Download the Autumn 2009 Newsletter.
Recognition for Museum Volunteers
All Canadian museums, galleries and heritage sites rely on their volunteers — be it their Board members, donors, or the many individuals who give tours, raise funds, cut the grass and bring added value to the work of the museum. Volunteers everywhere help to provide a bridge to the community.
This year, the Canadian Museums Association (CMA) and the CFFM have put into place a new, joint award that recognizes outstanding volunteers and volunteer groups across the country. This award is available to all members of CMA and CFFM. You will find a description of the award and a printable nomination form on our web site at www.cffm-fcam.ca.
A jury of museum volunteers and professionals will select the award winner from among nominations received. Members of the jury are:
- Michel V. Cheff began his career at the National Gallery of Canada and worked at the Musée du Québec and at the Winnipeg Art Gallery before coming to the Canadian Museum of Civilization.
- Susan Rome, has been Program Coordinator for Schools and Youth at the Vancouver Art Gallery for the past 20 years. Susan works with docents and school volunteers and oversees an internship program for teens.
- Margot Magee Sackett, director of the Ross Memorial Museum in St. Andrews. Margot is a member of the CFFM Advisory Council.
- Doris M. Smith is the editor of au courant. She was President of the Friends of the National Gallery of Canada and the Founding President of the Canadian Friends of the Hermitage.
- Yvonne Zacios is the immediate Past President of the Association des bénévoles du Musée des Beaux-Arts de Montréal and now its Treasurer.
The deadline for nominations is November 15th. The recipient of the first Museum Volunteer Award will receive his or her award certificate at the next CMA national conference held in St. John’s in May, 2010.
If you agree that the work done by museum volunteers is important, do promote this special Award by encouraging your museum or gallery to nominate an outstanding volunteer or team of volunteers.
ICOM CANADA
To: Peter Homulos
Subject: Re: ICOM & CFFM
I am pleased to welcome CFFM as institutional member of ICOM Canada. ICOM Canada is the national committee of ICOM. Although one of the benefits of ICOM is the ICOM card which gives access to museums in 139 countries ICOM does much more. It is the international organisation of museums and museum professionals which is committed to the conservation, continuation and communication to society of the world’s natural and cultural heritage, present and future, tangible and intangible. It carries out part of UNESCO’s programme for museums. To find out more about ICOM, I encourage you to go to the web site at http://icom.museum.
Sylvie Morel, President, ICOM Canada
Throughout the summer, CFFM has been working and updating its website. The redesigned website is now up and running and can be visited at http://www.cffm-fcam.ca/. The site features more content, is regularly updated and gives members the opportunity for direct feedback. Not to mention, it is far more visually stimulating than its precursor! We expect it to be a lively and informative site where museum volunteers and supporters can find the information they need.
The new website is blog-friendly and much more interactive, as CFFM members and supporters are encouraged to leave comments and contribute to online discussions and debates on relevant topics. Also, part of the growing and changing information available on the site will consist of articles dealing with museum-related topics – such as fund- raising, relationships between volunteers and paid staff, management of meetings, board development, volunteer recruitment, training, et cetera – posted by our members and supporters. We invite you to contribute to the body of material available on the web by submitting an article or essay, or referring us to a book that you feel should be included. We are also prepared to include links to interesting sites and resources, as well as post individual articles. If you wish to contribute some material, please contact us at cffm@museums.ca write to the Editor at aucourant@museums.ca.
We would like to thank Nick Frenette from the Canadian Heritage Information Network (CHIN) for his invaluable help and expertise in website building. It was most appreciated!
Ariane Belisle
Development Officer for CFFM
WHAT MAKES ROMtravel SPECIAL?
The Travel Section, as marvellous example of museum outreach organized by volunteers, is composed of three sections: ROMwalk which ―walks the streets of Toronto‖ pointing out architectural detail and relating anecdotes that tell Toronto’s story; ROMbus which conducts a variety of day tours in or out of the city; and ROMtravel which offers international travel to exciting destinations.
For the purposes of this article, I will focus on ROMtravel. In 2009-2010, we offer the following destinations: Barcelona: Style Capital; Intriguing Indochina: Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam; Sicily: Journey Through the Ages; A Berlin Kaleidoscope, With Dresden and Leipzig; Arctic Expedition: Churchill, Manitoba; and Jordan/Israel: An Archaeological Adventure.
