Keeping track of events at museums and related attractions in Metro Vancouver is a very time-consuming process for one person, and due to other commitments I have decided to retire the City Diorama.

The Georgia Straight Arts listings (click on the museums tab) will keep you up to date on some of the happenings around the region, and I hope that the museum community will eventually come up with its own way of publicizing the many wonderful exhibits, programs and other work going on around Metro Vancouver.

Again, thank you for reading and for your ongoing interest in our museums!

Don’t forget that museum memberships make wonderful gifts for the holidays, birthdays, and other special occasions.

• Visit the Vancouver Art Gallery on Sunday, November 16th between 12-5pm for SuperSunday, a special day recurring monthly that allows families to learn about art together through various hands-on art-based activities. Children ages 12 and under receive complimentary admission to the Vancouver Art Gallery when accompanied by a paid adult.

• The Vancouver Police Museum presents a Making Tracks program on Sunday, November 16th from 1-2pm at the Lynn Canyon Ecology Centre. Participants will learn how detectives use tracks and how to track forest animals. This program is free and suitable for children ages 5 and up. Pre-registration is required; please call 604-990-3755.

• The Jewish Genealogical Institute of BC continues its Trace Your Jewish Ancestry: Getting Started in Jewish Genealogy workshops at the Jewish Museum & Archives of British Columbia. The third workshop in the series takes place Sunday, November 16th from 1-3pm. The theme of this workshop is “Surfing the Net,” and will cover online genealogical resources, including JewishGen.org, yadvashem.org, ellisisland.org, ancestry.com, findmypast.com, newspaper searches (e.g. Jewish Chronicle), and census and passenger list searches. Click here to learn more about the other workshops in the series. The fee for each workshop is $15 per person. Contact the Jewish Museum & Archives of BC at 604-638-7288 to register.

• Master LEGO® brick builders from the Vancouver LEGO® Club return to the Surrey Museum this year with a LEGO® Winter Wonderland display, which begins Tuesday, November 18th and runs to December 19th.

• The Vancouver Art Gallery invites visitors to attend a talk by Judith Penner about AIDS and the power of grandmothers on Tuesday, November 18th at 7pm. Penner’s topic ties in to the VAG’s WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution exhibit because it sheds light on the lived contemporary feminist experience. This event is included with gallery admission.

• Fort Langley National Historic Site celebrates Douglas Day on Wednesday, November 19th. On this date in 1858, Governor James Douglas read a proclamation in the Big House declaring the territory a British Colony. Enjoy the BC150 theatre presentation, tours, family activities, and more between 10am-8:30pm. Admission to the historic site is free all day on Douglas Day. A special BC150 concert begins at 4:30pm featuring Kwantlen First Nations Drummers, the Langley Ukulele Ensemble, Métis Fiddlers and Jiggers, The Higgins and Jessie Farrell.

• Sneja Gunew, Professor of English and Women’s Studies at the University of British Columbia, will be giving a talk at the Vancouver Art Gallery on Thursday, November 20th at 7pm in connection with the WACK! exhibit. Gunew’s talk, “Translating the Personal: The Two Traceys (Emin and Moffatt),” will address the work of British artist Tracey Emin and Australian artist Tracey Moffatt. Click here for more information.

• Clothing historian Ivan Sayers will be speaking about “Floral Representation in European Fabrics, 1700-1790” at VanDusen Botanical Garden’s Floral Hall on Thursday, November 6th at 7:30pm. Sayers will explore the use of flowers in 18th century garments at a time when clothing embellishment was all the rage. Tickets are $15 per person and will be available at the door.

• During the month of November, Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden will be hosting five Vancouver-based artists who, drawing inspiration from the Garden, will apply their own artistic styles, histories and experiences onto traditional Chinese fans, which will then be on display in the exhibit Folding Cultures: Contemporary Art on Classical Chinese Fans. The exhibit will also include previous and current samples of each artist’s work so that visitors can observe the relationship between this work and what appears on the fans. The exhibit opening will be held Friday, November 7th from 5-7:30pm with all five artists in attendance: The Dark, Traviss Corry, Milko Amorth, Charisse Baker, and Phresha. The exhibit runs to November 30th.

