The Maritime Museum of BC

Feature Performer: MMBC's Salty Singers
2024-09-01 13:00 - 15:00 (America/Vancouver) | Inner Harbour, Wharf Street, Victoria, BC, V8W 2Y9, Canada
The Maritime Museum of BC’s Salty Singers is a volunteer shanty choir led by Music Director Janet Rendell. They perform shanties and favourite sea songs at museum and community events.

Boater's Awards Banquet
2024-09-01 18:00 - 20:30 | Hotel Grand Pacific, 463 Belleville St., Victoria, BC V8V 1X3, Victoria, British Columbia, V8V 1X3, Canada
One of several exciting Boater events for the Classic Boat Festival.

The Awards Banquet in the Vancouver Island Ballroom at the Hotel Grand Pacific. The Awards Banquet will be held from 6:00 – 8:30 PM. Tickets are $75 each, and will not be sold at the door, so please purchase tickets through the boater registration link prior to the August 15 cut-off.

This event is only open to Registered Boaters and their guests. Tickets can be purchased through the Boater Registration portal, by scrolling down to “Add-Ons”.

Sensory-Friendly Hours
2024-09-08 09:30 - 12:00, 2024-09-15 09:30 - 12:00, 2024-09-22 09:30 - 12:00, 2024-09-29 09:30 - 12:00, 2024-10-06 09:30 - 12:00, 2024-10-13 09:30 - 12:00, 2024-10-20 09:30 - 12:00 | The Maritime Museum of BC, 744 Douglas Street, Victoria, British Columbia, V8W3M6, Canada
Explore the Maritime Museum of BC during our weekly Sensory-Friendly hours, designed for visitors who prefer a quiet and subdued environment. Enjoy low-volume surroundings, dimmed lighting, and a scent-free atmosphere. These dedicated hours provide an inclusive experience for all, ensuring everyone can engage with our exhibits comfortably and peacefully.

Sensory kits are available to borrow during your visit from the front desk during all opening hours.

Museum Tots - Pirates
2024-09-14 10:30 - 11:15
This weekly program introduces children ages 3 – 5 to the fun world of museum learning. Each week’s program revolves around a new theme, encouraging children to learn through crafts, play, song, and dance. There is a new maritime theme every week.

No registration required–drop-ins welcome!

For more information, please call us at 250-385-4222 or email us at programs@mmbc.bc.ca.

Please note that parents are required to stay for the duration of the program.

Museum Tots - Sharks
2024-09-21 10:30 - 11:15

Sea Glass Jewelry Workshop
2024-09-21 14:00 - 15:15, 2024-10-05 14:00 - 15:15, 2024-10-19 14:00 - 15:15 | The Maritime Museum of BC, 744 Douglas Street, Victoria, British Columbia, V8W3M6, Canada
Learn about the history of sea glass in this interactive workshop and design your own piece of jewelry using locally sourced sea glass.

Salty Sundays: Linocut Printmaking Workshop
2024-09-22 14:00 - 16:00 | The Maritime Museum of BC, 744 Douglas Street, Victoria, British Columbia, V8W3M6, Canada
An educational and creative drop-in workshop that teaches participants how to create linocut bookmark/postcard prints, while learning about Salish Sea animals and the environmental risk factors that threaten their lives and ecosystems. No experience is necessary. Drop in and start creating!

This program is included in admission or membership, and does not require registration.

Behind-the-Scenes Collection Tour
2024-09-27 13:00 - 15:00 | Seymour Place, 4000 Seymour Place, Saanich, British Columbia, V8X 4S7, Canada
Have you ever wondered what’s behind those Staff Only doors at your favourite museums? Now’s your chance to find out. Join us at the Maritime Museum of BC for a look behind the scenes. Each month, one of our Collections Tour Guides will lead a small group through a particular aspect of our collection.

This month’s guide is Gene Fedderly with a look at the MMBC’s uniform collection.

Participants should meet in the lobby of 4000 Seymour Place at 1 pm on Friday, September 27th. The tour will take place from 1:00 pm to 2:30 pm.

Tours are limited to six participants and must be booked at least 24 hours in advance.

About Your Guide:

Gene Fedderly was born in 1963 in Edmonton, Alberta and grew up primarily in nearby Sherwood Park. At 13 he joined the Royal Canadian Sea Cadets and underwent summer training at HMCS QUADRA in Comox. He joined the Naval Reserve at HMCS NONSUCH in 1980 and in 1981 enrolled in the Regular Officer Training Plan. He graduated from Royal Roads Military College with a BSc in 1985 and completed Maritime Surface officer training at HMCS VENTURE in 1986. Gene then joined his first operational ship, HMCS TERRA NOVA, where he achieved his Bridge Watchkeeping Certificate, and after specialty training carried on as her Above Water Warfare Officer. He served in a variety of seagoing and staff positions on the West Coast, retiring from the Royal Canadian Navy in 2013 with the rank of lieutenant-commander. He transferred to the Cadet Training Organization in 2015 and spent the next five summers as a staff officer at HMCS QUADRA. Gene spent his naval career with a keen interest in tradition and ceremonial, and commenced volunteering with the Maritime Museum in 2021 on updating the cataloguing of the uniform collection.

