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CURATOR’S CORNER: What’s to come in 2018 at Sooke Region Museum

Fall exhibit, programs and events on the schedule
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Montana Stanley, collections and exhibits manager at Sooke Region Museum, shows a piece of roasted bannock at a school tour. The museum is looking for volunteers to help with school tours. (Sooke Region Museum)

Happy New Year! In 2018, mark your calendars for a number of exciting projects at the Sooke Region Museum, including new exhibits, programs and events.

Spring Outdoor Projects

This spring will see the unveiling of a new permanent outdoor exhibit, The Forestry Path.

The exhibit will feature a new workshop building and reorganization of the Sooke Region Museum’s industrial artifacts.

Sooke is a community shaped, in large part, by the logging industries. An industry and technologies that have evolved rapidly over time, we hope to preserve and document this history so that it can be shared for years to come.

This exhibit will cover the logging world of Sooke from pre-contact to present day and will combine physical artifacts with photographs, dioramas and historical panels.

The workshop and a newly expanded pavilion will provide the museum with a space for projects, storage and conservation work. We also hope to have our printing press up and running again for this exhibit. It will be restored by Lloyd Bowcott at Cook Kettle Press.

Spring Art Show

From March 29 to April 29, the Sooke Region Museum will have an art show taking place in the museum’s upstairs gallery. This will be the third annual ARTiFACTS art show sponsored by the Sooke Community Arts Council.

The show is coordinated by Linda Gordon and features local paintings, photography, sculpture, and fabric art. The show will be open during the museum’s regular hours: Tuesday to Sunday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Check with us closer to the date for special weekend art events!

Members of the SCAC who are interested in having their art in the show may contact Linda Gordon at sookeart@gmail.com. Entrants are obligated to five hours per week of volunteer time at the show.

Summer Exhibit

Sawmills: More Than Machines! is an in depth look at the human and mechanical history of sawmills in the Sooke region.

This exhibit will open June 24, at our annual Open House and Salmon Barbecue. The exhibit will incorporate artifacts, photos, and archives from the museum’s collection to tell the story of how a town formed around mills, skid roads and other points of activity.

We invite anyone in the community possessing unique or rare artifacts, proving an authentic relationship to Sooke’s logging history, to consider loaning or donating them to the museum.

Fall Exhibit

In the fall, museum visitors can look forward to B.C. at War: a travelling exhibition produced by The Royal B.C. Museum. The exhibit will include archival photographs, stories and images of artifacts to inform visitors about the contributions of British Columbians in the First World War from 1914-1918. More details will come in the following months.

Programs and Events

Our annual Sooke Night Market will kick off June 7, and will run every Thursday, 5 to 8 p.m. until Sept. 6th. The market promotes local artists, crafts, produce, food, and entertainment. Applications will open in February at the museum or on our website www.sookeregionmuseum.com.

School tours at the museum will also be starting up again at the end of January. If you are interested in some fun educational activities for your class, contact program assistant Wendy Johnson at info@sookeregionmuseum.com for more information. Stay tuned for other special events on our community calendar at http://www.sookeregionmuseum.ca/calender-of-events/ and on our Facebook page.

Medieval Week at the Museum

May 5 to 12 will be a fun week at the museum, with special school programs that explore what life was like in the Middle Ages in Europe. There will also be a special evening Medieval Feast event on May 5 for adults. More details on this will be released soon.

Lectures and Workshops

The museum will soon be announcing a variety of lectures.

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Montana Stanley is the collections and exhibits manager at Sooke Region Museum.



Kevin Laird

About the Author: Kevin Laird

It's my passion to contribute to the well-being of the community by connecting people through the power of reliable news and storytelling.
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