1461 replies to this topic

[Mike K.]

Here’s the release:

The popular Old Town gallery will once again be part of the Royal BC Museum (RBCM) experience for visitors when it reopens on July 29, 2023.
Old Town is beloved by hundreds of thousands of visitors. I know people miss it, are passionate about it and want access to it, said Lana Popham, Minister of Tourism, Arts, Culture and Sport. We have heard you. The reopening of Old Town is exciting news for many who have fond memories of previous visits there, and for visitors who will experience it for the first time.
Visitors to Old Town will see favourite spaces such as the garage, train station, hotel, saloon, parlour, kitchen, print shop and Chinatown preserved as they were. Some spaces, such as the drapery shop, have been emptied to create opportunities for visitors to reimagine the storefront with a new perspective. The Majestic Theatre will not feature its Hollywood silent film rotation and, instead, will present historical footage showcasing the diversity of B.C.s voices and stories.
We look forward to welcoming visitors back into Old Town with this new approach, said Alicia Dubois, CEO, Royal BC Museum. Were committed to increasing inclusivity and accessibility to the museum through extensive engagement and co-creation of exhibits with communities, and inviting people back into this space allows further opportunities to do that.
Visitors to Old Town will now see new contextual panels throughout the gallery that provide background and historical reference. These panels will encourage critical thinking and ignite imagination, encouraging visitors to consider additional stories that could be shared.
The reopening of Old Town is the first phase of a multi-year project to transform RBCM. Each phase will be informed by public engagement that invites people and communities to consider how spaces like Old Town and the First Peoples Gallery can be more relevant, inclusive and engaging.
Several areas of the third floor will not be accessible to visitors, such as the Becoming BC Gallery that includes the ship, the gold mine, the farm and the cannery. The First Peoples Gallery is closed as the space is being used to host engagement sessions with Indigenous communities. The area that had the Century Hall and Our Living Languages exhibits will be used to host SUE: The T. rex Experience that will be open June 16, 2023.
Learn More:
More information about the Royal BC Museum: https://royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/

[Matt R.]

I’m looking forward to the combined fire hall/rbcm/low barrier housing/YMCA/crystal pool building! It’s gonna be epic!

[spanky123]

So it is going to take 3 months for them to get Old Town "re-imagined". I am sure that the tourism industry would have appreciated a little bit more effort.

[aastra]

What did somebody say earlier in this thread? Take things away, and then return them later in some restricted, altered, or impaired fashion? Because that's the modus operandi worldwide these days? This drama has followed the script line for line.

 

 

Visitors to Old Town will now see new contextual panels throughout the gallery that provide background and historical reference.

These panels will encourage critical thinking and ignite imagination, encouraging visitors to consider additional stories that could be shared.

 

Gotta beat people over the head with officially endorsed narratives and nonsense. There should be no hiding places. 24/7 messaging.

 

But wait a second... beating people over the head tends to quash critical thinking and extinguish imagination. That's what news and politics are all about.

 

Crikey, as if the original format didn't encourage critical thinking and ignite imagination in a huge way already...

 

[aastra]

 

So it is going to take 3 months for them to get Old Town "re-imagined". I am sure that the tourism industry would have appreciated a little bit more effort.

 

It's always rush rush with you. These are complicated tasks. They take time. These things must be drawn out because otherwise there wouldn't be a ton of angst and unfortunate consequences.

[aastra]

 

The Majestic Theatre will not feature its Hollywood silent film rotation and, instead, will present historical footage showcasing the diversity of B.C.s voices and stories.

 

When they first created the movie theatre exhibit it never occurred to them that they could leverage that screen space to push contemporary political messages and thus severely diminish the atmosphere of historical immersion. It never occurred to them because -- unlike us, today -- they weren't intelligent & compassionate people.

 

I know, who cares, right? What's the big deal? Maybe the presentations will be okay. But do you get my point? There was a reason why they were showing old silent movies on the old movie screen in the old movie theatre.

[Matt R.]

I think we’ve all seen enough shoe eating for a lifetime. Those laces don’t taste anything like spaghetti.

[Victoria Watcher]

The Royal B.C. Museum (RBCM) is set to reopen an exhibit later this summer that’s long been criticized for underrepresenting Indigenous Peoples and immigrant communities.

