Village News

New Museum Hours

  • Barry Dyck, Guest Author
  • Retired Executive Director, MHV

If we had a dollar for every time someone has asked a Mennonite Heritage Village (MHV) staff person, “So what are you doing now that the museum is closed?” we would have accumulated a significant donation by now. It’s true that we close our outdoor village and Livery Barn Restaurant (LBR) from October 1 through April 30. But our indoor museum actually continues to be open five days a week from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM during those months. Despite our efforts to publicize this fact each fall, we still regularly encounter this erroneous assumption that our museum is now closed for the winter.

As evidence to the contrary, MHV will again be hosting various events during the upcoming winter months. Our Christmas Market will be held on November 10 this year. Several additional events are being planned for early 2019 as well. Stay tuned to this column or our website at www.mhv.ca.

However, our readers should take note of a major CHANGE coming to MHV this fall. In previous years during the aforementioned off-season, our museum has been open to the public Monday through Friday, 9-5. However, by operating only during those specific weekday hours, we have been making ourselves somewhat unavailable to students and to people with regular weekday jobs. This is about to change!

Effective October of this year, we will be open to the public TUESDAY through SATURDAY during our off-season. (Closed Sunday and Monday.) With this change, students will now be able to come to the museum on Saturdays to do research on school projects. Shoppers who have weekday jobs will be able to visit Village Books and Gifts on Saturdays to shop (for Christmas or otherwise). Local individuals will have the opportunity to bring weekend guests to MHV on Saturdays to view our galleries, shop in our gift shop, and even walk the outdoor village streets if they care to (although buildings will not be open).

One of our ongoing objectives at MHV is to be relevant to life in this community. These new off-season hours of operation will make us more accessible to the public and hence increase our community engagement. With our specifically planned public events and increasing numbers of Christmas parties in our facilities, we will continue our quest to contribute positively to the quality of life in Southeastern Manitoba throughout every season.