BC Museums Association Podcast

Welcome to MuseNews, the BCMA’s monthly museum sector news podcast. Each month we recap some of the latest news, happenings, and announcements from museums, galleries, and heritage organizations across BC and beyond. Join Ryan and Lorenda as we explore the latest MuseNews!

Featured news for June 2022:

• New museum curator takes fresh approach to Terrace history

In the early months of the global pandemic and amidst community lockdowns, the Council of the Haida Nation virtually gathered the community over a series of six webinars on food security. These webinars raised awareness of and highlighted emerging needs and conflicts relating to Haida Gwaii’s food system, and about food security and emergency preparedness for its residents. Over the course of the series it became clear there was a need for a coordinated food strategy and food policy toolbox. This kicked-off the development of the Haida Gwaii Food Strategy (HGFS), as administered by the Haida Gwaii Museum.

In this BCMA Podcast episode, hear from two Haida Gwaii residents engaged in these efforts to strengthen local, sustainable food systems and how the HGFS will, in part, serve as a public repository of local food system knowledge.

Music courtesy of Chad Crouch, The Sound Of Picture Production Library.

The GLAM International Series will help galleries, libraries, archives, and museum professionals in BC reflect on what it means to be an informed citizen with a global perspective. Through this podcast series, we will interview innovators, disrupters, and thinkers that help to frame the work we do in an international context.

Saving Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Online (SUCHO) is a group of more than 1,300 cultural heritage professionals working together to identify and archive at-risk sites, digital content, and data in Ukrainian cultural heritage institutions while the country is under attack.

In today’s episode, Ryan Hunt and Tanya Paholock of the BCMA are joined by Dr. Kimberley Martin to discuss SUCHO, the importance of online cultural heritage, and how you can help preserve Ukrainian heritage.

You can learn more about SUCHO and their work online at https://www.sucho.org/

We will have more episodes in this series coming this summer of 2022 - Stay tuned for more!

We are grateful for support from the BC Arts Council.

Welcome to MuseNews, the BCMA’s monthly museum sector news podcast. Each month we recap some of the latest news, happenings, and announcements from museums, galleries, and heritage organizations across BC and beyond. Join Ryan and Lorenda as we explore the latest MuseNews!

Featured news for May 2022:

• Iconic hall of UBC Museum of Anthropology now demolished for redevelopment | Urbanized 

In this week's episode of Queer(y)ing Museums, we chat with Angelic Goldsky. Angelic (they/t[he]m) is a Russian-Jewish queer trans community arts builder and poet. They are the co-founder and creative director of the Transgender Expressions Haven, a virtual center for arts expression and transgender creative genius celebration.

Angelic chats with us about queer and trans futures within museum and gallery spaces, the possibilities when queer and trans artists are supported, spiritual justice, long-term inclusion frameworks, and more.

You can visit the Transgender Expressions Haven here: https://thehaven.lgbt/ 

Mentioned in this podcast:

Alok Vaid-Menon: https://www.alokvmenon.com/about 

Writing New Worlds: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i27YaBjzYqY

Kimya Dawson, Utopian Futures: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKFiP4wo0S0 

Join Leia Patterson, the BCMA's Engagement Coordinator, and Matthew Lovegrove, Manager/Curator at the Sunshine Coast Museum and Archives for a chat about the Repatriation Call to Action, and the work being done at Sunshine Coast Museum!

Sign on to the Repatriation Call to Action through our Indigenous Resource Portal, and learn more about Sarah Jim's artwork on the BCMA website.

The BCMA is excited to announce a new partnership with UBC’s new Centre for Asian Canadian Research and Engagement (ACRE) to seek to improve heritage practices through work in anti-racism, decolonization, social justice and workplace equity. 

Join the BCMA and ACRE for a digital fireside chat with Dr. Henry Yu, history professor and Asian Canadian Community Engagement Initiative (ACCE) co-chair at UBC and Ryan Hunt, BCMA Executive Director exploring how museums can confront difficult truths about our past and present and work towards building a brighter future.

Thank you for joining us today. Find the full BC Museums Week schedule on our website.

Useful links:

• ACRE (Centre for Asian Canadian Research and Engagement): https://www.arts.ubc.ca/acre/

• National Forum on Anti-Asian Racism: https://events.ubc.ca/national-forum-on-anti-asian-racism/

Museums, galleries, science centres, and heritage organizations are amongst the most trusted institutions in our society. On the first day of BC Museums Week explore how cultural organizations are defying the expectation that they remain “neutral” and using their voice to make a difference.

ScienceUpFirst is a national initiative that works with a collective of independent scientists, researchers, health care experts and science communicators. They share the best available science in creative ways to stop the spread of misinformation. 

Join us for a conversation on how misinformation and disinformation are spread and how to address them. 

In this special episode of Queer(y)ing Museums, Tanya and Desirée chat with Andrew Kushnir (he/him) - a gay, Ukrainian Canadian playwright, actor, educator and activist living in Toronto/Tkaronto. 

Throughout this conversation, we weave through a variety of topics including, what is the "war within a war" happening in Ukraine right now for LGBTQIA+ community and how is the LGBTQIA+ movement intertwined in Ukraine's fight for sovereignty? Further, how can the museum, cultural and heritage sector support Ukraine and the LGBTQIA+ community at this critical time?

0:00- Intro/background to collective heritage loss in Ukraine

43:44- What is your vision for queer or trans futures? 

To donate to the We Support LGBTQ Ukraine Fund, visit: https://veritascharityservices.com/campaigns/we-support-lgbtq-ukraine-fund/ 

For the third episode of Queer(y)ing Museums, we were thrilled to have Carmel Tanaka, founder and Executive Director of JQT Vancouver, and Alysa Rutenberg, Archivist at the Jewish Museum & Archives of BC, join us to chat about the BC Jewish Queer and Trans Oral History Project.

In part two of this two-part episode, Carmel and Alysa discuss the impacts of COVID-19 on the Oral History Project, and on JQT's process of becoming a nonprofit.