We have received a great number of programming concepts around the 150th anniversary from members and directors, some of which we would like to share with you today.
These ideas can be grouped in two overarching approaches: projects of national scope, which are implemented on a collective basis, and projects that each museum and gallery would undertake on their own or in collaboration with others in their areas.
Partnership and collaboration are key factors in the success of any major event. In the case of the 150th anniversary, collaboration would take place not just between museums but also encompass partnerships with Crown corporations, private companies, organizations, and important events, such as Canada Day here in Ottawa and in London, England.
In terms of national projects, we would like to highlight five initiatives.
The first involves offering free admission to museums for a given period of time, as a "gift" to all Canadians. Museums already offer (or plan to offer) free entry on July 1st. In 2017, we propose extending this offer to cover the period from National Aboriginal Day on June 21st to July 1st, thereby including Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day. It should be noted that funding would be required to compensate museums for significant losses in revenue during a busy time of year.
The second involves creating a bilingual Canadian heritage passport that would encourage citizens to visit museums, galleries, and historic sites across the country. The passport would be stamped by each institution they visit. The passport program would be supported by a national promotional campaign and prizes for participating.
The third involves a bilingual national marketing campaign aimed at promoting various museum activities at the national level and raising public awareness of the importance and value of our history and culture.
The fourth involves creating major exhibitions. Our colleague mentioned an idea along these lines. This initiative could take the form of large-scale exhibitions at leading Canadian museums, travelling exhibitions crossing the country by train, for example, like the 1967 centennial train. We are also talking about virtual exhibitions devoted to presenting key images, archival materials, and artifacts from each museum as part of the 150th anniversary, or an audio-visual exhibition in partnership with CBC/Radio-Canada and other national media that would broadcast programming that focuses on the 150 artifacts and works that define our nation's history. These national exhibitions, whether physical or virtual, would also be bilingual.
With respect to the idea of a national recognition program, the first part would include creating a medal awarded in recognition of museum-related volunteer work, which would be presented to 150 volunteers across the country, in partnership with our colleagues from provincial and territorial associations.
The second part is aimed at creating a national award for museum of the year, art gallery of the year, community museum of the year, and so on, for which voting and promotion would be performed by the general public, as in the 2011 VoteFundy campaign to include the Bay of Fundy as one of the world's seven new wonders.
At the local and provincial level, some of the initiatives that have been mentioned by our members include: encouraging and helping museums to develop and present special exhibitions celebrating the history of their community with 150 objects, as well as opening their doors for "behind the scenes" visits, which the public always finds interesting; off-site activities, in which exhibitions or programs would be presented in locations such as hospitals, care facilities, schools, shopping malls, airports, tourist offices, and so on.
Finally, at a professional level, the 150th anniversary represents a good opportunity for the heritage sector to invest in its future. Investing in research and development, establishing special fellowships and professional exchanges, exploring innovations in cross-sector partnerships and national forums—all these efforts will help to build a museum of tomorrow and ensure the long-term sustainability of our cultural institutions.
There are many good ideas coming forward to showcase a rich heritage and culture in 2017 and throughout the many events leading up to it.
We thank you for your time and would enjoy discussing this further with you.