Photo by yewenyi (Flickr)

• Earlier this year, the Royal BC Museum mounted Free Spirit: Stories of You, Me and BC, an exhibition of stories and artifacts in honour of British Columbia’s 150th anniversary. Saturday, November 8th is the last day to view the travelling version of this exhibit, the Free Spirit Conservation Tour, at St. George’s Anglican Hall in Fort Langley. The exhibit is being hosted by the Langley Centennial Museum and admission is free.

• An exhibit of German artist Kai Althoff’s work begins Saturday, November 8th at the Vancouver Art Gallery. Gallery Director Kathleen Bartels and guest curator Jennifer Volland will discuss Kai Althoff’s newest installation and their experiences working with the artist during a special talk on Sunday, November 9th at 2pm in the gallery. The Kai Althoff exhibit runs to February 15, 2009.

• The Japanese Canadian National Museum will be holding a free guided bird watching walk in connection with the museum’s Wild Birds exhibit on Saturday, November 8th at 10am at the Conservation Area at Maplewood Flats. For more information or to register please contact the JCNM at museum@nikkeiplace.org or 604-777-7000 (ext. 109).

Photo by SqueakyMarmot (Flickr)

• Learn how to research family history by registering for the Climb Your Family Tree program at the Langley Centennial Museum. The program is offered on select Saturdays throughout November and into December from 1:30-4:30pm. The next program date is Saturday, November 8th, which will be followed by November 22nd and 29th and December 6th. The fee is $50. Please contact the museum directly to register or for more information.

• Surrey Museum’s Remembrance Day Film Series continues on Saturday, November 8th with a screening of Endings and Beginnings, the third and final part of the National Film Board’s series Canada Remembers. The screening takes place from 3-4pm and admission is by donation.

• Take an 1888 Christmas lantern tour of Irving House in New Westminster on Saturday, November 8th at 6:30pm. This activity is suitable for all ages and will take you back in time to celebrate Christmas with the Briggs family. Listen carefully to the chatter of the family and town residents as they deck the halls for a Victorian Christmas and chat about the one-year-old CPR branch line to New Westminster. Register for the tour by calling Irving House at 604-527-4640. The registration fee is $5 per person.

• The Jewish Genealogical Institute of BC presents Trace Your Jewish Ancestry: Getting Started in Jewish Genealogy workshops during November at the Jewish Museum & Archives of British Columbia. The second workshop in the series takes place Sunday, November 9th from 1-3pm. The theme of this workshop is “Getting Started,” and will address interviewing techniques as well as the collection and analysis of interviews, documents and photographs. Click here to learn more about the other workshops in the series. The fee for each workshop is $15 per person. Contact the Jewish Museum & Archives of BC at 604-638-7288 to register.

• The Delta Museum & Archives has two exhibits on display to highlight Delta’s wartime history. The exhibit Delta Remembers is on display at the North Delta Recreation Centre until November 14th and focuses on pilot training at the RCAF Boundary Bay Station and the Air Raid Precautions Unit. The exhibit Soldiers’ Letters Home is on display until November 15th and features letters written home by World War I soldiers Arthur and Sidney Swenson. The Delta Museum & Archives will be open from 10am-2pm on Remembrance Day to give those attending the ceremonies at Memorial Park an opportunity to view the Soldiers’ Letters Home exhibit.

• The SFU Writing and Publishing Program invited people who live(d) and work(ed) downtown to participate in the Downtown Memory Project by sharing their memories of downtown Vancouver. These memories were then put on display in the hallways of SFU Vancouver (at Harbour Centre) and in the windows of Belzberg Library facing West Hastings Street. The Downtown Memory Project is no longer on display downtown, but will be re-staged in the lower lobby of the Vancouver Museum where anyone can view the Project free of charge beginning Thursday, November 13th. The Downtown Memory Project will remain at the Vancouver Museum until January 4, 2009.

