"Our role in the community is to be the stewards of our community history and also share that history and engage the community in that history."

Museums have a role to play and Okotoks has a rich history filled with community! 

Celebrated on the 18th of May every year, today is International Museum Day. Through its 44 years of history, Museum Day has become a great occasion to advocate for the role of museums in society.

Each year there is a specific theme for International Museum Day. The theme for 2021 is “The Future of Museums: Recover and Reimagine.”

Museum Specialist Kathy Coutts says they would usually hold an in-house exhibit to honour the day.

"With Covid, and the fact that the museum is closed we had to reimagine how we were going to recognize the day and so you know what a perfect theme this year is. ‘Recover and reimagine.’ Because really, that's what we've had to do for the last 14 months or so when the pandemic started. Was trying to re-imagine how the museum can engage and connect with the community."

Closing the doors of the museum was and still is tough but it has had its great moments connecting people. 

"The joy of doing things virtually is. You can reach a much broader audience. So we had feedback from people not only in Okotoks who missed coming to the museum, but we were able to hear from people in Ontario and in the United States who were able to view the exhibit."

That's not the only thing they have been busy with... Kathy mentions people have been doing a bit of digging!

The museum is hard at work engaging and educating the community! 

Be sure to check out their latest exhibit ‘Sirens and Service’
Find them on Facebook and Instagram

 

~Logan