We’re halfway through the Sea Song Showdown Fundraiser! Until June 24, help raise $10,000 to support year-round programs at the Maritime Museum of BC.
Your support has an incredible impact on the Greater Victoria Area community; the spotlights below on School Programs, Collections Tours, and Salty Sundays are a small snippet of our far-reaching education and maritime enrichment opportunities that serve 15,000 community members annually.
School Programs
School programs are a major year-round programs initiative. Your donations support wide-reaching education opportunities that benefit future generations. This past year, across the Greater Victoria Area and beyond, you connected 1,335 young people with maritime culture and history that enriches their curriculum learning. In order to keep our programs financially accessible to all schools while covering our hard costs, we have to supplement program fees with grants and private donations such as yours.
School program in 2023, introducing students to ocean stewardship.
We also provide a portion of these school programs free for local schools in need that don’t have any funds for these programs. Your gift supports all of these school programs and levels the educational playing field of museum education for all children in our community.
These student participants are future mariners, maritime workers, history lovers, and museum workers in our community—with your support, they are starting their lifelong connection to our shared maritime heritage and culture.
“Our school does a great job of supporting our underserved families with free food programs, supplies for school and personal support, especially as we have a high population of immigrant families that have come to Canada to start a new life. Schools have been relied on more and more for community needs stretching far beyond just an education. It is my hope to continue to be able to provide a solid education for all children.”
– local teacher, describing challenges for students in Victoria
MMBC Volunteer Lieutenant-Commander (Ret’d) Gene Fedderly, CD, RCN talks naval uniforms to members in 2023 at our off-site site storage location.
Collections Tours
Thanks to individual donations like yours, our collections are professionally managed and cared for by a team of staff and volunteers. Your gift makes this collection accessible to the public through a research request program, YouTube Maritime Minute videos, and online catalogues that are being added to every day.
We’re excited to share that starting September 2024, we’ll be welcoming the public into guided Behind-the-Scenes Collections Tours that will run monthly. Each month will feature a new focus area of our collection guided by an expert volunteer. This will make the collection more accessible than ever and will broaden the public understanding and appreciation of our maritime heritage and culture. Registration for this new program will open in August.
Your gift to this fundraiser will make this new program possible by supporting the costs of staff and added security measures to keep our collection protected while making it more accessible than ever.
Salty Sundays
Salty Sundays is a brand-new program that runs every Sunday at 2:00 PM in the gallery space. This weekly program engages visitors directly in hands-on activities that relate to our featured exhibit. Each week features a new activity so people can keep coming in to learn new things about our maritime heritage and culture. Activities for this summer season include a rotation of:
- Facilitated gallery interpretation with objects from the collection that the public can handle and learn about
- Pop-up workshops like sea glass jewelry and linocut prints
- Guided Maritime Masterclasses related to the featured exhibit
Because of donations such as yours, Salty Sunday programming is free with admission or membership, keeping it accessible for the public. By donating to this campaign you are ensuring that the public has the opportunity to engage with these enriching maritime activities and has an enhanced visitor experience.
Linocut Print Workshop during a recent Salty Sunday–included for visitors in their admission fee or membership!
Will you help us in the last week-and-a-half of the Sea Song Showdown Fundraiser? Your support makes an impact every day of the year for programs at the Maritime Museum of BC.
