MANAGED RETREAT AS PREVENTATIVE CONSERVATION?

Collections Corner | Martin Bierens

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In order to mitigate the risk that climate change poses to museums, should museums in coastal areas begin a managed retreat?

One of the proposed solutions for dealing with climate change, specifically the threat of rising sea levels is managed retreat. This involves a coordinated movement of people, and if possible, buildings away from threatened areas. Unfortunately, if we continue to ignore the warning signs of climate change and do not change our behaviour, this may become our only choice.

Climate change is a global issue facing many museums. In the United States, over a third of museums in the US are within 100km of the coast, and a quarter of these museums are located in high-risk areas. This means that they will almost certainly have to deal with potentially permanent flooding and increased severe weather that posses a massive threat of damaging or destroying museum collections.

Museums within 100km of the Gulf Coast and associated risk level of sea-level rise. (Source)

There are various pros and cons that museums will need to consider if they decide that a managed retreat is necessary.

Pros:

• Lowers the risk of environmental damage.
• It may be the only available option to save the museum.

Cons:

• The cost of a total collection move, and a new building.
• High risk of potentially damaging the collection during the move.
• Abandonment of community connections.

Flood Damage at the 9/11 Memorial Museums in New York City after Hurricane Sandy in 2012. (Source)

Along with the pros and cons of a managed retreat, there are also significant obstacles that will make the process extremely difficult.

• Coastal areas currently offer massive benefits to museums, they have high tourism, and the coast is the location of major economic centres.
• Currently there is no political agreement on the best course of action for undertaking a managed retreat. (Or responding to climate change in general.)
• There is still uncertainly of the level of risk.
• We are attached to our homes.
• Finally, and must crucially, museums abandoning communities which they have been situated in for years sends a bad message to those that they are leaving behind. This will clearly make evident the economic inequity of the organization compared to those who do not have the opportunity to retreat despite the risk.

It is difficult to argue for or against a managed retreat. On the collections management and preservation side of the argument, a managed retreat may be the only way to ensure the preservation of museum collections in the future. If this is considered the main purpose of a museum then a managed retreat is what is best for the museum. But, if the purpose of a museum is a place to bring together diverse voices, participatory experiences, and as a centre for community togetherness, then a managed retreat is abandoning the people who we should be serving.

I really hope that this is a theoretical situation and that collectively we will find other ways to address climate change before it gets to the point of having to abandon entire cities. But, if one day in the future it gets to the tipping point where managed retreat is necessary, I do not envy whoever has to make the ultimate decision.

"JUST A FEW CLICKS AWAY": A CONVERSATION WITH KAREN MACKE

Collections Corner | Martin Bierens

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Recently I had the chance to speak with Karen Macke, admin of the new Facebook group Museum Collections Management. I spoke to her during her lunch break at the Museum of the Aleutians in Unalaska, Alaska. She shares her thinking behind founding the group, how the group has helped her and other members, and the importance of connecting with other museum professionals.

Karen Macke, admin of Museum Collections Management, Collections Manager at Museum of the Aleutians, 2020 MMSt, and MI Graduate. (Photo courtesy of Karen Macke)

MARTIN: Can you introduce yourself, your name, job title, and one or two sentences about what most interests you about collections management?

KAREN: Hi, I'm Karen Macke. I graduated in May 2020 from the University of Toronto with a dual masters in archives and records management and museum studies. I currently work for the Museum of the Aleutians, I’m the collections manager here.

We're based out of the Aleutian Islands in Alaska. If you know the geography of Alaska, that little chain of islands that goes off towards Russia, we're in that chain. We're pretty remote. The nearest hospital is about eight hundred miles away by plane or helicopter.

It's a unique situation here, mostly just because we're on the ring of fire. This means we have the threat of volcanoes, tsunamis, earthquakes, just about any natural disaster you could have you can have here.

I think that's what really drew me to collections management, the challenge of figuring it out, figuring out how you can get materials, artifacts, and different objects to last as long as possible. Because, we always talk about best practices, trying to keep things alive for the next five hundred years. I also got drawn into collections management because I really like archives, and in my view, a collections manager is actually really similar to an archivist.

I feel that most people find recordkeeping boring. They don't like to organize and file, things like that. I absolutely love it. So this field gives me that opportunity to do data management, record-keeping, everything like that while working hands-on with artifacts. I also really love to build things, so mount making is one of my favourite things to do.

 Home Page of Facebook group Museum Collections Management. (Photo courtesy of Martin Bierens)

MARTIN: You recently launched a Facebook group called Museum Collections Management. What was your thinking behind starting this group?

KAREN: I think the idea really came from a Facebook group I was in called the Archivist's Think Tank, I found it in one of my archive classes at U of T. I had a question regarding a deteriorated photograph and got a response. I thought, “wow, that's really cool that someone would be able to tell me that.” Researching would have taken me probably 20 hours to figure out what was going on. I got an answer in five minutes from someone that is an archivist that works with photographs all the time and who knew the solution for my problem.

I posted in that group asking if anybody knew of museum specific groups like the archivists one because when I tried to find them, all I could find was like regional ones that had about one hundred people in them. I heard from a lot of people that said, “you know, why don't we just make one, what a great idea!”