Image courtesy of the Downtown Memory Project

• The Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre will be holding a public forum and discussion about the “Freedom to Hate” on Thursday, November 13th at 7:30pm at the Norman Rothstein Theatre at the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver. Topics to be covered include: hate speech today, talking about the Holocaust and hate in the classroom, hate on the internet, and the media perspective on hate. This event will be moderated by Barbara Buchanan of the Law Society of British Columbia. For more information, please contact the VHEC at 604-264-0499 or info@vhec.org.

• The exhibit Weird and Wonderful White Rock at the White Rock Museum & Archives closes Friday, November 14th. This exhibit showcases the stranger side of White Rock’s history, and will have you pondering the functions of mysterious medical gadgets, peeking at some blush-worthy unmentionables, and discovering the forgotten history of midget wrestling.

• Join Jeremy Gordon from Nature Vancouver for a beginners’ bird walk at VanDusen Botanical Garden on Saturday, November 1st at 10am. The walk will run rain or shine and is limited to the first 20 people. Free with garden admission.

• Surrey Museum’s Remembrance Day Film Series continues on Saturday, November 1st with a screening of The Liberators: D-Day to the Rhine, the second part of the National Film Board’s series Canada Remembers. The screening takes place from 3-4pm and admission is by donation.

• The annual exhibit by the Westcoast Calligraphy Society closes Sunday, November 2nd at the North Vancouver Museum & Archives. This year’s exhibit by Society members is B.C. Our Home, which explores the ancient art of the handwritten word while also celebrating the attributes of our province.

• The Jewish Genealogical Institute of BC presents Trace Your Jewish Ancestry: Getting Started in Jewish Genealogy workshops over four Sundays in November at the Jewish Museum & Archives of British Columbia. The first workshop on Sunday, November 2nd from 1-3pm is “Why Jewish Genealogy?” This workshop will explore the many challenges, rewards and myths of Jewish genealogy. Beginner genealogy kits will be distributed. Click here to learn more about the other workshops in the series. The cost for the workshops is $50 per person for all four or $15 per person for individual workshops. Contact the Jewish Museum & Archives of BC at 604-638-7288 to register.

• Earlier this year, the Royal BC Museum mounted Free Spirit: Stories of You, Me and BC, an exhibition of stories and artifacts in honour of British Columbia’s 150th anniversary. A travelling version of this exhibit, the Free Spirit Conservation Tour, will be in Fort Langley from Wednesday, November 5th to Saturday, November 8th. The exhibit is being hosted by the Langley Centennial Museum at St. George’s Anglican Hall. Admission is free.

• Canadian filmmaker Alanis Obomsawin will be in attendance at a screening of her film Waban-Aki: People From Where the Sun Rises at the Pacific Cinematheque on Wednesday, November 5th at 7pm. Obomsawin, who is of Abenaki descent, is featured in the Vancouver Art Gallery’s WACK! exhibit and has produced and directed several films for the National Film Board. She will be doing a Q&A session after the film. Tickets for this event are $9.50 for adults and $8 for seniors/students. For more information, visit the Cinematheque’s website.

• The H.R. MacMillan Space Centre celebrates its 40th anniversary this weekend. Join the museum on Saturday, October 25th and Sunday, October 26th from 10am-5pm both days to mark the occasion. Visitors who come to the museum dressed as their favourite space character will receive free admission. The full schedule of weekend events is available here.

• The Vancouver Art Gallery hosts A Question of Difference: Vancouver and its Feminisms on Saturday, October 25th from 10am-5pm. This full day program ties in to the VAG’s WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution exhibit. Featured guests include Jin Me-Yoon, Marian Penner Bancroft and Jacqueline Levitin.

