I really like how this one has turned out. It's nice an modern, but has an elegant look to it.
Sneak peek behind scenes at new Royal Alberta Museum
The new Royal Alberta Museum in downtown Edmonton offered reporters a brief glimpse behind the scenes Wednesday as workers continue to feverishly get hundreds of thousands of artefacts ready for public display. Reporter Juris Graney tagged along.
Take a sneak peek inside the new Royal Alberta Museum
Creating custom mounts for nearly 5,000 artifacts at the new Royal Alberta Museum sounds like tedious work, but it's a dream project for a man who has worked in museums across the U.S.
Multiform Studios, an artifact-mounting business based out of Michigan, is responsible for creating custom mounts for close to 52,000 items in the new downtown Edmonton museum.
"It probably has a wider scope than any other project I've ever worked on when you look at the ethnographics; you look at the timeline; you look at the variety of types of artifacts," said James Leacock, owner of Multiform Studios.
"It's pretty awesome"
He and others were working in a backroom Wednesday where canoes, historic clothing, and other pieces sat draped under cloth.
"What's really special about this project is that it's not often you get an opportunity to work on 2,200 years of history in a community," Leacock said.
Indigenous history prominent at new Royal Alberta Museum
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Executive director says stories about the Indigenous experience in the new Royal Alberta Museum will be interwoven throughout the human history hall. (Trevor Wilson/CBC)
The moment people walk into the new Royal Alberta Museum, it will be clear they're in a place where Indigenous people have existed for thousands of years.
The museum opens in 2018. Visitors will be greeted by a special welcome acknowledging the building is located in Treaty 6 territory.
"Ultimately there will be a sign panel here in 13 different Indigenous languages," the museum's executive director Chris Robinson explained during an exclusive tour of the building.
The entrance to the $375.5 million building sets the tone for a shift in the way the museum is handling its Indigenous content.
Instead of a separate exhibition, such as the gallery of Aboriginal culture at the old site in Glenora, Indigenous experiences will be an integral part of the new downtown museum.
"Human occupation in Alberta goes back 13,000 years, that post contact period has really been a brief one. I think there was no other option but to integrate that entire story throughout," Robinson said.
New Royal Alberta Museum to finally open in 2018
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The exterior of the new $375.5 million Royal Alberta Museum in downtown Edmonton. August 16, 2016.
Vinesh Pratap, Global News
Museum staff have been working for a couple of years to pack up and move hundreds of thousands of artifacts from its Glenora location to the new museum downtown. Executive director Chris Robinson says there are 2.4 million pieces in the museum’s collection and about 400,000 are now downtown. Even though the museum is moving into a new space that’s twice the size of the old one, staff still have to be selective about what they can display in their 84,000 square feet of gallery space.
“We put 580 objects on display already out of the 5,300, so clearly there’s some more work to do there. We’ve got most of the 80-plus media pieces ready to go and we clearly have a lot more packing and moving to do as well,” Robinson said, while being careful not to make promises about a specific date for a grand opening. “So 2018 will be a big year for us and we are looking forward to it, I’m just not going to predict when in 2018 (we will open the museum).”
Opening date for Edmonton’s new Royal Alberta Museum revealed
The new Royal Alberta Museum in downtown Edmonton will be open to the public on Wednesday, Oct. 3.
After much anticipation, the opening date was finally revealed by the provincial government on Wednesday morning. As a way to celebrate the new RAM, admission will be free for the first six days — from noon on Wednesday, Oct. 3 until 5 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 8.