LEST WE FORGET: HOW WE WILL REMEMBER

Muse News | Michelle Wright

---

In honour of our past, present and future soldiers, today’s article will take pause to look at Remembrance Day and how you can pay your respects to their sacrifice. This year marks the 100th anniversary of Remembrance Day.

 

War Memorial by Wiborg. Source. 

Last year marked the 100th anniversary of the signing of the armistice between the Allies and Germany in Compiègne, France, marking the end of hostilities of the First World War. This armistice took effect “at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month” and on November 11, 1919 the first annual Armistice Day Ceremony was observed at Buckingham Palace. During World War II many countries changed the name to Remembrance Day. Ceremonies happen today all over the world in honour of the brave men and women who gave their lives and those who continue to serve in areas of conflict.

But where do these ceremonies take place? They happen at cenotaphs, in schools, community centers and parks, but they also take place in museums. Museums that first come to mind are military or war museums, for example the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa, which has events all day today. There is a growing concern that once the generation who can remember the war firsthand pass on, how will their stories be told and how do we preserve them? Museums call upon those who remember and their descendants to help tell stories. Two examples of this are right here in Toronto at the Mackenzie House Museum and the Spadina House Museum, with another coming to Museums of Mississauga in September 2020.

From now until January 31, 2020 the Mackenzie House will host the exhibition Eaton’s Goes to War: Family, Memory & Meaning. The exhibition shows the lives of some of the 3327 employees of the T. Eaton Company from Toronto and Winnipeg who enlisted in World War I. John Craig Eaton, the president of the company, offered to pay his employees wages to enlist. Each time one of these employees did so, their photo was taken and displayed in the Toronto store. About 2000 photographs of these men survive and are preserved in an online gallery created by the Archives of Ontario. Last year, a call was put out to the public to visit the collection and share personal stories of these soldiers and their families. The response was overwhelming and the museum could not display all of them, however the Archives of Ontario are working to publicize them through their stories online.

Eaton's Goes to War, Mackenzie House Museum. Source.

Today from 1:00 pm - 3:00 pm the Spadina House Museum is hosting a pop-up museum-style event, inviting the public to bring mementos and stories about conflict to share them with others. This type of event is an invitation to the public to become a part of the museum. All are welcome, even if they do not have a keepsake or story. Following the event, there will be a special tour of the Spadina House’s involvement in World War I, particularly Percy Austin's experiences as a solider and Margaret Constance Austin's experiences as a nurse.

Coming back to the GTA September 15 to December 15, 2020 the Museums of Mississauga will be host to the traveling exhibition called WAR Flowers. This exhibition made its way to Toronto  January 24 to March 16, 2018 at the Campbell House and was written about by Serena Yplaar & Amy Intrator as a Weekend Edition called INTERPRETATION IN BLOOM: WAR FLOWERS AT CAMPBELL HOUSE MUSEUM. The exhibition is a collection of letters and pressed flowers from Lieutenant-Colonel George Stephen Cantlie sent to his infant daughter Celia during World War I. Cantlie would pick a flower, no matter where he was on the front, whether it was a dandelion, rose, or a poppy, and press the flower to send to his daughter. The letters that accompanied them were often short with a small description of where the flower was from and he would sign it to his “Wee Celia”. The collection was passed to the Stewart Museum by Celia’s niece and has become the center of a multi-sensory experiences, telling this story along with that of ten other Canadians who were involved in the War. These stories show the ability to find beauty and hope, even in the darkest of times.

One of the original flowers featured in the WAR Flowers exhibit. Photo courtesy of Amy Intrator.

These three exhibitions are just the tip of the iceberg for what is going on today. For other ceremonies and events you can visit the Cit of Toronto, Ontario.ca, or google events near you.

I will leave you with some well known words;

In Flanders fields the poppies blow 

Between the crosses, row on row, 

That mark our place; and in the sky 

The larks, still bravely singing, fly 

Scarce heard amid the guns below. 

We are the Dead. Short days ago 

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, 

Loved and were loved, and now we lie, 

In Flanders fields. 

Take up our quarrel with the foe: 

To you from failing hands we throw 

The torch; be yours to hold it high. 

If ye break faith with us who die 

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow 

In Flanders fields. 

                                                       -In Flanders Fields, John McCrae 

MAKING MUSINGS PART 5: IT TAKES (MORE THAN) TWO

Letter from the Editors | Kathleen Lew & Amy Intrator

---

This is the fifth and final post of a series in celebration of the Master of Museum Studies program at the University of Toronto's 50th anniversary (MMSt50). To reflect on Musings' past, present, and future, we invited all previous Editors-in-Chief to return to Musings to write special Letter from the Editor posts. These articles highlight the significance of Musings both within the MMSt program, and for writers' professional careers. Kathleen Lew and Amy Intrator are the fifth (and outgoing!) Editors-in-Chief of Musings from 2018-2019.

