Telling Manitoba's Stories for Generations

Experiencing Winnipeg in the 1920s in the Urban Gallery.

Boarding the Nonsuch, a favourite artifact with everyone.

Imagining the thundering hooves in the Orientation Gallery, formerly the Manitoba Museum of Man and Nature, Entrance. Frank Chalmers - July 11, 1970.

Learning by doing in the Science Gallery.

Seeing prehistoric Manitoba in the Ancient Seas exhibit.

We tell stories to understand who we are and how we got here.

Stories help us make sense of the world. They’re essential to how we relate to one another and our environment; how we teach and learn; how we innovate and progress as a society.

This is why the Manitoba Museum is so important to our province. The Museum has been telling Manitoba’s stories to Manitobans and visitors for generations. Indeed, parents often share stories with their kids about their own first encounter with the Museum’s bison diorama, or about their first breath-taking glimpse of the Nonsuch ship. The joy of discovery and learning endures. The pride for “our museum” is palpable. Our Museum informs us, as Manitobans, and tells our essential stories that bridge language, culture, ethnicity and age.

The Manitoba Museum has now embarked on a major gallery renewal project, entitled Bringing our Stories Forward, which includes a visionary investment from our community that will transform one of our province’s most vital cultural institutions.

Meet Our Committee

We have a vision for the future, and a plan to fulfill that vision...

Three Steps to a Renewed Experience

Bringing our Stories Forward is part of a longer-term, 3-step project for renewal that dovetails with our Vision to “shape Manitoba’s future by expanding knowledge, sharing stories and encouraging discovery.” Informed by what we learned through community consultation, our Capital Renewal Vision has been mapped out into 3 steps. Each step builds on its predecessor, raising the level of engagement and excitement. Each step generates revenue to help fund the next step and, just as important, keeps our doors open to the public throughout this transformation.

1

ALLOWAY HALL EXPANSION & RENEWAL PROJECT

Alloway Hall reopened on time and on budget in spring of 2017, during Canada’s 150th anniversary. The expansion doubled the space to 9,700 square feet. Alloway Hall’s more generous proportions enables us to host larger travelling exhibits that drive up attendance and increases revenue for programs and rentals. This $5.3 million project was fully funded by the generosity of the federal and provincial governments, and The Winnipeg Foundation.

2

BRINGING OUR STORIES FORWARD

Bringing Our Stories Forward Gallery Renewal Project will update 42% of our Museum Galleries and will have special emphasis on updating stories related to Indigenous peoples and new waves of immigration to Manitoba. It will see the addition of a new Winnipeg Gallery as well as the addition of interactive digital media and increased interactive exhibits to enhance the visitor experience and encourage new and repeat visitation. In June of 2018 the first of the galleries, the Nonsuch Gallery, reopened to great acclaim, and the Winnipeg Gallery is scheduled to open in fall of 2019. The Grasslands and Orientation Galleries will open in 2020, as the Manitoba Museum celebrates its 50th anniversary and the province of Manitoba celebrates 150.

3

THE SCIENCE CENTRE, COMMUNITY COMMONS…AND BEYOND

The Capital Renewal Vision concludes with the construction of a new, stand-alone Science Centre — advancing a culture of innovation and creativity!

The Vision includes the creation of a Community Commons, a reconstruction that orients the entrance towards Main Street. New education facilities will also be enhanced. Conservation labs will be installed, and additional collections storage space allocated.

Our stories are rooted in authentic objects for all to experience...

A Brief Tour…

The stories we tell at the Manitoba Museum build a rich narrative, layer upon layer. They generate mounting excitement and a hunger to experience more. When a great story is finished, the human impulse is to share it…and re-experience it.

Orientation Gallery

The Orientation Gallery welcomes you to Manitoba, a name derived from the Cree “where the spirit lives.” It offers a taste of what will come, touching on themes woven throughout...

Winnipeg Gallery

At the confluence of two rivers, Winnipeg has been a meeting place and settlement for thousands of years. As a magnet that has attracted waves of immigrants, along with their...

Grasslands Gallery

The prairies seem eternal, and yet the Grasslands Gallery suggests that immense changes have occurred in just 200 years – largely the result of increased human occupation. The majority of...

Nonsuch Gallery

Our signature Nonsuch ship, a 54-foot replica of a 17th-century ketch, retains pride of place as the climactic visitor experience. Housed in a purpose-built gallery, the Nonsuch instantly transports every...

Be part of our journey to a renewed experience at the Museum

The Manitoba Museum remains a cultural symbol of the province itself, attracting the dreamers, the seekers and the curious. We’re envisioning new ways to tell Manitoba’s stories with the help of those eager to invest in Manitoba Museum’s future.

Help us share Manitoba’s stories with the world!

To pledge a gift now and pay in installments over time, contact Heather Laser.

204-988-0656 or [email protected]

Donate

Help us share Manitoba’s stories with the world!

Thank You

The Manitoba Museum is grateful to its many partners and donors in this vital renewal project, including the Government of Canada, Government of Manitoba, the City of Winnipeg, The Winnipeg Foundation and many generous Manitobans.

Supporters

$1 MILLION +

Government of Canada
Government of Manitoba
The Paul Albrechtsen Foundation
The Winnipeg Foundation

$500,000 - $999,999

Canada Life
Hudson’s Bay Company History Foundation
Richardson Foundation
Arlene Wilson and Allan MacDonald

$250,000 - $499,999

The Asper Foundation
BMO Financial Group
James Cohen and Linda McGarva-Cohen
Johnston Group Inc.
Manitoba’s Credit Unions
Megill-Stephenson Company Limited
Power Corporation
RBC Foundation
Scotiabank
TD Bank Group

$100,000 - $249,999

Gail Asper and Michael Paterson
Burns Foundation
The Cardinal Foundation
The Chipman Family Foundation
City of Winnipeg
The Eaton Family Foundations
Doug Harvey and Jan Shute
MacDon Industries Ltd.
The Manitoba Museum Foundation
North West Company
The Pollard Family Foundation
Gerry and Barb Price
Qualico
Tannis M. Richardson and George T. Richardson*
H. Sanford and Deborah Riley
Arni Thorsteinson and Susan Glass
The Wawanesa Mutual Insurance Company
Friend of the Museum
Friend of the Museum

$25,000 - $99,999

CIBC
Jeoff Chipman
Dr. Ernest and Anastasia Cholakis, Cholakis Dental Group
The Honourable Gary Filmon and The Honourable Janice Filmon
Jessiman Foundation / Bison Transport
Edward and Stella Kennedy
Richard and Hillaine Kroft
Bill and Shirley Loewen
Manitoba Federation of Labour
Manitoba Teachers’ Society
Michael F. B. Nesbitt
The Parrish Family
Elizabeth Marr and Nick Slonosky
Jim and Leney Richardson
Terracon Development Ltd.

$10,000 - $24,999

Dick and Elaine Archer Family Fund
Craig & Ross
CWB National Leasing
Bryce and Nicki Douglas
Endowment Council of the Canadian First World War Internment Recognition Fund
The El Tassi Family
Daniel Friedman and Rob Dalgliesh
Bert and Lee Friesen Family Foundation
Merv and Lynda Gunter
Gregg J. and Mary Hanson
IATSE 856
Claudette Leclerc and Robert Kennedy
Nick Logan and Christine Skene
Manitoba Research Institute – Initiative of the Manitoba Chamber of Commerce
Aveeve and Sam McLaughlin
Penny and Charles McMillan
People Corporation
Shevchenko Foundation
Soubry Community Fund
Charlie and Dayna Spiring
Evelyn Stoddart Family Fund
Douglas and Deanna Tkach