Village News

The Annual General Meeting and Conference of the Association of Manitoba Museums took place in Gimli October 3-5. Gimli, the home of the Iceland Heritage Museum, provided a warm Icelandic welcome to the delegates and guests, including a visit by a couple of Vikings in authentic costumes.

A reception on Thursday evening gave delegates the opportunity to socialize and to hear greetings and words of gratitude and encouragement from Flor Marcelino, Minister of Culture Heritage and Tourism, James Bezan, Member of Parliament for Selkirk-Interlake, and Lynn Greenberg, Mayor of Gimli.

On Friday and Saturday speakers addressed a variety of topics such as Heritage Fairs; Protection, Priorities and Practicalities of our collections; Self-guided Tours; The Museum Store; Mould – The Bad Side of Warm and Fuzzy; and others. The Keynote address was given by Colin Ferguson, Chief Executive Officer of Travel Manitoba. Colin talked about a new advertising campaign designed to rebrand Manitoba’s tourism industry.

The dinner on Friday evening included several awards ceremonies. Dr. Philippe Mailhot, Executive Director of Le Musée de Saint-Boniface Museum, received an Honorary Lifetime Membership. Nancy Anderson and Patricia Bovey were both recognized with the Award of Merit for their contributions to the museum industry.

Spending time with other museum staff periodically is useful and interesting. Many new ideas and practices come up in presentations or in conversations. Connections with other museum staff often prove useful down the road when an issue needs to be resolved. Sometimes it’s good to get out of the trees in order to view the forest from a distance.