As the first ever Musings Editor-in-Chief team, this year has been an extremely rewarding exercise of collaboration. We hope this practice of community– among Musings Executive, Contributing Editors, MMSt, and wider museum communities– continues with future years of blogging.

Musings' 5th Birthday Party: Amy Intrator [Left] and Kathleen Lew [Right]. Photo courtesy of Musings.

In Summer of 2018, we sat at a coffee shop in Kensington market and talked at length about our goals for Musings. This included creating a writing environment in which Contributing Editors felt comfortable asking each other for guidance and insight, further integrating ourselves into the MMSt community, and continuing to collaborate with institutions. Soon enough we had updated the Musings interface and logos, incorporated two new response-based columns (Program Reviews and Muse News), and were reaching out to fellow MMSt students, faculty, and alumni to join our community.

Part I of the Musings team celebrating #MuseumSelfieDay! Check out these awesome photos from @ROMtoronto to @pompeii_sites. #museumselfie #PhiladelphiasMagicGarden #templeofRamsesVI #MuseumSelfieDay2019 pic.twitter.com/j843TjLUKQ

— Musings MMSt (@musingsmmst) January 16, 2019

We made some major strides this year, but absolutely none of this would be possible without our committed Contributing Editors. We started our tenure as Editors-in-Chief as a duo, but our team grew larger and stronger as the year went on. In September, we were lucky to have Jordan Fee join Musings as the Communications Officer (you may recognize his handiwork if you frequent our Instagram page). We know it’s impossible to do justice to our amazing writers in a short blog post, but here is a list of some of our must-read articles written by some marvelous Musers:

1. Rebecca Barrett - WEIRD HERITAGE: 6 OF TORONTO'S QUIRKIEST LANDMARKS
2. Keelan Cashmore - ACCESSIBILITY: MORE THAN A BUTTON ON A DOOR
3. Elizabeth Cytko - MANAGEMENT SKILLS, ENVIRONMENTAL SCANNING AND GOSSIP: ALUMNI CHECK-IN WITH DEBORAH ROBICHAUD
4. Rachel Dice - MORE THAN CLOTHES
5. Jordan Fee - "I DON'T WANT TO TALK ABOUT THAT RIGHT NOW": HOW ANTHROPOCENE SUCCEEDS IN STAYING SILENT
6. Evelyn Feldman - ALLOWING "PUSSY" IN THE LIBRARY: ART CONTROVERSY ACROSS GLAM SPACES
7. Alexandra Forand - WE NEED TO TALK, OR NOT: LANGUAGE IN MUSEUMS AS A FORM OF CONTROL
8. Carly Hall - LET'S TALK ABOUT "POWER AND POSSESSION: THE ETHICS OF COLLECTING"
9. Casarina Hocevar - FINDING FOODWAYS, PART I.
10. Maddy Howard - WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS
11. Selin Kahramanoglu - MONSTERS ON DISPLAY: AN EXHIBITION AT THE THOMAS FISHER RARE BOOK LIBRARY
12. Samantha Kilpatrick- A FUTURE TO IMAGINE FOR
13. Amelia Smith - WHERE'S THE T? TRANSGENDER INCLUSION IN THE MUSEUM
14. Samantha Summers - DANCING THROUGH LIFE: MMSt ALUM JOHN DALRYMPLE ON HIS WORK AT CANADA’S NATIONAL BALLET SCHOOL
15. Joanna Wreakes - MUSEUMS OR NOT? PART 3: SUBWAY SERIES STOCKHOLM

In addition to being Editors-in-Chief, we both continued our true passion project: writing for Musings! Here are a couple of our articles that we’re especially proud of...

Kathleen - GLOSSY GAL PALS MAKE THEIR OWN MUSES

Amy - EXHIBITING BANKSY: ACCESSIBLE ART OR VIOLATION OF ARTISTIC INTENT?

This year, three of our Contributing Editors created columns that addressed some of the most pressing issues in museums today. Amelia started Not Your Average Cistory, a column that aims to bridge the gap between Transgender Studies and Museum Studies. Ally started Breaking the Glass Case, a column dedicated to exploring the relationship between Indigenous communities and cultural heritage organizations. Evelyn started GLAM Guide, a column that looks at the intersections between galleries, libraries, archives, and museums. All of these columns are necessary additions to the Musings roster, and we can’t wait to see the future direction of the columns as they continue to evolve over time.

Having a team that consistently delivered awe-worthy content made it easier to expand our focus to include more outreach and professional development. For our first-EVER writing workshop, held in November, Sarah Hill from Lord Cultural Resources led a workshop about risk-taking and digital strategies. The workshop went so well that we offered a second one in March, led by Pym Buitenhuis, the Director of Marketing at Rotman School of Management, which focused on transferable writing skills. The workshops were possible thanks to the support of the MMSt50 organizing committee, who have been hard at work all year to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Master of Museum Studies program. The partnership with MMSt50 is proof that collaboration makes Musings stronger.

Celebrating the past, present, and future of Musings! Photo courtesy of Musings. 