Museum Tots - Go For Gold! (Rushes)
2024-09-28 10:30 - 11:15

Museum Tots - Deep Sea Discoveries
2024-10-05 10:30 - 11:15

Salty Sundays: Scrimshaw Workshop
2024-10-06 14:00 - 16:00
Join us for a hands-on scrimshaw workshop where you can explore basic scrimshaw techniques and simple carving. Participants will create their own soap scrimshaw masterpiece while learning about the history of whaling in BC and reflecting on the impact of over-consumption on our environment and natural resources. No prior experience needed—just drop in and start creating!

Note: The scrimshaw example shown is from our collection (986.004.0007) and was made from a whale tooth. Program participants will not be using this material.

Museum Tots - Sailor's Thanksgiving: Kelp Forests
2024-10-12 10:30 - 11:15

Museum Tots - Bird is the Word
2024-10-19 10:30 - 11:15

Community Day
2024-10-20 09:30 - 16:00
To celebrate the Classic Boat Festival Artists’ Showcase, the Maritime Museum of BC will be open with admission by donation all day long.

Classic Boat Festival Artists' Showcase
2024-10-20 12:00 - 16:00
After a brilliant weekend on the docks during the 45th annual Classic Boat Festival, four local artists have been working on their interpretations of docks, boats, and sea!

Join us in the gallery to see artists’ works from the Festival. It’s also a Community Day, so admission is by donation!

Sneak peek: festival work by Christina Morrison. Image courtesy of Christina Morrison.

Featured artists:

Liz Charsley

I’ve always been interested in boats and boating. I learned to sail at RVYC at age 12, and kept a small sailboat there for a couple of years. I’m fortunate to have friends who are involved in the Classic Boat Show and have visited their boats at the show many times over the years.

When I did my MA in Drawing at Camberwell College of Art, London, my subject was the Thames. I took my inflatable kayak onto the upper reaches of the river and photographed some of the boats and boatyards from my kayak, to get a water-borne perspective. I made a number of drawings of these boats in graphite, enjoying their muscular practical shapes, the ropes and rigging, and their reflections in the water.

I moved on to make a series of charcoal drawings of the surface of the river waters, and the wild riverside verges.

Instagram

Website

Richard Linzey

Growing up in Kent, England, coastal archaeology and maritime heritage are inescapable; they become part of your DNA. A life-long interest in naval and military history became a career; first as an architect with English Heritage and, latterly in Canada, as a heritage planner and building conservator. These days, I enjoy painting maritime scenes in acrylic and have a growing portfolio of maritime heritage-related subjects.

Janet Moore

I am a plein air artist working in oils and I paint on location twice a week with two plein air groups on and around the Victoria area. Although I am inspired by our landscape I am most drawn to the beautiful lines and shapes of a variety of boats. Whether they be classic sailboats, tugboats, fishing trollers and even freighters, if there is a boat of any description in sight it will surely be the focal point of my painting. With the use of colour, texture and interesting mark making, my hope is that the vessel in my painting tells a story to the viewer.

INSTAGRAM

Website

Christina Morrison

Instagram

Website

It is my goal to paint all the tugboats on the West Coast of BC. I came up with the idea 3 years ago. I wanted to raise awareness of the importance and significance of our Nautical History, as I hoped, in some way, this project would do. And it has. I have been totally overwhelmed at the response i have gotten. There are over 550 tugboats working on our coast right now. I have also included many heritage boats. I have completed 80 paintings so far. This project is a collaboration of the many mariners and tugboat photographers who submit their photos for me to use with their permission. It is my dream to one day put a book together with the photos/paintings and stories from all the mariners and marine photographers of BC.

Behind-the-Scenes Collection Tours: The Royal Tour
2024-10-25 13:00 - 14:30 | Seymour Place, 4000 Seymour Place, Victoria, BC, Canada
Have you ever wondered what’s behind those Staff Only doors at your favourite museums? Now’s your chance to find out.

Join us at the Maritime Museum of BC for a look behind the scenes. Each month, one of our Collections Tour Guides will lead a small group through a particular aspect of our collection.