• Learn how to research family history by registering for the Climb Your Family Tree program at the Langley Centennial Museum. The program costs $50 and is offered on select Saturdays starting October 25th from 1:30-4:30pm. The other dates for the program are November 8th, 22nd and 29th and December 6th. Please contact the museum directly to register or for more information.

• The Canadian Society for Asian Arts and the Museum of Anthropology present Enchantment of Genji: Music Inspired by Poems from the Tale of Genji with support from the Japanese Canadian National Museum on Saturday, October 25th at 2pm. This event will be held at the JCNM and will feature Alcvin Takegawa Ramos on shakuhachi and biwa and Satomi Saeki on koto, accompanied by Genji poems chanted in original Japanese and English translation. Admission is by donation.

• Surrey Museum’s annual Remembrance Day Film Series begins Saturday, October 25th with a screening of the first video in the National Film Board’s Canada Remembers series. October 25th will feature Turning the Tide: 1939 to D-Day. The following screenings will be held November 1st (The Liberators: D-Day to the Rhine) and November 8th (Endings and Beginnings: 1945). All screenings will take place from 3-4pm and admission is by donation.

• The Canadian Museum of Flight presents a murder mystery dinner party on Saturday, October 25th starting at 6pm. Guests are asked to dress in 1930s-40s attire. Tickets for this event are $35/person. Click here for more information.

• The Original Costume Museum Society’s display of 1910s and 1920s travel attire closes Sunday, October 26th at the Pacific Great Eastern Railway Station on the North Shore.

• The Japanese Canadian National Museum invites you to join a guided bird watching walk at the George C. Reifel Migratory Bird Sanctuary on Sunday, October 26th at 10am. This activity ties in with the museum’s Wild Birds exhibit. For more information, please email museum@nikkeiplace.org or call 604.777.7000 (ext. 109).

• The Vancouver Art Gallery presents That Lady is Naked!, a workshop with sex educator and author Meg Hickling on Sunday, October 26th at 1pm. Hickling invites parents to explore the WACK! exhibit with their children, and will discuss with participants how to talk to children about nudity in the Gallery. The fee for this program is $20 for adults and $7 for children. Please call 604-662-4700 to register.

• Claudia Cornwall, guest curator of the temporary exhibit Fashioning Lives: Questions of Identity at the Jewish Museum & Archives of BC will speak at the museum on Sunday, October 26th at 1pm. The talk is entitled “Discovering My Family’s History, Affirming My Family’s Heritage,” and will discuss themes from Cornwall’s book, Letters From Vienna: A Daughter Uncovers Her Family’s Jewish Heritage. Click here for more information. The cost for this event is $5 per person.

• Artist Judy Chicago is giving a lecture at the Vancouver Art Gallery on Monday, October 27th at 7pm. Chicago’s The Dinner Party is recognized as one of the most important American feminist works of the late 20th century. Chicago will talk about her life and her experiences as an artist, author and educator. Tickets for this event are $25 per person ($10 for students).

• The Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre marks the opening of two exhibits with a special reception on Wednesday, October 29th at 7:30pm. The exhibits are Scream the Truth at the World: Emanuel Ringelblum and the Hidden Archive of the Warsaw Ghetto (runs to December 18, 2008) and In Defiance: Jewish Resistance During the Holocaust (runs to May 22, 2009).

• The Haunted Vancouver Trolley Tours are back! These tours, presented by the Vancouver Museum, the Vancouver Police Museum and the Vancouver Trolley Company, begin at the Vancouver Museum with an exploration of the dark secrets of Stanley Park. After boarding the trolley, you will manoeuvre your way through the streets of Vancouver, along the way listening to stories of eerie spirit sightings and tales of Vancouver’s most infamous murders and hauntings. The tours visit Mountain View Cemetery, the home of 92,000 grave sites and 145,000 interred remains, and also wind their way to the Vancouver Police Museum, the location of the Old City Morgue. The Haunted Trolley Tours run from now to Saturday, November 1st and are suitable for ages 13 and older. Visit the Vancouver Museum website for more details and ticketing information, and remember that your ticket grants you free admission to the Vancouver Museum and Vancouver Police Museum for use on another day.