These varied and tempting destinations focusing on World Culture and/or Natural History reflect the dual mandate of the ROM.
Repeatedly, our travellers compliment us on the seamless nature of the arrangements, the camaraderie and the opportunity to learn.
What makes a ROM trip so special? The answer is simple and common to all successful endeavours, just plain hard work! A great deal of care is taken in choosing our destinations. We have a feasibility committee that contacts travel agents to keep up to date on the latest trends in the travel industry and then conducts independent research on the destination’s potential to attract ROM travellers. We look to see if there is a ROM connection? Once the destination is approved, equal care is taken in choosing the coordinator of the trip.
In planning the detailed itinerary and liaising with the chosen travel agency, the coordinator strives for a balanced and varied tour. We assure potential travellers that not all their time will be spent going from one museum to another and that they will have the opportunity to visit local markets, historical sites, hike or just explore on their own. Prior to departure, the coordinator sends out a variety of useful information relevant to that destination, including a reading/ movie list. Questions relating to health, climate, clothing requirements, currency, packing suggestions and so on are answered. Are there particular web sites that would be of interest? In addition to an orientation meeting, we try to arrange opportunities for the travellers to learn, meet and mingle before the trip. Following lectures, travellers to India dined in an Indian restaurant and those going to China shared a Chinese meal. The coordinator also writes a handbook for participants to bring on the trip which outlines the daily itinerary and provides additional background information.
During the trip, the coordinator will have arranged extra perks not available to the independent tourist. Greeted by museum curators, they will have the opportunity to ‘go behind the scenes’. Canadian government representatives are invited to meet our travellers and where possible, visits are arranged with local inhabitants. Unlike the typical commercial tour, we have the flexibility to cater to special interests. For example, if several of the travellers are teachers, the itinerary may include a visit to a local rural school. If someone is interested in classical Indian dance, the coordinator arranges a private performance to the delight of everyone.
What makes a ROM trip so special? Not only is it careful research and detailed planning but also constant vigilance to make certain that each of our participants is enjoying the best possible trip.
Ethel Kellen
Co-chair, ROMtravel
You will find ROMtravel on-line at www.rom.on.ca click on Quick Links, select ROMtravel.
Two Notable Events: News from Diane Dyer and Jean Griffiths of the Volunteer Committee of the Gardiner Museum (GVC)
What do you do when you are celebrating 25 years? Have a party! While the Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art in Toronto marked this special anniversary in May, we volunteers had our party late one afternoon in June……
The second great excitement of the year lies with the coming to Toronto of the National Docent Symposium which is being held for the very first time outside the United States. The morning of October 16, our Gardiner volunteers will welcome delegates from across North America
(See www.docents.net and click on “National Docent Symposium Council” for more information on this organization. Jean Griffiths is Director of the Council for Eastern Canada – Manitoba to Newfoundland.)
For the complete article News from the Gardiner, please go to our web site at www.cffm-cfam.ca.
THANK YOU, AGO!
CFFM owes a tremendous vote of thanks to the Art Gallery of Ontario. For over 30 years your organization has sustained us by ensuring that we always had adequate office space free of charge, as well as the use of your computer and telephone systems. Help and advice were readily available, whether from the technical support staff or the Volunteer and Marketing Departments. This made it possible for CFFM to continue its mandate to represent museum volunteers and friend’s groups throughout Canada. We look forward to keeping up contact with you from our new office in Ottawa and again thank you so very much for all you have done for us over these many years.
Suzie Stohn, Past CFFM Executive Director
Virtual Museum of Asian Canadian Cultural Heritage: Dream to Reality
Excerpts from an article by Dr. Kay Li
The dream of a space to highlight the unique cultural heritage and contributions of Asian Canadians became a reality in June 2009 with the official launch of the Virtual Museum of Asian Canadian Cultural Heritage (VMACCH) at York University. Senator Vivienne Poy, the Patron of Asian Heritage Month Canadian Foundation for Asian Culture (Central Ontario) Inc. And Honorary Chair of the Board of Advisors, Virtual Museum of Asian Canadian Cultural Heritage (VMACCH), announced the VMACCH literally with a bang, beating on a Japanese Taiko Drum…..
