Village News

This past week I had the privilege of attending the Association of Manitoba Museums’ (AMM) annual conference. As Mennonite Heritage Village’s executive director, it is an invaluable time for me to learn from my peers and hear from them about the innovations they are working on. It is good to keep developing. Sometimes we find that an idea that is good on paper is not good in real-life. Or an idea that worked for one place, might not work for another place. At the conference there was an emphasis on humility that I greatly appreciated. It is better to try something, fail, learn from it, then not change anything.

The following is a write-up from the AMM’s website:

There are almost 200 museums in Manitoba; over 40 in the City of Winnipeg alone! These include art galleries, community museums, cultural centres, heritage centres, historical societies, historic buildings, sites and parks, zoos, natural history and science museums, and nature centres. These museums are found in every region of the province and their collections range from art and history to science and nature, from sports and leisure to transportation and industry.

There are museums that focus on Indigenous people and European immigration, on pioneer settlement and urban sprawl, on agriculture, fishing, mining and forestry. There are museums that focus on our natural habitat and others that focus on our manufactured or built heritage. They deal with issues such as land claims and residential schools, forced migration and immigration. They deal with plants, animals, minerals and people.

Manitoba museums are part of our education system – providing on-site tours and in-house educational opportunities to thousands of school children annually.

Manitoba museums are a keystone of our tourist industry. They initiate tourist visits to our province, and visitation to museums encourages visitors to stay, helping to increase local spending.

Manitoba museums contribute to the workforce. They employ hundreds of people full time, part-time and seasonally. Manitoba museums are supported by thousands of local volunteers who give of themselves to preserve, protect and share Manitoba’s diverse heritage.

Manitoba museums provide a picture of our past, a forum for today’s issues, and a foundation for our future. We are proud to share our history and our culture with students, visitors and locals alike.

At the conclusion of the AMM conference, senator Patricia Bovey gave a stirring speech. She talked about how museums help us know how to navigate in society, to profoundly know that to err is human and to keep learning. “Families go to museums together; they don’t go to schools together,” she said. Museums are a great opportunity for parents and grand-parents to be teacher for a day and engage more deeply with their children. I encourage you to make it a goal to visit one Manitoba museum a month. With almost 200 museums available that will take you 16 years (see the full list on AMM’s website), so you better start this month! Hope to see you at Mennonite Heritage Village soon.