Although parting is such sweet sorrow, we are immensely grateful that we got to throw a 5th birthday party for Musings and celebrate the blog’s contributions over the past 5 years with Contributing Editors, alumni, faculty, and MMSt students. It is an enormous privilege to be a part of Musings’ legacy. We had the opportunity to celebrate this legacy with the Making Musings series, where we reconnected to all past EICs and continued to learn from the inspiring accomplishments of Jaime, Madeline, Natania, and Serena. We can’t wait to watch Musings evolve over the next 5-years and challenge the museum field to become a more critical, inclusive space.

Thank you to all of our readers for joining us on this year-long journey. These two Editors-in-Chief can’t wait to become two of Musings' most passionate readers and strongest advocates.

Source.

COMMUNITY-LED PRESERVATION: THE FATE OF ONTARIO PLACE (PART 2)

Muse News | Amy Intrator

---

With the school term winding down, it’s time for my final installation of Muse News. Over the past 10 months piloting this new column, I’ve learned the importance of writing responsive content that follows stories as they develop. Although I didn’t plan to follow-up on my initial Ontario Place article, over the past month there have been important developments thanks to community advocacy and supportive government officials. Today, I’m going to investigate how Ontario Place’s fate may have shifted yet again.

The setting sun on Ontario Place, but the story is just getting started. Source.

Growing Public Concern

Recently, Ontario government officials have begun pushing for the “redevelopment” of Ontario Place. This move has caused members of the public and other government officials to push back. Ontario Place was opened in 1971 as a public park and exhibition venue, and although the park closed in 2012, the new push for “development” could see the land transformed from a space of public access into an exclusive facility. Members of the public have been especially concerned that Ontario Place, known as a family destination, could be turned into a casino since Ontario’s Premier Doug Ford has a long history advocating for a casino on the land.


Community Consultation

In light of the growing concerns about the fate of the land, City Councillor Joe Cressy advocated for the creation of the Ontario Place Subcommittee of Toronto and East York Community Council, comprised of Toronto city councillors that would hear the public’s concerns about the development of Ontario Place. The newly formed subcommittee was quick to organize their first Public Consultation meeting on March 5th, 2019, at City Hall, where members of the public were invited to voice their concerns and suggestions for the future of Ontario Place.

City Hall, where the Ontario Place Public Consultation was held on March 5th, 2019. Source.

Over 36 community members signed up to voice their recommendations at the March 5th community consultation meeting. Although not every representative attended the meeting, the consultation still stretched over three and a half hours. During the meeting, each community member had 5 minutes to voice their concerns and share their recommendations for the use of the Ontario Place land. If you’re feeling ambitious, you can watch the entire meeting on Youtube, or you can read some of the news coverage from the meeting.


The Call for Museums 

The community proposals ranged from affordable housing to a transformed pier, but the constant in all the presentations: a desire to make the land accessible to the public and keep heritage features intact. Given the dual aim of preserving heritage infrastructure while growing public engagement, it’s not surprising that several proposals called for museums to be built on the land. The proposals that called for museums, education centres, or heritage spaces, all aimed to “repurpose” the land without losing those features that make Ontario Place such an iconic provincial landmark.

The cultural heritage proposals included a call for a “World Water Centre,” that would repurpose the pod structures on the land to be used as both a resource center for sustainable water and a museum to educate the public. Dale Taylor, who presented this concept, stated “Ontario Place is all about water,” and he saw this Centre as an investment in public education and city resources. Another call for a museum was Lazzelle Gelias’ proposal for an “Indigenous historical museum site.” Gelias asked the subcommittee, “who better to give this land to than the people who own it?” and she called for a site that would allow for Indigenous education and representation. Yet another call for an education site was presented by Mary Hynes, who called for a space for “year-round outdoor education” that would be open to everyone and help reconnect people back to the lakes surrounding the land.

In addition to the dozens of proposals from community members, the Public Consultation also resulted in the Subcommittee motioning for the public to remain active in Ontario Place development, and even have the land considered for status on the Heritage Register.

Ontario Place belongs to all Ontarians. We only get one chance to revitalize it & it’s critical that we get it right. Its future must be decided in public & with the involvement of the City of Toronto. Tonight our Ontario Place sub-committee endorsed a way forward to get it right pic.twitter.com/CNpkfuZUrI

— Joe Cressy (@joe_cressy) March 6, 2019

The recent developments in the case of Ontario Place indicate the importance of mobilizing the community when making decisions about heritage. The Ontario Place Subcommittee can learn a lot from museums, as many museums have a rich history of working in partnership with local communities to create a space that is accessible and enriching for everyone. But perhaps museums can also learn from the Ontario Place Subcommittee. The various proposals for museums and education centers illuminates that beyond wanting an accessible and exciting space, community members want institutions that exist in conversation with the surrounding environment.

The case of Ontario Place makes me wonder: How many museums truly exist in dialogue with their communities and facilitate thoughtful engagement with the surrounding environment?

