Arts, Culture & HeritageBrand new Winnipeg Gallery will reflect all stories of Manitobans.
Manitoba Museum is getting a major facelift, and The Foundation is helping make it happen with a $1 million grant.
The Museum’s $17.5 million Bringing Our Stories Forward Capital Renewal Project will see updates to 42 per cent of the galleries, including construction of the brand-new Winnipeg Gallery.
The renewals will ensure everyone can see themselves reflected at the Museum.
“We want to ensure that when all Manitobans come in, be it First Nations, Inuit, Metis, and new Canadians, that they all see their stories reflected at the Manitoba Museum,” says Claudette LeClerc, Manitoba Museum’s Executive Director and CEO.
The Winnipeg Gallery will show the province’s capital city as a dynamic community that continues to evolve, influenced by the legacies of people and nature. Themes are explored that take visitors to Winnipeg’s deep history as a place formed by moving rivers and changing geography, and a place where Indigenous people have met and negotiated treaties for millennia. Winnipeg as a city of contrasts is investigated; during its 145-year history the city has established areas of distinct differences within its population. And significantly, the theme of diversity is considered as people from around the world have come to the city for opportunity, and to find a new home.
To renew a museum exhibit costs approximately $800 to $900 per square foot, Ms. LeClerc says. The Manitoba Museum is 56,000 square feet.
The capital campaign will occur in stages. Some of the galleries that will be updated are original to the 1970s. The Nonsuch Gallery was the first to be renewed and reopened in June 2018. The Winnipeg Gallery will open fall 2019, with the Grasslands and Orientation galleries to follow in fall 2020. The Museum’s last capital campaign was completed in 2003 with the opening of the Parklands Gallery.
Learn more: ManitobaMuseum.ca/capital-campaign
This story is featured in the Fall 2018 issue of our Working Together magazine. Download or view the full issue on our Publications page.