• Burnaby Village Museum’s Haunted Burnaby Trolley Tours run from Thursday, October 23rd to Sunday, November 2nd. These tours take you to haunted sites and a local cemetery to hear scary stories. You will also visit Burnaby Village Museum for a walk through reportedly haunted buildings. These Haunted Trolley Tours start and end at Metropolis at Metrotown and are suitable for ages 16 and up. For more information or to register, please contact Burnaby Village Museum at 604-293-6500.

Other Haunted Tours

• The Gulf of Georgia Cannery will present spooky Halloween history tours of the Cannery on Saturday, October 25th and Sunday, October 26th. Tour times are 1:00pm (not-so-spooky kids’ tour), 2:30pm and 4:00pm (traditional haunted tours) and 5:30pm (extra spooky tour not recommended for children) on Saturday. Sunday’s schedule is the same except that the 1:00pm tour that day will be a traditional tour. Be prepared for surprises as the old Cannery is home to many shadowy nooks and crannies that are perfect hiding places for Halloween spirits. Tour space is limited, so be sure to book your tickets early. Call 604-664-9009 for more information or to make a reservation. The Cannery closes for the season until May 2009 after the last haunted tour.

• Fort Langley National Historic Site will run evening ghost walks on Saturday, October 25th and Sunday, October 26th at 7pm and 9:30pm both nights. Your guide will tell you tales of long dead Fort Langley residents. Remember to keep an eye out for ghostly visitors along the walking route as ghosts have been known to tag along on these tours. Warm up after the tours with hot chocolate and treats. Tickets are $13 per person. To book your preferred time, contact the visitor’s centre at 604-513-4777 or email fort.langley@pc.gc.ca.

More Halloween Fun

• Burnaby Village Museum turns into a Haunted Village on October 24th, 25th, 26th and 30th from 6-9pm on these four nights. This event for brave families requires you to help solve the mystery of the great candy train robbery. Wear your costumes and bring flashlights and cameras. Tickets are $10 for children ages 2-12 and $15 for adults. Entrance includes unlimited carousel rides and for the children, trick or treating. This event is presented in association with the Public Dreams Society. Click here for more information about the Haunted Village.

• Science World presents two days of Halloween fun on Saturday, October 25th and Sunday, October 26th. Click here for the full schedule of events for this Spooky Science Freak Out weekend.

• A Halloween Harvest Festival will be held at Capilano Suspension Bridge on Saturday, October 25th and Sunday, October 26th. Expect special activities for families, including storytelling, face painting, crafts and spooky ghost tours.

• Port Moody Station Museum will also be holding a Halloween Harvest event on Saturday, October 25th and Sunday, October 26th. From 11am-3pm both days, families can enjoy button making, Halloween movies, creepy crafts, wandering ghosts and complimentary hot chocolate and treats. On Saturday, the museum will pay special tribute to the International Year of the Potato by featuring a variety of potatoes grown in the museum’s heritage garden. Different flavours, colours and textures will be on display, and there will also be opportunities to sample the “humble tuber.”

Photo by cuorhome (Flickr)

• Shiver ‘yer timbers and rattle ‘yer bones with a visit to the Vancouver Maritime Museum’s haunted pirate ship from Saturday, October 25th to Sunday, November 2nd from 12-4pm each day. Visitors under 10 years of age who are dressed in costume will receive free admission to the museum when accompanied by a paid adult. Enjoy haunted pirate activities and crafts on the weekends.

• Richmond’s London Heritage Farm invites you to Halloween Tea on Saturday, October 25th and Sunday, October 26th from 12-5pm both days. For more information or to make a reservation, please call 604-271-5220 or email londonhf@telus.net.