MUSEFLASH: STAYING AND STRAYING FROM THE MUSEUM AT MUSINGS SECOND WRITERS WORKSHOP

Weekend Edition | Amy Intrator

---

This year, for the first time ever, Musings is hosting a series of writing workshops for Contributing Editors and fellow MMSt students. For each workshop, a professional shares their writing advice and helps bridge the gap between our current academic writing and our future writing as museum professionals. The workshops are part of MMSt50 programming, which celebrates 50 years of the Museum Studies program at the University of Toronto.

The workshop facilitator, Pym Buitenhuis, presenting at Musings Writers Workshop. Photo courtesy of Amy Intrator.

On March 6th, Musings hosted our second Writers' Workshop, which focused on transferable writing skills. For more coverage about our first workshop on digital strategies, be sure to read Samantha’s article. Our workshop facilitator, and trusty guide, was Pym Buitenhuis. Pym is both a graduate of the program (MMSt Class of 1989), as well as the current Director of Marketing at Rotman School of Management. Right from the get-go when Pym shared her career journey from museums to the corporate world, it became clear that she had a wealth of professional experience to share with students.

Pym sharing her career journey from museums to the corporate world. Photo courtesy of Amy Intrator.

Considering Career Paths

One of the themes throughout the workshop: a Museum Studies degree might take you in surprising directions. People might assume that a Museum Studies degree means that you’re striving to be a curator. However, Pym mapped out some of the various routes that graduates of the degree might take from further education, to ancillary industries like graphic design, to the great beyond of work outside of the sector.

A map of some of the possible careers after graduating from Museum Studies from ancillary sectors to general management. Photo courtesy of Amy Intrator.

Transferable Skills

It can be dizzying to consider the various routes, inside and outside the museum sector, that Museum Studies graduates might pursue, but Pym helped us consider how our studies are building a foundation that will serve us in various roles.

Pym detailed the skills she found most transferable between the program and the world of work under the following categories:

1) A holistic understanding of organizations

2) An understanding of both marketing and communications

3) An understanding of leadership and management styles and practices

Pym provided a clarification between the role of marketing (a.k.a. paid media) and communications (a.k.a. earned media), and it was during this discussion that it became clear that museums need professionals who can pivot between the two forms of communicating ideas. Museums sit in the “sweet spot” between marketing and communications, as staff need to both inform their audience in a compelling manner, as well as persuade the public that their museum is a place worth visiting and investing time.

Pym provided additional tools for communicating ideas in writing, but most importantly, she provided me with a sense that the Museum Studies program has fostered professional skills that will serve me in my career, whether I choose to stray or stay within the walls of a museum.

TOXIC MUSEUMS AND TOXIC DONOR RELATIONSHIPS

Muse News | Amy Intrator

---

In today’s Muse News, I am focusing on two recent museum news stories that exemplify two different threats for museums: dangerous collections and dangerous donor relations.


Uranium Ore and the Grand Canyon Museum

What happened?

For 18 years, three 5-gallon buckets of uranium ore were stored dangerously close to exhibits and visitors at the Grand Canyon Park Museum. On February 4th, Elston “Swede” Stephenson – the safety, health, and wellness manager for Grand Canyon National Park – sent an email to all Park Service employees to warn them that they might have been exposed to an unsafe level of uranium ore. Stephenson didn’t send the email through proper channels, but rather, he sent the warning to fellow Park employees. He worried that there was no action to warn employees and visitors about their potentially dangerous levels of exposure to radiation. The email goes so far as to accuse the lack of communication on a “top down failure.”

Image of Grand Canyon Park, where one of the onsite museum buildings was housing uranium ore for 18 years. Source.

How did we get here?

The buckets of uranium ore were first discovered in March 2018. After the buckets were discovered, they were safely removed from the premises of the museum, but according to the Park’s safety manager, visitors were “exposed” to uranium levels that exceeded the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s safe limits. Any visitor to the museum could have been exposed to the radiation, but the discovery is all the more alarming since the buckets were found near a taxidermy exhibit where  school groups stopped for presentations that sometimes lasted as long as 30 minutes. Museum visitors’ safety was compromised due to a confounding level of negligence.


The Oil Giant and the British Museum

What happened?

On Saturday, February 16th, 350 activists gathered inside the British Museum’s Great Court to protest the Museum’s relationship with BP, an oil giant with a history of exploitation. The protesters wielded signs denouncing BP, particularly the company’s exploitation of Iraq’s oil fields after the Iraq War. The protesters, part of a group called “BP or Not to BP?” were particularly infuriated by BP sponsoring the current exhibit at the museum titled I am Ashurbanipal: king of the world, king of Assyria. The exhibition focuses on Middle Eastern art, so BP’s sponsorship – given the company’s history in the Middle East – seems particularly distasteful. The group included many climate change activists who wanted to draw attention to BP’s exploitation of the land and unparalleled damage to the environment. In addition to the museum’s relationship with BP, the protesters also claimed that the artefacts featured in the exhibit were unlawfully removed from Iraq, and therefore the British Museum is exhibiting “stolen goods.”