I actually didn’t create the group, the other admin, Austin Justice, runs the group because Alaska is too remote for me to effectively run the day-to-day operations. Austin created the group and he made me an admin so that I could help look over it, as I had the original idea for the group. He helped me really grow the group.

That's what made me really think about starting this group, to start something similar to the archives group, but targeted for museum people.


MARTIN: What do you think are going to be some of the main benefits of a group focusing exclusively on collections management?

KAREN: I think it will have a lot of good benefits, but the big one, is continuing education and having people and resources at your fingertips immediately. We are all on listservs, but Facebook is very convenient. You can add photos easily to Facebook and you can try to figure out a solution for any issue. As we are now in a digital age, resources become more readily available, and it is easy to quickly respond to a Facebook post, more so than an email. So, I think the biggest benefit is definitely just having people all over the world easily connected. I was able to find, a past museum that I worked at called the Seward House Museum. Their collections manager joined the group but we had never met, it was really exciting we got to talk. I was able to help her with one of the questions that she had. I never would have had the chance to speak to this person without the group. I think it just really helps to show the interconnected nature of our field and how easy it is to find people that have had similar issues and how much more immediate your response can be with them.


MARTIN: Have you already learned some new interesting practices that you plan to implement into your own work? Maybe you could provide an example or any fun facts that you've come across from this group?

KAREN: I haven’t had the chance to personally post any questions yet, but lots of other members have already contributed some amazing content to the group. What I think has been really great is one member has created a lot of files that have different articles. These files include resources from the Canadian Conservation Institute, and a YouTube playlist, that has multiple videos about handling, care, or cleaning. When I have an issue in the future, like I recently had to learn how to clean a gut skin parka, a Chigdax, which was very difficult, one of my first steps might be to go look at this YouTube playlist that he put up about cleaning artifacts.

Another thing I have quickly learned from the group is there are a lot more resources out there than you may think.

Perhaps one of the biggest benefits is that we have people from all around the world in this Facebook group, we have members in Israel, and South Africa, to name a few.

This can be very helpful if you have cultural items in your museum from a far-off location. Group members could help answer questions through their own lived experience. For example, my museum recently had an issue with a gut skin parka which the previous conservator had attempted to repair, but the adhesive they used has begun to peel away and be rejected by the gut skin. If we had talked with someone from the local Indigenous group, the Unangax, we could have learned the Indigenous way to repair a suit and that probably would have lasted longer, would have contributed more to the provenance of the item, and probably overall would have been a better fix. Ideally, this group could have the benefit of connecting people near and far. You're always a few clicks away from someone that actually knows what you're talking about and can help you even if you don't know what you're talking about. What I've learned the most from the group is that there's a long line of collections managers out there willing and able to help.

Karen photographing the Chigax (gut-skin) Parka. (Photo courtesy of Karen Macke)

MARTIN: Thank you so much for taking the time to talk to me, Karen. Do you have any final thoughts you would like to share?

KAREN: I want to take the opportunity to encourage people to join, it's open to students and recent graduates, basically anybody that wants to be a part of it. Like I said, everybody has different experiences and knowledge in different places, the more of us there are, the more likely we can help each other figure something out.

On a personal note, this group has really helped me, it is something that has really helped me realize that there are so many other people interested and have a deep love for the field. Like I said, I'm in remote Alaska, before I made the group, I was starting to feel a little bit isolated. Everyone I wanted to call for help was either in Anchorage eight hundred miles away or Seattle. The group has really made me feel closer to collection management professionals and people that know what I'm talking about and I can nerd out with a little bit. I can have a conversation about something that's interesting or constructive conversation where we argue about what something is or isn't, or what might be wrong with it. I think it's been good for my mental health to stay in touch with people that also share the same passion I do.

It's rare that you find someone that's really passionate about our field unless they're in the field. It's really nice to have that social aspect of the group. It has definitely made me feel more connected to Toronto, mostly because a lot of my friends from Toronto have joined the group. It helps me feel a little more connected to them, seeing them commenting and posting on it and stuff felt really nice. I get to learn more this way, see more things, and I think that's great. I am really excited to see where the future takes the group, and I hope it can help in big and small ways.


MARTIN: This has been such an amazing chat, thank you so much for sharing your thoughts with me. Remember to join the group on Facebook at Museum Collections Management. For soon-to-be MMSt graduates, keep an eye on the group for job opportunities. 

A LIST OF ORAL HISTORY COLLECTIONS

Collections Corner | Martin Bierens

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Oral history is certainly not a new concept in the museum field. Realistically, it is the oldest form of passing along knowledge over generations. Recently I have started to think about the relevance of oral histories as my upcoming exhibition project is planning to include information gathered through oral history interviews.

The conduction of an oral history interview as part of the Greater Rosemont History Day. (Source)

In a way, we can think of oral history as an essential element to museum collections. Most collections are composed of objects that have been donated to a museum, but oral histories are individuals donating their story rather than their possessions. A museum must then hold these stories to the same standard as they care for their collections. Oral history in a sense is a way for individuals who may not be wealthy in material goods, but are wealthy in knowledge and stories to share their experiences in a museum setting. Thus, it becomes evident that oral histories are a great way for museums to give space to people who have historically been marginalized.