Photo by dragonflysky (Flickr)

• If you find it dull to carve your Jack-o-Lantern alone at home, make your way to the Surrey Museum on Saturday, October 25th between 1-3pm for the Pumpkin Power drop-in program. There will be opportunities to view, decorate, eat, and carve pumpkins. Participants will also taste some pie while watching the Cloverdale Costume Parade. Admission for this event is by donation.

• The Public Dreams Society presents the 2008 Parade of the Lost Souls on Saturday, October 25th at Grandview Park. Gather at 6:30pm in preparation for the procession that will begin at 7pm in the northeast corner of the park. Click here for more information about this incredibly popular event.

• The Vancouver Aquarium will be holding a family “Fish or Treat: Halloween Expedition” sleepover on Saturday, October 25th. Advance booking is required. For more details and pricing information, please visit the Aquarium’s sleepovers web page.

• The West Coast Society for the Protection and Conservation of Reptiles presents Halloween Hissss-teria at Lynn Canyon Ecology Centre on Sunday, October 26th from 12-4pm. This program will allow visitors to meet and learn about reptiles from around the world. Admission for this drop-in program is by donation.

• Witness sword fights, gallows, pirates and haunted buildings during Fort Langley National Historic Site’s Eerie Nights of Fright from Wednesday, October 29th to Saturday, November 1st from 6-10pm all four nights. The BC Renaissance Festival and other community partners will transform the historic site into one of the spookiest places to be for Halloween. Tickets are $13 for adults and $7 for youth (16 and under). Advance purchase is recommended, and you can reserve your tickets by calling 604-513-4777.

• The Surrey Museum will be holding Halloween parties for children (ages 3-6) on Friday, October 31st at 11am-12pm and 1-2pm. The parties will feature funny tricks, tasty treats, ghost crafts, Monster Mash dancing, and the opportunity to decorate a take-home pumpkin. Pre-registration is required. To register or for more information, contact the museum directly by calling 604-592-6956.

Il Museo is located at 3075 Slocan Street, which you will find on this map.

• The exhibit Fossils, Fins and Fangs: Dinosaurs & Other Ancient Life is now open at Science World. Visit the museum to learn about paleontology and to discover what we can find out about ancient times by looking at fossils. Science World’s full-sized Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton is featured in this exhibit.

• The Fall migration period (October to early December) is underway at the George C. Reifel Migratory Bird Sanctuary. The “Fraser-Skagit” Lesser Snow Geese arrive this month, and often number between 30,000 and 80,000. The Snow Geese are usually best viewed in the fields just before the entrance to the Sanctuary. Fall is also a good time to view large flocks of waterfowl at the Sanctuary.

Photo by backpackphotography (Flickr)

• The Pacific Museum of the Earth at the University of British Columbia will be holding an Explore Your Planet Open House event on Saturday, October 18th from 10am-5pm. The open house includes guided tours of the museum’s permanent exhibits and will also feature hands-on activities and demonstrations suitable for all ages. Researchers who are working on studies of the earth, ocean, atmosphere and climate will be giving short talks throughout the day. Click here for more information about the open house.

• The UBC Botanical Garden’s Apple Festival takes place Saturday, October 18th and Sunday, October 19th from 11am-4pm both days. Admission for this event is $2 per adult and free for those under 18. Click here for more information about the festival.

Photo by bmann (Flickr)

• Artist Taiga Chiba will be at the West Vancouver Museum & Archives on Saturday, October 18th from 1:30-3pm as part of the museum’s series of talks and demonstrations on printmaking. In addition to sharing his knowledge of Japanese printmaking techniques, Taiga Chiba will speak about his experience teaching printmaking to Inuit artists in Nunavut. He will also reflect on the artist in residence positions he held in Mexico, India, Brazil and Thailand.

