (ORCKA), tool sharpening (Lee Valley Tools) and wood bending (Michael Fortune) to name just a few.  There will be family-friendly crafts, activities and a special presentation by Kawartha Turtle Trauma Centre.  A BBQ lunch will be available on-site as well as Kawartha Dairy ice cream!  See the Rendezvous‘ webpage for a more thorough listing.  It’s still not too late to register. Registration for exhibitors, vendors and participants is still open, so if you would like to bring something to display or demonstrate, please click here to register.

To make the day even better, NICK OFFERMAN will be at the Museum to take in the various demonstrations and exhibits.  Joan Barrett and Ted Moores’ of Bear Mountain Boats‘ invited Nick, their colleague, friend and Bear Mountain boat builder, to attend the day and he said YES!!  Nick Offerman currently stars as Ron Swanson on NBC’s wildly popular show, Parks and Recreation.  Nick will be hosting a special dinner at the Canoe Museum for Bear Mountain Boats and Ted Moores’ 40th anniversary. Tickets are sold out for this.

If you are a fan of Nick Offerman, then this is the event for you.  An informal, intimate and likely hilarious Q&A with Nick Offerman will be from 2:30pm-4:00pm in the Education Room at the Canoe Museum on Saturday June 22nd.  Appetizers and 2 drinks are provided with your ticket. Tickets are $30 and seating is limited.  To purchase a ticket, click here.

A world traveler visits a “global museum”

Over these past few weeks, The Canadian Canoe Museum has enjoyed a far-too-brief visit from Will Meadows. A deserving recipient of the Watson Fellowship, Will is spending the year “pursuing his passion” which happens to be traditional canoe building in a global context. Here are some reflections he left behind as he continues his way, most recently in New Zealand and now headed for Norway. For more on this topic and to learn more about this remarkable person check out his own blog.

“The Way We Think About Charity Is Dead Wrong” – Dan Pallotta

Recently, my coworker Karen, shared this great TED talks video with me: “Dan Pallotta: The way we think about charity is dead wrong.” Because I believe so strongly in Dan’s message, I wanted to share it with you in case you haven’t seen it yet:

Earth without art is just eh

I may be a bit late to this party, but someone recently sent me a link to Sir Ken Robinson’s TED talks about education and creativity. As is all too common for my internet rambling, I finally got around to watching them at 2am last Saturday, when I was here at the Museum to be the Awake-All-Night-in-Case-of-Emergency person during the 8^thAjax Pathfinders’ visit for an overnight program.  (It’s hard to fit that job title on a name tag, let me tell you.)

By the way, here’s the awesome group of Pathfinders (plus two Girl Guides), looking intrepid and chipper the morning after their sleepover here:

But back to me and Sir Ken in the middle of the night.  His talks on creativity and education are full of irreverent wit and sharp insights into the fundamental weakness of how we teach children. ”If you’re not prepared to be wrong,” he says, “you’ll never come up with anything original… but our education systems… are set up so that the worst thing you can be is wrong… we’re educating people out of their creative capacities.”   I’ve seen it myself: my daughter used to draw trees as wild, multi-hued scraggles filling her skies. Now she dutifully creates tree trunks that are exclusively brown, with puffy green-cloud tops. Maybe a token apple, red, floating in the monolithic green.

“Creativity must have the same status as literacy,” Robinson says. Right now, our education system “progressively teaches us from the waist up, and is a protracted training for university entrance, favouring academic intelligence. ” The result “is that many brilliant, highly talented, creative people think they’re not,” a tragedy for each of those individual lives, in my opinion. But Robinson’s thinking about the bigger picture:  we can’t afford to squander different kinds of intelligence, he suggests. The kids entering kindergarten today will retire around 2075 – a world we can’t imagine from here, and will require new thinking to navigate.

Museum Students on Fire!

Late last year, we posted a blog entry about a wonderful new partnership that the Canoe Museum has been developing with the Fleming College Museum Management and Curatorship program by providing hands-on training in exhibit design and production. That partnership is about to pay off in a big way. Each year, the students work with a community partner to design, fabricate and install a new exhibit. For 2013, the project is the Peterborough Fire Service’s west-end station at 839 Clonsilla Avenue.

The students put all of the skills and knowledge we passed on to them last fall to use in designing all of the graphic panels for this new exhibit and a short time ago they came back to the Museum to print and mount the graphics. Having worked with them both in their classroom at Fleming College and in the Museum’s own exhibit studio, I am delighted to say that they have done professional-quality work and should be proud of what they’ve accomplished. It has been a real pleasure to work with them and Gayle McIntyre and Deb Scott, their instructors.