Here I will be providing a list of some interesting oral history collections in North America that you can check out and listen to amazing stories and histories that are not widely told. If you are looking for more detailed information about oral history as an approach to heritage, check out the work of Chloé Houde and Jingshu Helen Yao.

Historica Canada, a large organization conducting oral history interviews. (Source)

1. Historica Canada — the famed organization behind the iconic “Heritage Minutes” also conducts oral history projects. The organization features stories ranging from Indigenous heritage, historical injustices in Canada, 90 years of Canadian military history, and first-hand accounts of notable Canadians. Their goal is to amplify voices missing from the standard historical narrative.

2. UofT Libraries — The UofT Libraries offer access to thousands of oral history collections on an uncountable amount of topics. Some include the Ellis Island Oral History Project, the Civil Rights Documentation Project, and the Japanese American Relocation Digital Archive.

3. Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Seminole Museum Oral History Program — This project focuses on the preservation of Seminole culture, history, and memory. This project has also been an effective method to preserve Creek and Miccosukee, the languages of the Seminole. The production of Creek and Miccosukee dictionaries and a mobile app are also available to Seminole Tribal Members. They have also produced content that teaches how to conduct oral history interviews.

The Columbia Center for Oral History is one of the largest university-operated oral history projects. (Source)  

4. Columbia Center for Oral History — Columbia University actually offers a Master of Arts with a focus on Oral History. Some interesting projects available online are the September 11, 2001, Oral History Project, the Institute for Research on Women, Gender and Sexuality Oral History Project, and the Rule of Law Oral History Project. The latter features interviews with challengers of capital punishment, and in 2010 shifted focus to the experiences of detainees at Guantanamo Bay following the 9/11 Terror Attacks.

5. Library of Congress —The LOC features many oral history projects that touch on a very wide range of topics.

6. Jewish Women’s Archive — The Listen and Tell: Oral Histories project collects oral histories that teach listeners about Jewish history, identity, and community. A wide variety of material is available online some of which includes resources on how to conduct oral history projects, family histories, the testimony of Holocaust survivors, and contemporary Jewish personal histories/stories.

This is a relatively small list of oral history projects, not all of which are conducted by museums, but all tell personal stories. There are so many oral history projects available online that if there is any topic that you are interested in, a quick google search will likely turn up a wealth of resources.

RAPID RESPONSE COLLECTING: COVID-19

Collections Corner | Martin Bierens

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Perhaps unsurprisingly, the year 2020 has led to an uptick of rapid response collecting, particularly related to the pandemic.

Rapid response collecting is a fairly recent addition to museum collections management mandates with the goal being to collect the meaningful present. This has largely come from a shifting public and internal demand of what museums should provide their visitors. From the origin of museums in the 1800s, they have been a place where visitors can expect to encounter objects from the past, but now museums are placing a much greater emphasis on the present. Museums can be places where the public gathers to interact with contemporary history that directly impacts their lives.

A notable moment where rapid response collecting hit the mainstream and began to be recognized outside of the professional museum community was in 2017 after the Women’s March on Washington protesting the inauguration of Donald Trump. In response to the march, many museums collected the now-iconic pink pussyhats worn by protestors.

Protestors wearing pussyhats at the Women's March on Washington. (Source)

In 2020, rapid response collecting is how many museums have answered to the Covid-19 pandemic. After the initial global shut-down and the frantic development of online educational material, museums have been adding pandemic related objects to their collection.

A museum that took on a leading role in rapid response collecting in 2017 was the V&A, and this pattern continues today as they collect during the pandemic. Some of the objects that the V&A and other museums have collected include the obvious pandemic essentials, such as homemade facemasks, social distancing signs, ventilators, and heartwarming signs made by children. Other materials collected are oral histories from medical and essential workers, video footage of hospitals including a video created by a doctoral resident of Mount Sinai Queens —one of the worst-hit hospitals in New York City, and a cowbell that was rung every time a Covid patient was discharged from the Samaritan’s Purse Hospital, also in New York City.

Cowbell rung at Samaritan's Purse Hospital, now part of the New-York Historical Society's Collection. (Source)

Though there has been a very quick reaction by many museums to begin rapid response collecting, there are some museums that are taking measured steps to ensure that they are not reacting too quickly. Dean Oliver, the director of research at the Canadian Museum of History expressed that now, more than ever, there is a need to act deliberately, respectfully, and sensitively. The Royal B.C. Museum’s website has put a call out on its website for objects related to the pandemic, but they are holding off on formally accessioning any material at this time. This is a general cautiousness to ensure that they are acting appropriately and ethically, rather than making rash decisions.

Museums currently find themselves in something of a catch-22. If a museum chooses that they must undertake rapid response collecting at this time, they will be able to acquire a large amount of valuable material, but there is a possibility that the museum could take advantage of a bad situation, and may be treating donors unethically, be it unwittingly or not. However, if a museum decides to wait, ensuring that they are respectful and deliberate, there is the possibility that much of the material history of the pandemic may be lost forever. Joanne Orr of the Royal B.C. Museum expresses this concern, 

“Often in an emergency situation, things are thrown away, so a lot of things will be discarded at the end of this and we want to make sure we can capture examples of that.” 