Hundreds of activities from the pressure group BP or not BP demonstrates in British Museum against BP’s sponsorship of the exhibition "I am Ashurbanipal: king of the world, king of Assyria." . . . #BP #britishmuseum #museum #climatechange #protest #bpornotbp #NoWarNoWarming #DropBP #Ashurbanipal #fossilfree #ClimateStrike #Ashurbanipal #AncientHistory #Climatejustice #BritishMuseumprotest #decolonizemuseums #climatechangeisreal #protest #londonprotest #demonstration #onepicperday2019 #metroldn #timeoutlondon @BP_plc @britishmuseum

A post shared by Dinendra Haria (@dinendra_haria) on Feb 16, 2019 at 1:33pm PST

How did we get here?

BP is sponsoring the current exhibition, but the British Museum has a relationship with the company that spans over 22 years. The Museum boasts that this corporate sponsorship, which has now been renewed until 2022, allows millions of visitors to view the museum’s exhibitions, but this “success story” conveniently omits the details about the company’s reputation. The public is beginning to pay more attention to museums’ sources of funding, and this protest exemplifies the danger when museums are aligned with “tainted” donors. Other recent protests, like those of Nan Goldin, take over museum spaces in order to command visitors’ attention and force visitors to consider museums' misaligned ethics.


Where do we go from here?

Although the two news-breaking stories are technically unrelated, the two cases both demand a closer look at museums’ accountability to their publics. With the Grand Canyon Museum, there was a failure to communicate and act on a major risk to the public’s health and safety. With the British Museum, there was a failure to critically assess the museum’s funding sources and reconsider corporate sponsors in light of public outcry.

These two different cases both exemplify that museums are at their weakest when they lose public trust. From failing to communicate a major health risk to failing to reconsider donor relations, these two institutions now have extensive work to repair their relationship with the public and restore their reputation as cultural institutions.

THE FATE OF ONTARIO PLACE

Muse News | Amy Intrator

---

Welcome back to Muse News. For the first edition of Winter 2019, I am shifting the focus from a museum to a cultural heritage landscape. If you’ve been following provincial news these past few months, you’re likely aware of the on-going debate surrounding Ontario Place. In today’s article, I will take a look at the controversy and the contested future of the park. While Ontario Place may not fit some traditional definitions of “museum,” the space has been recognized for its cultural heritage value. Now, the fate of Ontario Place rests between competing cultural and commercial interests.

Image of Ontario Place featuring the large Cinesphere structure. Source.

Background

Ontario Place opened in 1971 with the ambitious vision of showcasing the province’s identity, culture and economic growth through a combination of recreation, education, and entertainment spaces. Ontario Place remained an icon for generations of Canadians, but the province closed the park in 2012, due to falling revenues.

Since the park closed, the fate of the land has been heavily contested. Ontario Place sits on prime waterfront property, which has led to competing visions of future development. In 2012, John Tory was a mayoral candidate and Doug Ford was a city councillor, but even then, these two politicians had competing views about the land. Tory envisioned a “new public backyard” with a mix of private land for condo development and public areas to include parks, artists’ studios, cafes, and more. Ford, on the other hand, has been interested in developing a casino in Toronto since the days when his brother was the mayor of Toronto.

Aerial photo of Ontario Place displaying the prime waterfront property. Source. 

Competing visions for the land have also met public resistance over the past six years. Waterfront for All, a citizens group made up of over 30 organizations, has been actively advocating for an accessible waterfront. This group is one of many that has expressed alarm over plans to convert a large percentage of Ontario Place grounds into private land.


Recent Developments

The ongoing debate about Ontario Place has been reignited by a recent statement by Tourism Minister Michael Tibollo. The January 18th statement revealed that the government is now accepting proposals to develop Ontario Place. The statement calls for the private sector to submit their vision for the future of the land, and by the sounds of this extremely vague statement, that vision could include anything from a world-class cultural gathering point to a mega-mall.

Our government is taking action to bring Ontario Place back to life and make it a spectacular, world-class, year-round destination. We are accepting proposals for development that will attract local and international visitors for generations to come.https://t.co/qHYrPOqtw5 pic.twitter.com/O7qYBHVFaa

— Michael Tibollo (@MichaelTibollo) January 19, 2019

The statement is so open-ended that there is no real indication what the government would prefer to see on the land, but one thing is for sure: the daunting casino could still be accepted as the new “vision” for Ontario Place.

Tibollo states that this new development should signal to the world that “Ontario is open for business.” Maybe this is just a figure of speech, but the emphasis on business also seems like a move away from the initial vision of Ontario Place as an inclusive, open space.


Cultural Significance

Ontario Place, once recognized as a place with distinct cultural heritage value, is now a prize in a private bidding war. The space was always meant to showcase the province, but originally the site was intended to bring the population of Ontario together. Now, the land could be transformed into a private-use club, a casino, or another exclusive business venture.