This month’s guide is Murray Armstrong, with the highlights of what was shown to Princess Anne during her visit to our collection.

Tours are limited to six participants and must be booked at least 24 hours in advance.

About Your Guide: Murray John Armstrong was born in Victoria BC, the eldest son of parents who were also born in Victoria – a somewhat unusual occurrence. His great-grandfather, Frederick Jeune, was a sailor and sail maker who arrived in Victoria from Jersey in the 1880’s and later established Jeune Brothers, the long-standing Victoria business. Perhaps this may explain Murray’s fascination with ships and the sea? Murray was educated in Victoria and while a student spent a summer crewing aboard the Canadian Coast Guard vessel Alexander MacKenzie. Soon after, Murray was transferred to Vancouver with his banking career. Some years later, he fulfilled a life-long desire to work in the airline industry which subsequently morphed to the computer side of the business where he worked for nearly 25 years.

Following a downturn in business after the events of 2001, Murray pivoted to academia where he worked in administration at UBC for 10 years before officially retiring in 2013. Murray has always felt very passionate about transportation systems including air, rail and marine and also the performing arts. He has had a lifelong love of music and since childhood has sung with numerous choirs and, on stage, as a singing actor. To fulfill his interests in the former, he was a long-standing member of the Titanic Historical Society, a student of the Lusitania disaster and an amateur BC Coast historian with particular focus on the CPR’s BC Coast Steamship Service. With respect to the later, Murray was involved in many community theatre organizations in Greater Vancouver in which he served both administratively and as a performing actor. On a part-time basis he also worked as an usher for the Arts Club Theatre Company in Vancouver for 13 years and continues to do so locally with the Royal and McPherson Theatres Society.

Since retirement he has volunteered with Thrifty Foods for the Sendial program, as a docent at Craigdarroch Castle and, most recently, since 2021, as an Interpreter and Front Desk attendant at the Maritime Museum of BC. Since volunteering at the Museum, he has had the opportunity to record several Maritime Minutes talks and to meet and recount maritime history with HRH Princess Anne during her visit to the Museum’s collections in May 2024.

Featured image by James Holkko.

Exhibit Closing: No Walk in the Woods: The History of the West Coast Trail
2024-10-26 09:30 - 16:30 | The Maritime Museum of BC, 744 Douglas Street, Victoria, British Columbia, V8W3M6, Canada
Last chance to see our No Walk in the Woods: The History of the West Coast Trail exhibit. The exhibit closes at 4:30 PM for an exhibit changeover.

Museum Tots - Spooky Sea Halloween
2024-10-26 10:30 - 11:15

Closure: Exhibit Changeover
2024-10-27 00:00 - 2024-10-30 23:59 | The Maritime Museum of BC, 744 Douglas Street, Victoria, British Columbia, V8W3M6, Canada
The Maritime Museum of BC will be closed to the public for our exhibit changeover. Take a first look at our new Pacific in Peril: Climate Change, the Warming Ocean, and How to Turn the Tide exhibit when it launches on October 31!

Exhibit Opening: Pacific in Peril: Climate Change, the Warming Ocean, and How to Turn the Tide
2024-10-31 09:30 - 16:30 | The Maritime Museum of BC, 744 Douglas Street, Victoria, British Columbia, V8W3M6, Canada
To live on the coast is to be influenced by the ocean every day. Many make their living on the water. It is a source of food, and a way of transporting people and goods. It drives changes to our weather. So, what happens when climate change starts to affect a body of water as large as the Pacific Ocean?

Climate change isn’t only warming the ocean. It’s also leading to acidification, causing coastal erosion, raising sea levels, and expanding areas of deoxygenation. The results are rippling through the entire ecosystem.

While we don’t always see it, the ocean plays a key role in carbon sequestration and could be our greatest ally in the fight against climate change. Efforts have already started to boost the power of the Pacific.

If you love the ocean as much as we do, join us at the Maritime Museum of BC as we explore what climate change could mean for the Pacific and what we can do to help protect it now and for future generations.

Spooky Lantern Drop-In Workshop
2024-10-31 13:00 - 16:00 | The Maritime Museum of BC, 744 Douglas Street, Victoria, British Columbia, V8W 3M6, Canada
Join us on Halloween and make your own Spooky Sea Lantern at the Maritime Museum of BC this Halloween! Dive into the eerie ocean depths as we craft glowing sea lanterns inspired by lighthouses and all things Halloween. Suitable for all ages, this drop-in event runs from 1:00pm to 4:00pm and is free with admission. Perfect for families and spooky enthusiasts alike, don your favourite costume and bring home your very own lantern to use for years to come!

Museum Tots - Salmon Tales
2024-11-02 10:30 - 11:15