Pandemic essentials, such as facemasks, are quickly being added to museum collections. (Source).

Museums are now faced with the difficult choice of collecting material but perhaps making best-practice mistakes, whereas on the other hand, if they decide to be cautious, there is a chance that they will never be able to collect material because it will already be gone. Museums are tasked with the difficult demand of practicing rapid response collecting, but balancing it with due diligence and ethical collecting practices.

Thank you to Chloé Houde for her assistance with this article.

FRAMING THE CONTEXT OF COLLECTIONS AT THE NMAAHC

Collections Corner | Martin Bierens

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After I have graduated from the MMSt program my goal is to be hired as a collection manager. I assume that I will find myself in two possible situations. First, I find myself at a well-established museum with a larger collection, that is well documented and it will now be my job to continue this excellent care. Or perhaps I am hired by a small institution that is in desperate need of somebody to come in and document their collection which has not been housed or organized efficiently in the past. What I would never imagine is coming to a museum with not a single object, and then being asked to amass a complete collection in little more than a decade.

Lately, I have been reading A Fool’s Errand: Creating the National Museum of African American History and Culture in the Age of Bush, Obama, and Trump, a new book by Lonnie Bunch, Secretary of the Smithsonian and former director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture. During the development of the new NMAAHC, which opened in 2016, Bunch was in charge of the exact task I have described above. Bunch and his small team of curatorial staff and collections managers had to travel the United States to establish a brand new museum collection — from scratch.

Trumpet owned by jazz musician Louis Armstrong, part of the NMAAHC collection. (Source)

I could tell the story of how Bunch went about finding objects to collect, all the interesting people he met on this mission, and the collection’s lasting impact on the Smithsonian. All of these stories are fascinating, but I guarantee that in his book Bunch tells these stories much better than I could. Rather, I would like to ponder the differences between a “new” collection and an “old” collection, and the implications of each.

Museums are constantly trying to innovate and stay relevant in the twenty-first century, and many are doing an excellent job engaging with their communities, but there are still many issues. Perhaps an origin of these contemporary issues is that collections reflect radically different methodologies and values from those today. Could part of the reason that these collections do not serve their communities be due to the age of the collection?

I would like to make it clear that the age of the objects within a collection is not the issue, but rather the context in which the object has been collected which can dictate the stories that museums convey centuries later. Many large institutions such as the ROM, the British Museum, and the Louvre were founded in the nineteenth or early twentieth century. As a result, the objects that were chosen to be included in these museum collections were influenced by this time period.

Some museums, like the Brooklyn Museum pictured here, have opted to promote transparency in the museum's practises with "open collections" visitors can explore as additions to traditional galleries. (Source)

It is not the fault of the objects, but many of these objects reflect the attitudes and beliefs of this time. For example, in ethnographic museums, the collection reflects a history of Western colonial exploitation and the theft of material culture from marginalized colonial populations. Art museums on the other hand may reflect gender, class, and racial prejudices of the past. Think of all the white-male artists hanging in galleries all over the world. Of course, the great tragedy of collecting practices of the past that were based on deeply held prejudices is to think of what we have lost because it was not considered worth preserving at the time.

Ole Worm's "Musei Wormiani Historia" the original colonial collecting practise, the Cabinet of Curiosity (Source)

In a sense, the new collection at the NMAAHC is free from the dubious collecting practices of the past. However, perhaps in one-hundred years, future museum professionals will look back at the material collected today and identify issues that we are now foolishly unable to recognize. This highlights the assumptions, and reminds us that collections are so much more than their objects, the act of collecting itself has long-lasting implications, reaching beyond the objects, and the lowly collection manager themselves.

EKOW NIMAKO: LEGO LEGEND

Walk of Fame | Martin Bierens

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When it comes to art there is no limit to the medium an artist can employ. This creativity is evident in the work of Toronto-based artist Ekow Nimako, who creates his art using LEGO bricks.

The inspiration for Nimako’s art came from a lifelong love of LEGO and the odd paradoxical freedom to craft rigid geometric shapes into flowing, lifelike structures. While Nimako is able to create extremely unique sculptures he articulates that LEGO’s structure informs and shapes his art.

Ekow Nimako with his artwork (Source). 

When viewing a Nimako sculpture the first aspect of the piece that one notices is the colour. Nearly all of Nimako’s sculptures are entirely black. This reflects his own identity as a Black man in Canada. Nimako says that LEGO is not typically perceived to be part of Black culture. It is only recently that LEGO has represented ethnic minorities in Minifigures. Before the 1980s, Minifigures were exclusively the iconic LEGO Yellow. Though LEGO’s goal was to create non-racial Minifigures, they soon became associated with Whiteness. The first representation of Black people as LEGO Minifigures was the introduction of an NBA Basketball playset, and the Star Wars character Lando Calrissian. This lack of representation was obvious to Nimako, and to address and combat the issue he creates distinctively Black art.