One of the most troubling aspects of this situation: the literal erasure of the land’s cultural heritage value. Today, if you want to look at the Heritage Statement of Ontario Place online, you will be directed to this page. The current website details the call for development proposals, and there is not one mention of “heritage” or “history.”  So how is this a heritage statement?

Thanks to the ever-handy internet archive the Wayback Machine, which archives old versions of web pages, you can see what the actual Ontario Place Heritage Statement looked like before it was removed from the government website.

The original Heritage Statement is quite comprehensive and includes a detailed description of the heritage attributes of Ontario Place, including the Cinesphere and pod structures. These structures are recognized for the design attributes, but under the new call-for-developments, these areas are open to be redeveloped.

One of the pod structures at Ontario Place. These structures are listed as one of the heritage features of the park. Source.

Heritage officials have stated that even though Ontario Place is recognized as a provincially significant heritage property, the buildings could still be demolished.

The case of Ontario Place forces me to wonder: Is it time to reconsider how we protect provincial cultural heritage from being overwritten and under protected?

HAVE YOURSELF A MERRY LITTLE HIATUS

Letter from the Editors | Amy Intrator & Kathleen Lew

---

It has been an unbelievably amazing term for Musings! Now it’s time for our brief holiday hiatus, but before we go, your Editors-in-Chief are excited to look back on all the accomplishments from the past four months and prepare for another great term at Musings. 

Editors-in-Chief, Amy [far left] and Kathleen [middle], strike a pose with Communications Officer, Jordan Fee [far right], at the MUSSA End-of-Year Celebration. Photo courtesy of Amy Intrator.

With our first ever professional development event, Musings provided a writing workshop on risk-taking and digital strategies led by Sarah Hill from Lord Cultural Resources. This event was in partnership with MMSt50, featuring delicious Almond Butterfly Cookies and a full room of MMSt students and Contributing Editors. Read Sam’s coverage of the workshop here. Musings is excited to continue this successful workshop series in the new year, so stay tuned for details!

View this post on Instagram

Guess what? Last night, #Musings hosted its FIRST EVER workshop! For this inaugural event, we invited Sarah Hill from Lord Cultural Resources to talk about digital engagement in museums. Keeping with the #MMSt50 theme of risk taking, the workshop explored how museums are using innovative approaches to engage digitally with their audiences both inside and outside of their institution. Cookies were supplied by the wonderful @almondbutterflybakeshop #Musings #MMSt50 #iSchool #workshop #digitalstrategies #consulting #museums #international

A post shared by Musings - MMSt Student Blog (@musingsmmst) on Nov 28, 2018 at 9:59am PST

Our instagram has also been busy with various event coverage featuring our Communication Officer Jordan Fee and Contributing Editors. Be sure to take a look back at our story highlights from the OMA conference and the MMSt Montreal field trip, in addition to some thoughtful posts about grad student life and Musings articles.

From exhibition reviews to articles about museum innovations, Musings’ Contributing Editors covered it all over the past few months! If you’re looking for some museum reading material over the holidays, we’ve provided some must-read articles from our Fall 2018 term:

If you’re looking for Toronto reading material, check out Rebecca’s article about Toronto’s quirky landmarks. For more Toronto heritage, Ally’s latest article explores the history of dining establishments in Toronto. Interested about how Toronto Muji is pushing the boundaries of art exhibitions through marketing strategies? Amy’s latest article is for you!

For those readers looking to step outside of the province, check out some of our Montreal reads! Laetitia covered the Museum Studies field trip to Montreal, which was full of visits to some amazing cultural institutions. Rachel explored an awe-inspiring exhibition at the McCord Museum focused on the complex relationship between clothing and the First Peoples of Canada. And if you’re still not ready to leave Montreal, Elizabeth’s latest article explores the McCord Giftshop.

WE CAN’T BELIEVE IT’S OVER! The MUSSA Montreal Field Trip was a massive success and we’re so thankful to have had such a big and enthusiastic group! Au revoir for now Montreal, we miss you already! #mussamtl

A post shared by Master of Museum Studies Asso. (@mussauoft) on Nov 9, 2018 at 5:10pm PST

To catch up on some of the amazing professional development that took place this term, check out Kathleen’s article about discomfort in the museum, spurred by a panel at the annual OMA conference. For more OMA content, read Evelyn’s article about GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, Museums) analogies that were explored during the conference. If you’re looking to explore the experience of Museum Studies students, check out Katlyn’s review of the second-year mandatory classes.

Current Museum Studies students pose with MMSt alum at the annual Ontario Museum Association Conference.
Photo courtesy of Selin Kahramanoglu.

To explore some fascinating museum innovations, take a look at Keelan’s analysis of a museum that displays taxidermy… with a twist. If you want to explore another out-of-the-ordinary exhibition, Maddy reviews an exhibit that is interspersed around the Gardiner Museum!

Looking for the inside scoop on fascinating museum programs? Samantha Summers provides highlights from the 10th Anniversary Celebration of ROMCAN, a program dedicated to inclusion at the Royal Ontario Museum. If you want to know what’s happening inside Toronto’s heritage sites, Samantha Kilpatrick looks at the diverse programming at Montgomery’s Inn. And if you want to explore the ethics of collecting, power, and possession, you have to check out Carly’s review of a recent program at the Gardiner Museum.

