dewline | Entries tagged with museums

I was privileged to see him speak at an event in 2012.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/dwight_ew/albums/72157631621214663

Current Mood: busy

I have a problem with the idea of letting the International Space Station just de-orbit and burn up. Yes, we've gotten over twenty years' operational life out of ISS. I understand that, and I see how the place is increasingly becoming a thing held together in no small part by Red Green/Jett Reno techniques. I'm still unconvinced that it can't be safely repurposed elsewhere in Sol system.

Specifically? If I had my way, I'd have ISS turned into our first orbital museum. We've missed multiple opportunities with the Skylab, Salyut/Almaz and Mir and it would be a good thing if that not be repeated here. Yes, there's impracticalities that have already been cited elsewhere, and I'm still resistant to accepting any of them as deal-killers.

Current Mood: irritated
Current Music: "The Equalizer Busy Equalizing" - Stewart Copeland

...and you're interested in human biology, you might want a look at this exhibit at the Canadian Museum of Nature as reported by Apt 613:

https://apt613.ca/exhibition-me-and-my-microbes/

Current Mood: busy

Some of us will want to see this. Others will want to avoid it.

https://ottawastart.com/world-press-photo-exhibition-returns-for-2019-to-canadian-war-museum-until-aug.-11/

Current Mood: curious

From TVOntario's The Agenda.

Current Mood: nerdy

So this was announced re: one of my favourite federal museums in Ottawa the other day:

The Canada Science and Technology Museum is expected to reopen in 2017 after several major upgrades, the government announced Monday.

About $80.5 million in funding was announced by Canadian Heritage Minister Shelly Glover...

The money will cover the costs of a new roof, an upgraded facade, updates to the exhibit space and a retrofit of the building to meet updated fire and earthquake-resistance codes.

A couple of sidebars:

1) I get why John Baird showed up, but why my own riding's MP thought it was important to do so as well...?

2) That we all have to wait until 2017 in the best-case-as-announced scenario...

This continues to be a Problem. One of my two favourites among the federal museums of Ottawa-Gatineau locked up for medical safety reasons.

Not a good day on that count.

Current Mood: sad

It's still the Museum of Civilization to me.

Current Mood: annoyed
Current Music: What It Is - Mark Knopfler

You may want to look at this item at spaceref.ca for a minute...

http://spaceref.ca/air-and-space-museum/canadian-air-space-museum-toronto-launches-indiegogo-fundraising-campaign.html

Current Mood: hopeful

File this one under "alarming education policy behaviour":

Originally posted by

cbc_ottawa at Museum of Civilization to change identity

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/story/2012/10/15/ottawa-museum-civilization-rebranding-canadian-history.html?cmp=rss

The Canadian Museum of Civilization in Gatineau, Que., will be re-branded into a museum on purely Canadian history, the federal government will announce Tuesday.

I'd prefer to not see such a rebranding or such a narrowing of focus on my watch as a citizen, thank you very much. Who knows how future generations will be affected?

And not just future generations of Canadians, either...

Current Mood: worried

Seriously.

A couple of them made a mess at the War Museum, and while I might prefer it be renamed the "Military History Museum" or some such thing, the place doesn't deserve the kind of disrespect it got from these two...persons.

Go have a look at the link. See if you recognize them. If you do, please call the police.

Thanks much for hearing me out.

Current Mood: angry

In Search of A Soul: Designing and Realizing the New Canadian War Museum
By Raymond Moriyama(Book - 2006)

Inspired by some recent attention I found myself paying at the War Museum...

Current Mood: busy

Just saw this report at CBC. Wondering if my NYC-based friends can link me to local news coverage online...?

Current Mood: curious

Mr. Doyle wrote another item that I find frighteningly agreeable as grounds for shared concern:

After the CBC...are the museums of Canada next?

Current Mood: worried

Aviation and Space Museum - Sept. 2009, a set on Flickr.

I went to the Canadian Aviation and Space Museum on May 12th hoping to see some of our astronauts in person. Word on CBC Radio One that morning was that most of the current crop were going to be there to unveil the space component of the Museum's operations.

Turns out that I was both too late and too early owing to their schedules with the media and the museum itself. You see, what with the museum adding spaceflight to its remit and the renovation of its exhibits just being announced that morning...?

Well, I decided that - as of May 2011 - seeing as this particular federal museum is one of the most under-visited of the lot in Ottawa, it deserves a boost in its on-line presence. So I dug through my photo archives and found these from two years earlier...and you see some of the better pix above.

I do have a bit of a rant about access to the Museum by bus, though. It's rather limited. One route, specifically # 129, half-hourly weekdays, a bit less on weekends, and there are plans for further cutbacks by OC Transpo.

At first they spoke of making it "summer months only" as of the open house I attended at the old Cumberland Town Hall a month or so back. Then, when the pushback came - largely from staff at the Museum and with cause - they've since amended the plan.

Are you ready for the punch line?

Rush hour service only.

Which doesn't do much more good for staff, volunteers and visitors alike who might prefer public transit to either cars, charter buses or whatever else is on offer.

And this Museum's really an under-appreciated gem in this city. Particularly amongst the ranks of the federal museums, at least in my eyes.

Opinions, anyone?

(Oh, and if you can refresh my memory of the various models of plans displayed in those pix over at my Flickr account...? I know the Arrow and the BOMARC Missile on sight, no worries, but many of the rest...well, I need an aviation history refresher again.)

Current Mood: nerdy

Got some research for the next "Street Name History" pieces for Spacing Ottawa done at the OPL Ottawa Room today. Actually stumbled across some interesting stuff about a part of town that I suspect a lot of people don't know, not even the people who live in that neighbourhood today. Hoping to get that written up soon.

Some scheduling has been nailed down successfully for the panels I'll be attending at Can-Con as well today. All to the good.

More progress made on the project with

jasonfranks, and with the space opera OGN as well. More detail as I'm able to share it.

Day-job hunting's also proceeding, albeit quietly. *sigh*

And I visited the War Museum. Really, it ought to be the "Military History Museum", but you can't have everything all at once, right? Although I did try, perhaps a bit too hard, to get everything in as fast as I could. Including the vehicle collection, the World Photo 2010 exhibit, and a couple of other things, too.

Left me with a lot to think about.

Back to you...