World on the Camels Back (Triptych) in Building Black: Civilizations at the Aga Khan Museum (Photo Courtesy of Martin Bierens)

Nimako’s art explores themes of Afrofuturism. Afrofuturism is a cultural aesthetic that draws influence from science fiction, history, and fantasy to represent the Black experience, particularly the African-American experience, and is a method for Black Westerners to connect with their African heritage. Many of Nimako’s sculptures come to mind when reading this definition. Some of which were featured in the exhibition Building Black: Civilizations at the Aga Khan Museum where Nimako created pieces that explored the history of Sub-Saharan Africa through a fantastical lens. Another notable piece is titled Cavalier Noir. This sculpture features a heroic Black rider atop of a large unicorn. When describing the work, Nimako likens the sculpture to bronze statues of White colonial conquerors. His wish is for the viewer to see a representation of a Black heroic figure, and for us to question “who are our heroes?”

Two young men viewing Cavalier Noir exhibited during Nuit Blanche 2018. (Source).

Using the platform Nimako has gained through his art, he is working towards affecting societal change. Nimako’s art is intrinsically linked with his race and he considers himself an identity-based artist. As such, he has spoken to school children about the importance of everybody’s identity. Nimako also expresses the immense emotion he experiences when witnessing Black children seeing themselves represented in art. Along with his work in schools, Nimako also recently spoke about the murders of George Floyd, Regis Korchinski-Paquet, and Ashanti Carmon in an Instagram post. In this post, Nimako also speaks to the racism he himself experienced growing up in London, Ontario, and how that has influenced the artwork he creates as an adult.

The exhibition, Building Black: AMORPHIA, at The Power Plant, recently closed in June, but Nimako frequently has solo exhibitions around the GTA so make sure to keep an eye out for your next opportunity to view his work in person.

VIOLA DESMOND: NOTEWORTHY CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVIST

Walk of Fame | Martin Bierens

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In light of worldwide protests against racism and police brutality in response to the murder of George Floyd by four Minneapolis Police Department officers, I, along with many of us in the MMSt community have been educating myself on racial inequality/violence both in and out of the museum community. As part of my personal goal to become better informed on this issue, I have decided to examine the life of historical Canadian civil rights activist Viola Desmond. 

Canadian $10 Bank Note Featuring Viola Desmond, released 2018. Source.

Viola Desmond is perhaps the most recognizable face of the civil rights movement in Canada. You only need to open your wallet and look at a ten-dollar bill to see her. In 2018 Desmond replaced Canada’s first Prime Minister and architect of the Residential School system, John A. MacDonald to become the first solo woman featured on a Canadian banknote. Desmond features prominently on the front of the bill with a map of the historic North End of Halifax, where Desmond’s business was located. The backside of the bill features the Canadian Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg. The museum was selected for the bill because it was the first museum dedicated to focusing on human rights and equality. (The decision to include the CMHR was prior to the reports of racism and discrimination, experienced by workers of CMHR by management, and the #CMHRStopLying campaign established by Thiané Diop.)

Before Viola Desmond was featured on the ten-dollar bill, she lived a successful, yet tragic life. Born in Halifax in 1914, Viola was one of ten children of James and Gwendolin Davis. Her father James was Black, and her mother Gwendolin was White, at a time when it violated social norms. As a child, Viola quickly realized her aspiration to open a beauty salon, she noticed that there was a lack of beauty products for Black women. Unfortunately, due to her race Desmond was rejected from beauty schools in Nova Scotia, forcing her to train in Montreal and New York City. Returning to Nova Scotia, Desmond opened her own beauty salon and school which focused on Black women, The Desmond School of Beauty Culture. She opened her school so that other Black women would not have to travel from home as she had to receive proper training. Along with the salon and school, Desmond also established a line of beauty products, Vi’s Beauty Products.

Face Power from Vi's Beauty Products. Source.

Desmond had established herself as a successful entrepreneur in Halifax and was growing her business across Nova Scotia when she was arrested in Sydney on November 8, 1946. Desmond’s car had broken down earlier that day forcing her to spend the night in Sydney. She decided to pass the time by viewing a movie at the Roseland Film Theatre. Desmond bought a ticket wishing to seat herself on the floor section of the theatre, to which a theatre employee said, “I can’t sell downstairs tickets to you people.” There were two sections of the theatre, the floor, and the balcony. Though there were no formal laws or any signage in the theatre, it was understood that the theatre was segregated, with White patrons allowed on the floor and Black patrons forced to view from the balcony. This method of racial segregation appears to be uniquely Canadian, according to Former Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia and Black woman, Mayann Francis.

“The racism in the United States was truly in your face. In Canada, the racism was very polite – sort of undercover.”

Desmond selected a seat on the floor, and was quickly approached by a theatre worker who attempted to force her to change seats, she refused because she was nearsighted and had a better view on the floor. The police were called and forcibly removed Desmond from the theatre, injuring her hip.

Roseland Film Theatre, Sydney, Nova Scotia During Period of Segregation. White People on Main Floor and Black People on Balcony. Source.