Lastly, for anyone looking for a read about museum collections, make sure to check out Selin’s exploration of preventive conservation. And if you want to muse further about the ethics of collecting after reading Carly’s article, check out Jordan’s most recent article about the connection between over-collecting at museums and sustainability.

Thank you to all Musings readers for such a rewarding term of blogging! The new year will bring more exciting events, alumni Editor-in-Chief features, and new columns. If you are an MMSt student and interested in joining the team, stay tuned for applications. We hope everyone has a happy holiday and we will be back in January with more engaging and insightful museum content!

THE ART OF MARKETING: THE MUJI EXHIBITION

Muse News | Amy Intrator

---

The word “exhibition” always piques my interest, so when I saw an ad for an exhibition titled What is MUJI, I couldn't resist investigating.

Exterior of the What is MUJI exhibit at Yonge and Bay. Photo courtesy of Amy Intrator. 

Well, what is MUJI? MUJI is a Japanese retail company that has locations across the world and sells everything from home storage to toothbrush holders.

The Toronto MUJI located in Atrium by the Bay recently underwent a major renovation, and in the interim period, the store was opened in a smaller space close-by. The store has now re-opened in its new location, also in Atrium by the Bay, but occupying an astonishing 19,110 square feet, making this store the largest MUJI store outside of Asia. The store’s old location is now being used for a pop-up exhibit What is MUJI, which is on display from November 19th to December 23rd. The “exhibition” may be a clever way to use up space before the lease is over, or it might be a marketing ploy, but either way, the “exhibition” prompts a consideration of the line between art and commercialism.

The exhibit is hosted in a storefront, which is pretty common for exhibitions in downtown Toronto, but also a sure-fire way to bring customers into the space. During the course of my visit, I overheard the exhibit attendant directing several people to the exit that leads to the new store. A reverse "exit through the gift shop" of sorts.

Once you’re inside the front doors of the store, you’re greeted by an introductory panel on a white wall – one that is reminiscent of the didactics in most white cube art galleries.

Introductory panel in the What is MUJI exhibit. Photo courtesy of Amy Intrator.

The intro panel contains a surprising amount of depth. From detailing the history of the brand to describing the company’s ideology, which aims for universality over minimalism, “this will do” over “this is what I really want.” After reading the thoughtful introduction, I was expecting an exhibit with equally surprising insight. As it turned out, the objects on display throughout the exhibit were the opposite of surprising, but rather products from the store that were mounted with simple text that described the object’s utility. At first, I was disappointed and even a little irritated, but by the time I reached the end of the exhibit, I realized the exhibit had warned me from the beginning that I was stepping into a space of radical utility, not show-stopping art. And, as promised, there were a few times reading object descriptions where I had my own “this will do” moments where I was tempted to go into the actual store to buy an object that would make my own day-to-day life simpler. 

The umbrellas on display in the exhibit. An example of a radically useful object. Photo courtesy of Amy Intrator.

There were also a few moments in the exhibit where the creators clearly were playing with art exhibit conventions to market MUJI products. One of my favourite “art winks” was the “Mattress with Legs.” The product, a bench-like couch, is positioned against a wall in such a way that it looks exactly like a typical bench in an art museum. It was only upon looking more closely that I realized the “bench” was actually a bed that MUJI sells. The subtly of the mattress was my “aha” moment when I realized the creators of the exhibit might actually be in on the joke, and they may be playing around with exhibit conventions to create this completely unconventional piece of marketing.

The "Mattress with Legs" display, which looks similar to a typical bench at an art exhibit.
Photo courtesy of Amy Intrator.

This exhibit probably won’t change your life, but for me, attending this pop-up exhibit was an interesting moment in trying to discern the line between art and advertisement. In this case, it’s fairly obvious that the exhibit crosses into the territory of full-blown commercialism, but sometimes it is harder to discern between commercial exhibits and cultural exhibits, between art and marketing.

Is this playful approach to exhibitions useful for the museum professionals, or is there a danger in blurring the line between marketing and art?

THE LAST GOODBYE: BEARING WITNESS THROUGH VR

Muse News | Amy Intrator

---

When you listen to a witness, you become a witness.
― Elie Wiesel

Elie Wiesel was a Holocaust survivor and a prolific writer; his powerful message is a reminder to hear survivors speak, so we can bear witness to their testimony. But as time passes and there are fewer living survivors, how can we ensure future generations bear witness? In today’s edition of Muse News, I’m going to explore the USC Shoah Foundation’s virtual reality film The Last Goodbye, the first VR to take viewers to a concentration camp. In this film you walk alongside Pinchas Gutter, a Toronto-based Holocaust survivor, as he returns to the former concentration camp Majdanek, where his entire family was killed during the Holocaust. Over the last month, I have had the privilege of working on the Neuberger Holocaust Education Centre’s special presentation of this film in partnership with the USC Shoah Foundation. Today, I’m going to consider how this precedent-breaking, newsworthy project may shape the future of memory.