Partnership between Volunteers and Museums
VMACCH is spearheaded by the Toronto voluntary organization Asian Heritage Month — Canadian Foundation for Asian Culture (Central Ontario) Inc., which provides opportunities for
Asian Canadians to share their heritage and to promote a better understanding of Asian heritage by focusing annually on the month of May, designated as Asian Heritage Month.
The virtual museum is a prime example of how volunteers can team up with museums not only to create new online teaching resources for teachers and students in schools, but also make museum exhibits accessible to the general public free of charge in Canada, and introduce Asia-Canadian cultural heritage to people all over the world. …..
The project is made possible by partnerships with museums: the Bata Shoe Museum and theGardiner Museum. …..
… and with the support of the Department of Canadian Heritage through the Canadian Culture Online Strategy. …
VMACCH not only allows for the preservation and online showcasing of one of Canada’s most culturally diverse communities, but it also provides a meeting place for Asian-Canadians and other Canadians to come together and share in cultural experiences. By creating an easy to navigate, accessible meeting place, it opens the barriers often encountered in cultural exchanges.
… ―The experiences of Asian Canadians nationwide are an important part of Canada’s past, present and future. We want this museum to reflect and celebrate these contributions, said the organizing committee of the project.
Submissions and queries can be e-mailed to vmacchyorku.ca. Visit www.vmacch.ca or www.asianheritagemonth.org for further details.
Read the complete article on our website at www.cffm-fcam.
Volunteers and Transformation AGO
Transformation presented a unique and unprecedented opportunity for the Art Gallery of Ontario to not only expand our building and collections, but also the ways in which we engage with each other; our staff, our volunteers, and our public.
Transformation AGO provided us with a rare and exceptional opportunity to reframe the work we do, hallmarked by new collections, new interpretive strategies, and a new orientation program for all staff and volunteers. We called it ―unleashing excellence – a branding of sorts, that encapsulates our creative, welcoming and respectful AGO.
Volunteers have always played a vital role at the Gallery, and through transformation we continued the tradition. Our volunteer recruitment office, staffed by a (volunteer!) team of ten, interviewed and placed over 450 volunteers in meaningful roles that both support our mission of bringing art and people together, enlivening many departments of the gallery, including: Education, Visitor Services, Prints and Drawings, the Grange, Membership and Art Rental (to name but a few). But we haven’t rested on our laurels. A successful model, where volunteers work side-by-side with staff, has created new areas for volunteerism. With acurrent volunteer compliment of over 700, our team, happily, continues to grow.
By Diana Goliss and Holly Procktor, Staff and Volunteer Resources
Be the First to see King Tut: The Golden King and the Great Pharaohs
November 24, 2009 to April 18, 2010
Get to the front of the line for tickets! Visit ago.net/tut and pre-register before September 10, 2009, to win two VIP tickets to see King Tut: The Golden King and The Great Pharaohs exhibit! For full rules and regulations, go to ago.net/tut.
Thirty years after the wonders of Tutankhamun had their celebrated Canadian debut at the Art Gallery of Ontario, an even bigger exhibition – King Tut: The Golden King and the Great Pharaohs – will make its sole Canadian appearance at the AGO.
With an almost entirely different selection of treasures and more than twice the number of artifacts as were displayed in the 1979 exhibition, King Tut: The Golden King and the Great Pharaohs features more than 100 remarkable pieces from the tomb of King Tut and ancient sites representing some of the most important rulers throughout 2,000 years of ancient Egyptian history. Derived from royal and private tombs and temples from 2600 B.C to 660 B.C., most of these artifacts had never before been seen in North America prior to this exhibition, which is currently breaking venue attendance records in Indianapolis.
Don’t miss out on this must see event!
CONFERENCES OF INTEREST
Ontario Museums Association
Oct. 21 – 23, 2009 in Hamilton
CFFM is participating by organizing a session, on October 22, from 2:15 to 3:30 pm to be chaired by Joan Goldfarb, CFFM Co-President, on ―Fostering a Close Relationship between your Museum, your Volunteers and the Community. In this session we will discuss the evolving relationships among museums, their volunteers and their communities. Through a facilitated interactive session with the audience we will explore then needs of each part of this multi-faceted partnership.
Canadian Museums Association
May 10 – 15, 2010 in St. John’s, Nfld. and Labrador
This year’s theme will be ―Evolving Boundaries: Linking People, Place and Meaning. CFFM is again sponsoring the Carol Sprachman Lecture.