Desmond was held in jail overnight, where she was not informed of her rights to a lawyer or bail. Because there was not a formal law enforcing racial segregation, the court charged her with tax evasion. Because the ticket-seller sold Desmond a balcony seat, she did not pay the full tax for a floor seat. The amount of tax Desmond evaded was one cent. Desmond was forced to pay a twenty-dollar fine (equivalent to $300 today), for a one-cent violation. This charge is emblematic of the covert racism in Canada, while the official charge was not related to her race, it is obvious that the charge came as a result of racial discrimination.

Desmond, with the help of the Nova Scotia Association for the Advancement of Coloured People, hired a lawyer and filed a lawsuit against the Roseland Film Theatre, despite resistance from her husband. However, due to the covert nature of Desmond’s charge, the official language of the case focused entirely on tax evasion with no reference to Desmond’s race, and the lawsuit was unsuccessful.

After the trial, Desmond closed her business, and her marriage fell apart. Eventually, she would leave Halifax and settle in New York, where she would die from gastrointestinal bleeding in 1965. Before her experience at the theatre, Desmond was a woman full of life and optimism. After that day it seems that this radiant energy was forcibly drained from her.

Former Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia Mayann Francis (Left) and Viola Desmond's Sister Wanda Robson (Right) at Ceremony of Viola Desmond's Legal Pardon in 2010. Source.

The actions of Viola Desmond helped to spark the modern civil rights movement in Canada. In 2010, Mayann Francis granted a posthumous pardon to Desmond. The pardon recognizes the error of the charge, deeming Desmond innocent of any crime. Francis at the time remarked, 

“Here I am, 64 years later – a Black woman giving freedom to another Black woman.”

If you would like to learn more about Viola Desmond, she is featured in an exhibition at the CMHR, The Bank of Canada Museum, The Bank of Canada Webpage, a Heritage Minute, and the Nova Scotia Museum.

FRANK GEHRY: UNIQUE TO SAY THE LEAST

Walk of Fame | Martin Bierens

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I find that perhaps one of the most overlooked aspects of a visitor’s experience to the museum is the building itself. People may go to the Louvre to see the Mona Lisa, or the British Museum to see the Rosetta Stone, but are they not also there to be in the space itself? After all, would the Louvre be the same without I. M. Pei’s Pyramid or the grand columns of the British Museum?

In a round-about way, Toronto actually has had a massive influence on museum architecture of the last half-century. Toronto is the birthplace of world-famous architect Frank Gehry, granted he now lives and works in California (but hey, so does Neil Young and we still claim him).

Frank Gehry (Source)

Frank Gehry was born Frank Owen Goldberg in 1929. He spent his childhood in the city and even as a child he showed a propensity for architecture. Young Gehry would use everyday material such as chain-link fencing, plywood, and corrugated steel to make small structures at his grandfather’s hardware store. Gehry’s use of steel is an aspect of his work that has persisted and has become one of the defining characteristics of his work.

It is somewhat difficult to put into words Gehry’s architectural style, his work has long been touted to defy categorization. Personally, as someone who has no academic background in architecture the best way, I would describe Gehry’s buildings as melting, flowing, futuristic, behemoth, spaceship-like structures. Once you become familiar with Gehry’s work it is very easy to identify that it could only be made by one man.

Guggenheim Bilbao (Source)

Some of his most prominent buildings are museums. He designed the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, arguably his most famous structure along with the Walt Disney Concert Hall. Other museums include the Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris, France, the Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein, Germany, the Museum of Pop Culture in Seattle, the Biomuseo in Panama City, Panama, the Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum in Minneapolis, the MARTa Herford Museum in Herford, Germany, and the upcoming Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates.

AGO, Galleria Italia (Source)

Those of us in Toronto are most familiar with his large-scale redesign of the Art Gallery of Ontario. The redesign of the AGO is actually not typical of Gehry’s work. Rather than his typical steel structures, the AGO features mostly laminated wood and glass as its main architectural components. The only typical Gehry-esque feature is the exterior staircase on the south side of the building. The atypical design is in part a result of the AGO’s goal, the museum did not want to construct a new building, rather expand on an existing building that had previously been expanded on six times since the 1920s. Gehry had the difficult task of combining a patchwork of structures into a cohesive whole.

This was achieved through a few additions to the building. The most prominent is the new façade of the building, the 200-metre Galleria Italia along Dundas Street. Other notable areas are the staircase in the Walker Court and the entrance along Dundas. Gehry moved the entrance to this location in order to help with the symmetry of the building, this area also features the unique wheelchair ramp from street level toward the ticket area.

Over his career Gehry’s work has generally received much critical acclaim, the AGO was no different. The Toronto Star called the redesign, “the easiest, most effortless and relaxed architectural masterpiece this city has seen,” while The New York Times' architecture critic, Nicolai Ouroussoff, wrote of the AGO as, “Rather than a tumultuous creation, this may be one of Mr. Gehry's most gentle and self-possessed designs. It is not a perfect building, yet its billowing glass façade, which evokes a crystal ship drifting through the city, is a masterly example of how to breathe life into a staid old structure.”

Rendering of Guggenheim Abu Dhabi (Source)

Even though Gehry is now 91 years old, he is still involved in his practice at Gehry Partners LLP. Though due to his age it is likely that the planned Guggenheim Abu Dhabi may be his final museum. If this is the case, the scale and grandiosity of the structure will be a fitting end to an illustrious career.