• The Vancouver Art Gallery’s Flash Forward Art Auction takes place Saturday, October 18th at the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver. Over 500 artists and patrons will be in attendance at Flash Forward, an event that provides significant financial support to the VAG’s upcoming exhibits and programs. Click here for more information about the auction.

• The exhibit Life Under Canvas: Tent Homes in Early North Vancouver closes Sunday, October 19th at the North Vancouver Museum & Archives (North Vancouver Museum Galleries at Presentation House). During the economic boom of 1905-1912, many North Vancouverites lived in fully-equipped tents. Life Under Canvas examines the realities of tent living and reveals how housing has been and continues to be a pressing issue in North Vancouver.

• Learn how mulch protects and builds your soil by participating in the free Mulch Mania gardening program at the Lynn Canyon Ecology Centre on Sunday, October 19th from 1-2:30pm. This program is presented by the Ecology Centre, North Shore Recycling, and the Edible Garden Project.

• The Museum of Anthropology and the Canadian Society for Asian Arts will be co-presenting the Asian Illuminations Lecture by Dr. Joshua Mostow, a scholar of Japanese literature, at the Chan Centre at UBC on Sunday, October 19th at 2pm. Dr. Mostow’s lecture, ‘The Tale of Genji’ and the Making of Modern Japanese Femininity, celebrates the 1000th anniversary of the world’s oldest novel. Dr. Mostow will explore how women were exposed to the Genji in the early modern period, most notably through manuals of feminine etiquette, and will trace how this continued into the 20th century. Click here for more information about Dr. Mostow and his lecture.

• If you have always wanted to create a time capsule, you should consider participating in the New Westminster Museum & Archives’ Encapsulate Today for Tomorrow program for adults on Sunday, October 19th from 2-4pm. This program leads you through the process of determining items to place in a time capsule and teaches you how to make a time capsule that will last for generations. All time capsule supplies are included in the $20 per person fee for the program. The program will be held at the museum’s Irving House. To register please contact Irving House at 604-527-4640.

• Visit the Vancouver Art Gallery on Sunday, October 19th between 12-5pm for SuperSunday, a special day recurring monthly that allows families to learn about art together through various hands-on art-based activities. Children ages 12 and under receive complimentary admission to the Vancouver Art Gallery when accompanied by a paid adult.

• The Vancouver Maritime Museum is holding an Explore Sunday event on Sunday, October 19th. On this day the museum will be offering special guided tours, and Sunday’s tours will allow visitors to see the engine room and main hold of the St. Roch. Explore Sunday tours run from 12-4pm and are included with museum admission.

• The exhibit Canadian Women Modernists: The Dialogue with Emily Carr closes Sunday, October 19th at the Vancouver Art Gallery. Click here for more information about this exhibit.

• Local photographer Ursula Easterbrook will be at the Delta Museum & Archives on Thursday, October 23rd from 7-8pm to speak about Delta’s native flora and fauna. Easterbrook plans to share a series of her photographs relating to this topic, and will discuss the changes to Delta’s natural environment brought about by the introduction of new species after 1858.

• Queer feminist scholar Ann Cvetkovich will be at the Vancouver Art Gallery on Thursday, October 23rd at 7pm to facilitate a discussion about how feminist art enables the public expression of feelings. This event connects to the VAG’s ongoing exhibit WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution.

• The Interesting Vancouver conference takes place Friday, October 24th at 6pm at the Vancouver Rowing Club. For more information please read my earlier post about this event.

Speakers will be giving presentations in either three or 20 minute time slots at the conference, and there will be a wide range of topics covered throughout the evening. To date, speakers will discuss the history of dialogue, urban foraging, literacy, and climate change — all with an emphasis on Vancouver. I will be speaking at the conference in a three minute time slot about museums in the city.

Interesting Vancouver promises to be fun, engaging, and interesting (of course!). Tickets for the conference are $25 ($10 for students) and can be purchased online.