Promotion for USC Shoah Foundation's VR film, The Last Goodbye. Source.

Background: Creating The Last Goodbye

The USC Shoah Foundation is an organization dedicated to preserving and sharing the testimonies of individuals who have survived genocide. The Foundation was born from the making of the film Schindler’s List, when the director, Steven Spielberg, understood the need to capture survivors’ complete testimonies and preserve their narratives. Today, the Foundation’s Visual History Archive includes over 55,000 video testimonies of survivors and witnesses of genocide.

The Last Goodbye is the Foundation’s latest effort to re-imagine the future of survivor testimony using computer technology. In July 2016, Pinchas Gutter, a Holocaust survivor based in Toronto, returned to the concentration camp where his entire family was killed during the Holocaust. To create the film, Pinchas was accompanied by a filming crew that captured thousands of photos that were stitched together to create 3D images that were then paired with his video testimony. The result: a haunting VR film where the viewer has the feeling that they are walking alongside Pinchas as he returns to Majdanek, while hearing him reflect on this place of suffering and loss.

The film premiered in April 2017 at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival. In September 2018, The Last Goodbye premiered at four museums located in New York,  Los Angeles, Chicago, and St. Petersburg, Florida.

Please join us for the world premiere of 'The Last Goodbye’ at The Tribeca Film Festival. Walk alongside Holocaust survivor Pinchas Gutter in this profoundly immersive VR testimony as he tours the concentration camp where his parents and sister lost their lives during World War II and for a moment borrow from his courage. Co-produced by USC Shoah Foundation, HERE BE DRAGONS, MPC VR and OTOY. Featuring an original soundtrack by Dražen Bošnjak of Q Department and Installation Experience by David Korins. We hope to see you April 21-29. #Tribeca2017 #Storyscapes #TheLastGoodbyeVR #USCShoahFoundation #HereBeDragonsVR #MPCVR #OTOY #QDepartment #DavidKorins

A post shared by USC Shoah Foundation (@uscshoahfoundation) on Apr 17, 2017 at 12:09pm PDT

Today: Finding New Audiences in Toronto

Over the last month, I have helped facilitate The Last Goodbye during its Toronto premiere, presented by the Sarah and Chaim Neuberger Holocaust Education Centre and the USC Shoah Foundation.

The special presentation is a part of the Neuberger Centre’s annual Holocaust Education Week programming, but this program is completely unlike anything offered in the past. The presentation is hosted at Ctrl V North York, a venue that offers virtual reality experiences year-round. Hosting the program at this venue, which is equipped with VR technology and a purpose-built space, means that up to 17 viewers can experience the film simultaneously. The Neuberger Centre offered open hours where members of the public could experience the film, as well as private bookings for school groups.

Neuberger education staff are hard at work testing out @uscshoahfoundation's award winning virtual reality experience #TheLastGoodbye. This November, in honour of #HEW2018, follow Holocaust survivor Pinchas Gutter's return to Majdanek Death Camp from right here in Toronto. Want to know more? holocaustcentre.com/last-goodbye #holocausteducation #survivortestimony #virtualreality #toronto

A post shared by Neuberger Holocaust Centre (@holocaust_ed) on Oct 24, 2018 at 11:37am PDT

I have facilitated several public viewings and heard from visitors after the extremely moving experience. When you are in the film, you are prompted to walk around and look at the terrible place as Pinchas recounts his own history. The film is playing simultaneously in individual stations, which means each viewer can interact with the VR film on their own, but afterwards there is a group of people that have all experienced this powerful, immersive testimony.


Tomorrow: Navigating the Future of Memory

The Last Goodbye represents an important innovation: using virtual reality technology to share survivor testimonies. The technology may provide a route to connecting to future audiences who live in a time where there are no more first-hand witnesses of the Holocaust. The VR experience simulates returning to a concentration camp with a survivor, and for a future generation, this may be the closest they can get to walking alongside a survivor as they hear first-hand testimony.

More and more museums are beginning to incorporate technology like VR to create immersive experiences for visitors, but I wanted to understand current impressions of VR from the perspective of someone studying user-centered technology. I asked Vipasha Shaikh, a student studying User Experience Design (UXD), if VR has the potential to engage future generations. Vipasha commented:

          I think VR is certainly an emerging field … it's well suited for digital storytelling and I
          wouldn't be surprised if it gets adapted on a wider scale in this capacity by museums.
          I'm uncertain if this will be the case for other industries.


In addition to this “digital storytelling,” others have compared VR to an “empathy machine” where individuals literally see the world through another’s eyes. The Last Goodbye is a critical intervention in the trajectory of both VR and Holocaust education, as it asks the viewer to experience the testimony of a survivor and see a site where thousands were killed.

The film transforms the viewer into a witness, and for future generations without living Holocaust survivors, this experience could be transformational.