FREDERICK BANTING: MEDICAL INNOVATOR, AMATEUR ARTIST

Walk Of Fame | Martin Bierens

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Writing this article in March 2020, there is one thing on my mind, and I would wager a bet that it is the same thing that is on everybody’s mind at the moment. It is easy for us to get bogged down in the negatives of the situation, but it is important to remember that this time will pass. For this reason, I have decided to dedicate the final Musings article of my first year to the man who solved one of the biggest medical issues of his time, Canadian medical scientist, and co-discoverer of insulin Frederick Banting.

Dr. Frederick Banting (I guess they hadn't learned smoking was bad yet) Source.

It is extremely hard to overstate the need for insulin. The care was inhumane, starving patients was the typical treatment, known by a more pleasant, and fooling name, dietary restriction. I do not want to get into the science of diabetes, and the pain and suffering it caused. Rather, I think it is more important to humanize what these patients went through as the result of, at the time essentially an untreatable illness. I implore you to listen to a short ten-minute episode of the podcast, The Memory Palace and the story of “Elizabeth,” after which you will understand what this drug means to the people who need it.

Banting first became interested in diabetes in 1920 as a medical student at the University of Western Ontario. Banting read the work of other doctors who had discovered that insulin production and diabetes were related to the pancreas. After extensive, and successful research on animals with fellow co-discoverer Charles Best, in spring 1922, Banting established a private practice in Toronto to treat patients. Banting’s breakthrough earned him, and his fellow researchers, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, in 1923.

The Banting House Museum in London, Ontario. Source.

Unsurprisingly, there are multiple museums dedicated to the life of Frederick Banting and the discovery of insulin. The Banting House Museum is located in his former home in London, Ontario where he lived while working towards his discovery. On the museum's website, they have an amazing section called, "Dear Dr. Banting," an open forum in which people can express their gratitude to him. The page is both inspiring, emotional, and overwhelming all at the same time. The house was declared a National Historic Site of Canada in 1997. The Banting Interpretation Centre located in Musgrave Harbour, Newfoundland, is the other museum dedicated to Banting and focuses on the plane crash that took his life in 1941.

Dr. Frederick Banting (right) and A.Y. Jackson (left) on their sketching expedition along the St. Lawrence River. Source.

What I did not expect of Frederick Banting is that he was actually a prolific amateur artist, with ties to members of the Group of Seven. Banting developed a keen interest in painting starting in 1921, and soon became close friends with A.Y. Jackson and Lawren Harris. Much like Jackson and Harris, Banting had an interest in depicting Canadian landscapes, and even joined Jackson and Harris on sketching trips, joining Jackson on a trip along the St. Lawrence River into Quebec, and Harris on a trip to the Northwest Territories.

Banting was arguably the best-known amateur painter in the Canadian art-scene by the time of his death in 1941. His work is obviously influenced by the work of Jackson, and Harris. Banting himself actually had an influence on Lawren Harris, the former director of Collections and Research at the AGO, Dennis Reid, said that Banting’s art was certainly, “part of the Jackson story.”

One of Banting's paintings. Source.

Many years after his death, Frederick Banting was voted as the fourth greatest Canadian in 2004, as part of a CBC program, The Greatest Canadian. The only people to top Banting were Tommy Douglas, Terry Fox, and Pierre Trudeau.

Ninety-seven years ago Banting discovered insulin and was rightfully celebrated for the gift he gave humanity. Hopefully, we will soon have someone was can celebrate in the same way we celebrated Banting for their discovery of a cure. It would be amazing to write a Musings article in the future telling you all about the museum that has been set up for this, as of yet, unknown hero. But until then, we can continue to celebrate the medical contributions and art of Frederick Banting.

For more information on Frederick Banting, check out former Musings contributor Kathryn Methot's article Sir Frederick Banting: Doctor, Nobel Laureate, Painter.

MUSTARD MAN: BARRY LEVENSON

Walk Of Fame | Martin Bierens

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As the semester goes on and we become overwhelmed with assignments, many of us are stressed and we are all taking our work very seriously. Sometimes, it is good to take a break and remember how much fun museums are! For this reason, I have chosen to give Barry Levenson a star on the Walk of Fame.

Barry Levenson Curator of the National Mustard Museum. (Source)

To be clear, Barry Levenson has not always been a museum professional; for many years he was a very successful lawyer until he found his true calling. On October 28, 1986, Barry Levenson was in mourning. His Boston Red Sox had just lost the World Series. Barry found himself walking through a 24-hour supermarket in Madison, Wisconsin feeling lost, with tears running down his face. Eventually, he stood in front of the mustard section when he heard the mustard proclaim, “If you collect us, they will come.”

Barry then began, what would eventually become his life’s work, though he did decide to keep his day job as a lawyer for five more years. The highlight of his law career came in 1991 when Barry argued a case in the Supreme Court. Before the case began he found a small jar of mustard left on an empty room service cart in his hotel, he decided to take it. Barry would argue his case and eventually win with this jar of mustard in his pocket. This, along with his moment in the grocery store, sealed his fate. Barry committed himself full time to collecting mustard.

