Niagara Historical Society Museum in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, is lovely and I learn something new every time I visit. This video, hosted by Major-General Sir Isaac Brock, explains the significance of the town and of preserving its history, and takes you inside the museum. I’m impressed by the museum’s thoughtfulness in the presentation of its Indigenous …
The Canadian Canoe Museum in Peterborough, Ontario, features Pierre Trudeau’s iconic buckskin canoeing jacket. The accompanying text says: An evocative and very Canadian artefact. The Canadian Canoe Museum is museum no. 52 in my #100museums challenge (see 100 Museums Challenge).
You’ll enjoy The Museum of Illusions most if you bring a friend. Better yet, bring two friends. Go when it’s busy but not too busy. Watching other people, especially children, enjoy themselves is half the fun. There’s science, if you’re interested. There are games and experiments, plenty of brain teasers, and The Vortex Tunnel if …
Thanks to Heritage Toronto for arranging a tour of Guild Park and Gardens over the weekend. I hadn’t been there since I was a kid, so it was a treat. Friends of Guild Park & Gardens are to be congratulated for their valiant work saving the historic sculpture garden at the site of the former …
The current exhibition at Ryerson Image Centre is The Way She Looks: A History of Female Gazes in African Portraiture. Many of the 19th century portraits, especially from South Africa, were printed on something called a carte de visite, a format with which I wasn’t familiar. This terrific short video from the Art Gallery of …
This morning I had the absolute privilege of a personal tour of the Coptic Museum of Canada (formerly St. Mark’s Coptic Museum) and St. Mark’s Coptic Orthodox Church in Scarborough, by curator and sociologist Dr. Helene Moussa. I’m officially a bit overwhelmed, in a good way. Dr. Moussa’s stories and explanations about the art and …
Interests flow into other interests, and so it is that I became determined to visit the MZTV Museum of Television and Archive … not for itself, but for its London-related exhibit on John Logie Baird (1888-1946). The engineer and inventor is the subject of a blue plaque up on the wall of 22 Frith Street …
The Tollkeeper’s Cottage at Bathurst Street and Davenport Road is an inspiring example of community coming together to rescue, preserve, and restore a historic building. The Community History Project, a non-profit charitable organization, put in an enormous amount of work to acquire the building and move it to its current location, opening it to the …
As you stroll down Queen Street in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, you’ll eventually come across Niagara Apothecary, a restored 19th century pharmacy belonging to the Ontario Heritage Trust and operated as a museum by the Ontario College of Pharmacists. Although only one room, you could spend ages in the museum, examining the many displays in cases and …
As noted in my previous post, last night I was glad to have the unexpected opportunity to check out the University of Toronto Art Museums, the first of which was University of Toronto Art Centre at University College. I also paid a visit to Justina M. Barnicke Gallery at Hart House. While I was very …
