Star Wars movies costumes exhibit debuts in Seattle

The EMP Museum in Seattle is the opening venue for "Star Wars and the Power Costume" featuring original costumes from all six films. The exhibit opened on January 31, 2015 and will end on October 4, 2015. It's organized by the Smithsonian Institution and the Lucas Museum of Narrative Arts. The 12-city tour across the USA will conclude in 2020.

Canada, land of heritage cultureless opportunities

Vancouver Sun journalist Stephen Hume has written a scathing piece, "Moving historic artifacts to Quebec 'stupid, insensitive'" about Prime Minister Harper's Conservative government's insensitive and economically unjustified cut to the National Archival Development Program and the warehousing of countless artifacts from their local communities to a warehouse in Gatineau, Quebec.

Thanks for the music boost Tim Willis!

Tim Willis, Director of Exhibitions and Visitor Experience at the Royal BC Museum, mentioned in his blog post on March 8, 2011 about the piece of music I created after being inspired by a new, travelling exhibit on invasive alien species. Thanks very much for the music boost Tim!

Royal BC Museum launches new collections database

The Royal BC Museum has launched its new collections database. As of October 12, 2010, you can access new databases for Ethnology, Archaeology and Modern History. Databases that utilize existing search engines and have yet to be transitioned to the new system are the natural history collections and the BC Archives.

The 747 jet that became a waterpark attraction in McMinnville, Oregon

Update for June 25, 2010:

My image of the 747 jet used for a waterpark at the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum on Flickr was selected as an illustration for the Schmap Portland [Oregon] Guide.

You can also see what the Apple iPhone or iPod Touch version of the Schmap Portland Guide looks like with my photo displayed.

Update for June 15, 2010:

One of my images of the 747 jet on Flickr was shortlisted as a potential illustration for the Schmap Portland [Oregon] Guide.

I recently visited the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum in McMinnville, Oregon. I was last there in July 2007. At that time the Space Museum building had yet to be completed and there was no firearms or armored vehicle collection. Nor was this bizzare and unique use of a 747 jet yet built. Here is an Evergreen Aviation branded 747 being used as the launching point for a waterpark attraction on the grounds of the museum. The day I arrived it had just been set on top of the structure that houses the rest of the waterpark. According to the model inside the Aviation Museum building, you will launch yourself from simulated emergency exit slides inside the aircraft!

Warriors in the City public art fundraising campaign for 2011-2012, how about it BC Lions Society?

Update of June 24, 2010:

A highly reliable source in the Royal BC Museum confirmed for me today that the BC Lions Society has taken up this suggestion, which was also made by a RBCM staffer, and that the Warriors in the City will be standing guard in Victoria probably some time in 2011 to coincide with the exhibit.

Original post of January 29, 2010:

The Royal BC Museum is one of the four Canadian venues in the exhibit The Warrior Emperor and China's Terracotta Army that begins at the Royal Ontario Museum on June 26, 2010. Visitors to the Victoria Bay Centre, a downtown shopping center, may recall the shopping mall version of these clay pieces. This touring exhibit, however, is the real deal courtesy of the Chinese government. The RBCM will host the army of clay in late 2011-early 2012.

As part of that exhibition I'd like to encourage the BC Lions Society for Children with Disabilities, who are currently sponsoring the Eagles in the City fundraising campaign, to consider the possibility of replicating either a warrior or perhaps a horse for a Warriors in the City fundraiser. Previous public art exhibits of this nature by the BC Lions Society included Orcas In The City and Spirit Bears in the City (the URL http://www.spiritbearsinthecity.com/ gave a MySQL database error when I tried it on January 28, 2010). The RBCM had sponsored the Eternal Egypt Orca which was decorated by staff member and artist Adrienne Aikens.

Royal BC Museum gets bitten by the blogging bug at last

The Royal BC Museum Blog, hosted by Google's Blogger service, in case you had not yet heard, is out there on the blogosphere. The first post by Tim Willis was on March 10, 2010 and the most recent by archivist Ann ten Cate, all about a bathroom fetish, was on May 12, 2010. The RBCM is also on Facebook and YouTube.

The Bigger Picture, Visual Archives and the Smithsonian blog

Thanks to Peter Kurilecz on the Yahoo! PhotoHistory group, here's the Smithsonian's photography and artwork blog, The Bigger Picture, Visual Archives and the Smithsonian.

TimeTravelBC.com, it is all about heritage

The Heritage Tourism Alliance of BC, "a collaboration of some of British Columbia’s key heritage and tourism stakeholders, who work together to promote and celebrate the very best of BC’s heritage sites and experiences," have an interesting Web site called TimeTravelBC.com that makes it easy to find heritage travel experiences.

Calling all Abba fans: get thee to ABBAWORLD in London, England

The ABBAWORLD exhibit at Earls Court in London, England, sounds impressive. It opened to the public on January 29, 2010 and will close at the end of March. The highlight of the exhibit is being able to perform with a holographic representation of the group. The photograph makes them look like cartoon characters. Perhaps if this exhibit is really successful we might see a permanent ABBA Theme Park in England and elsewhere. Lego, another Scandinavian phenom, did it with Legoland, why not ABBA? There's gotta be enough of the foursome to go around.

Royal Ontario Museum headhunting a new CEO

The Globe and Mail ran a story on January 23, 2010 that the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) is looking for a new CEO. I wonder if a certain prominent CEO of a world-class museum in BC's capital will get one of those discreet phone calls from Russell Reynolds Associates, an executive headhunting firm.