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Anyone who can guess how many mustards we carry gets a free visit to the museum...oh but isn’t it always-

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In 1992 the Mustard Museum opened to the public in Mount Horeb, Wisconsin. Due to the success of the museum, and the ever-expanding collection in 2009 the museum moved to Middleton, Wisconsin and changed its name to the National Mustard Museum. If you ever find yourself in Middleton the museum is open from 10:00 am – 5:00 pm daily.

The tale of Barry Levenson is a tale of passion. Listening to Barry speak about mustard and the museum, you can tell how much he loves his job. In 1999 Barry was even featured on The Oprah Winfrey Show, during his interview he lets Oprah and the audience try a few different kinds of mustard. To me, the most intriguing mustard would have to be the raspberry honey mustard, Oprah’s favourite was the walnut mustard.



Oprah even checked in on Barry in 2016 on her Where Are They Now program. During the short clip, Barry leaves viewers with some inspiring words about following your dreams and turning your passions into reality.

“Now if you have an interest which seems to overwhelm you, it can become a passion. Act on it. Don’t wait. Don’t look back at your life and wonder what would have happened if I had started a museum about mustard?”

Barry’s story shows the joy that museums can bring, the reward of taking risks, and most importantly listening to your heart. Or in Barry’s case, listening to the mustard.

ALEX JANVIER: INDIGENOUS ICON

Walk of Fame | Martin Bierens

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Lately, I have started to feel homesick. These nostalgic yearnings for home led me to the topic of my first article, and the revival of the Walk of Fame column. I figured I would take a look at the life and work of a personal favourite of mine, prolific Indigenous and Albertan artist Alex Janvier. Before I dive into the article, I think it is important that I acknowledge that I am not Indigenous, and am an outsider in this community, however as an outsider I believe that it is important to celebrate the contributions of Indigenous people to Canadian history.

Alex Janvier: Indigenous Artist and Alberta Source

Janvier, born in 1935 on the Treaty 6 territory of the Le Goff Reserve, Cold Lake First Nations in Northern Alberta. He is of Dene Suline and Saulteaux descent. When Janvier was eight years old he was sent to Blue Quills Indian Residential School near St. Paul, Alberta. Perhaps this next statement is obvious, but Janvier’s time at Blue Quills was a dark period in his life. During and interview with Ottawa Morning host Hallie Cotnam in 2017, Janvier spoke frankly about his time there, “I was in fear. I became scared of everything, because I didn’t understand what was happening to me. They stripped you completely threw you in a public shower, and they cut your hair bald.”

Despite the horror that Janvier experienced at Blue Quills, this led him to the discovery of his artistic talent. He was able to use it as a form of escapism from the realities of the Residential School system.

“I found a certain time of the week, you could escape from the whole outlay of controls. And for about three hours, you’re in your own world, and that’s when I began to discover my ability to work on paper and the beautiful colours – all kinds of colours.”

After leaving Blue Quills, Janvier wished to the Ontario College of Art and Design in Toronto in order to pursue his art. His plan was quickly dashed by an Indian agent who refused to allow him to travel to Ontario. Thus, Janvier enrolled in the Alberta College of Art and Design (ACAD) in Calgary.

Janvier at work. Source

Janvier began to make a name for himself in the Indigenous art community. This position was bolstered when Janvier was commissioned by the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs for eighty paintings to be included in the Canada Pavilion at Expo 67. Here he helped bring together other Indigenous artists to form the “Indian Group of Seven.”

Recently, a defining moment of Janvier’s career came in 2015, when the National Gallery of Canada opened a retrospective exhibition tracing the entirety of his career, Alex Janvier: Modern Indigenous Master. This exhibition traveled to multiple institutions across Canada, including the Glenbow Museum in Calgary in 2018, were I was able to see it and begin my love affair with his work.

One of the central pieces to Janvier’s exhibition at the Glenbow was a piece entitled Lubicon, which he created in 1988 as a response to the Lubicon Cree’s protests, of the Glenbow Museum’s exhibition The Spirit Sings (1988). There is significance in the fact that this piece was exhibited at the Glenbow, it can be viewed as symbolic victory, and a representation of the path of change museums have taken in the last 30 years.

In a sense the narrative of Lubicon can be seen as a metaphor for Janvier’s career. At the beginning of Janvier’s career he constantly had to fight for his right to exist as an artist. However, Janvier has survived these difficulties and become one of the most influential Indigenous artists in Canada, and worldwide.

Alex Janvier currently runs the Janvier Gallery with the help of his family in Cold Lake, Alberta.

Tsą tsą ke k’e (Iron Foot Place) in Rogers Place, Edmonton Alberta. Source

Before I leave you, I just want to tell you all about my personal favourite artwork of Alex Janvier’s is a public art installation in the new Rogers Place arena in Edmonton, the home of the Edmonton Oilers. The work, titled Tsą tsą ke k’e (Iron Foot Place) is a massive 45-foot diameter circular mosaic that welcomes visitors into the arena.

Next time you find yourself in a gallery be sure to keep an eye out for his work, you will be able to tell by looking for his iconic flowing lines, patterns, and vibrant colours.