The Victoria museum’s Old Town gallery will reopen on July 29 as the province on Tuesday (May 9) announced few specifics on what has changed over the course of the year-and-a-half closure.

Old Town will have new contextual panels that will provide background and historical reference when it reopens, the province said. Those panels will “encourage critical thinking and ignite imagination, encouraging visitors to consider additional stories that could be shared.”

[aastra]

 

The Royal B.C. Museum (RBCM) is set to reopen an exhibit later this summer that’s long been criticized for underrepresenting Indigenous Peoples and immigrant communities.

 

Again, it's as if they're challenging people to detect the bias in the premises and the absurdity of it all. If the old town did not represent immigrant communities then exactly whose experience did it represent?

[Nparker]

The Royal B.C. Museum (RBCM) is set to reopen an exhibit later this summer that’s long been criticized for underrepresenting Indigenous Peoples and immigrant communities...

I know it seems like a LONG time, but the NDP only formed government 6 years ago.

[LJ]

 

The Royal B.C. Museum (RBCM) is set to reopen an exhibit later this summer that’s long been criticized for underrepresenting Indigenous Peoples and immigrant communities.

 

It will have a gaol, won't it?

[Victoria Watcher]

What about asbestos problem at museum?

 

The news about reopening Old Town at the Royal B.C. Museum, with the train station and other exhibits on the third floor, is awesome.

 

But wait … what about risk to the health and safety relating to visitors and staff at the museum?

 

Allow us to refer to a direct quote from an article published in the Times Colonist on May 14, 2022:

 

“It’s considered outdated, insufficiently accessible and filled with asbestos, and officials say it’s putting the collections and the people who visit and work there at risk.”

Sounds like politicians’ talk to justify the actions they were planning on taking. Hoodwinking the taxpayers.

 

But, who knows, maybe a miracle occurred and the asbestos problem has disappeared on its own and the seismic problem has miraculously corrected itself also.

 

 

Pete Talavs and D.L. MacLaren

 

Central Saanich

 

 

 

https://www.timescol...e-names-6996500

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 14 May 2023 - 06:09 AM.

[todd]

^ Long as you don’t disturb the asbestos it should be fine, all of my schools growing up in Victoria had asbestos it was clearly marked with warning stickers, it was everywhere. I saw at least a few leaks, but look at me.

[spanky123]

^ I think what has happened is that they started dismantling parts of the 3rd floor last year. I know of people who bought artifacts that were being sold off. 

[aastra]

The asbestos issue has always had that convenient double-personality, where it could be ultra-deadly serious one moment but irrelevant the next, depending on agendas and intentions.

 

 

...officials say it’s putting the collections and the people who visit and work there at risk.”

 

Oh yeah? Well, officials now say it's not putting the collections and the visitors and workers at risk, so there. Maybe we should be more diligent about accepting and believing what officials are saying?*

 

*What they're saying today, but not what they were saying yesterday. Remembering things from yesterday is terrorism.

[aastra]

The urgent dangers of the asbestos-filled museum are no different than the urgent dangers of the old bridge or the urgent dangers of the old firehall. Literally, people can be hysterical one moment but then forget all about it the next moment. Folks, this is politics. This is what it is, this is what it does. They yank your chain and insist you're in desperate danger, and then later they tell you they never yanked your chain.

[Victoria Watcher]

The urgent dangers of the old Boys and Girls club that 12 years later is still housing people.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 14 May 2023 - 11:30 AM.

[LJ]

Danbrook comes to mind.

[Vin]

The urgent dangers of the asbestos-filled museum are no different than the urgent dangers of the old bridge or the urgent dangers of the old firehall. Literally, people can be hysterical one moment but then forget all about it the next moment. Folks, this is politics. This is what it is, this is what it does. They yank your chain and insist you're in desperate danger, and then later they tell you they never yanked your chain.

 

That's what the former Vancouver administrators did to justify tearing down the functional Georgia viaducts. Lots of lame reasonings. I suppose they thought brain-washing the masses isn't that hard of a thing to achieve. 

[Victoria Watcher]

The CEO of the Royal BC Museum has resigned.

 

Alicia Dubois was originally appointed the top job in February of 2022, but on Friday afternoon, Leslie Brown, one of the chair members for the museum, informed CHEK News of Dubois’ departure.

 

The resignation comes just one year and four months after she was appointed to the position.

 

 

https://www.cheknews...esigns-1156772/