After being closed for 6 months, UBC's Museum of Anthropology (MoA) re-opened on Sunday, March 8, 2009. Last year the MoA built a new North wing and once the space was enclosed, the MoA closed, moved all of the displays into the new wing, and proceeded to renovate the old space, including a $3.5 million upgrade to the building envelope and environmental systems.

Including the new wing the total cost will be $55.5 million. The new wing will now be completed and will house the "Centre for Cultural Research," containing staff offices and laboratories, and the Audrey & Harry Hawthorn Library & Archives.

The Multiversity Galleries (formerly Visible Storage) and MoA’s major temporary exhibition gallery will still be under construction until the Project as a whole is complete. MOA’s grand re-launch of ALL of our new spaces is being planned for January 23, 2010, to coincide with the Cultural Olympiad.

The UBC Museum of Anthropology is one of Canada's foremost museums, renowned for its Northwest Coast collections and collaborative approach to working with First Nations and other cultural communities.

The first exhibit on re-opening is the contemporary significance of Samoan tattoo traditions. Curated by Peter Brunt, Senior Lecturer in Art History at Victoria University of Wellington, the show features over 40 photographs by distinguished New Zealand artist Mark Adams. Thanks to the Adam Art Gallery, Victoria University of Wellington, and Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge, for organizing this touring exhibition.

Inside the foyer the first displays are arranged on both sides of a gently sloping ramp. On the Ramp, as in the adjacent Great Hall, large scale sculptures from the Northwest Coast are grouped by general culture area.

On the left side are works from northern groups, including the Haida, Gitxsan (Tsimshian), and Nisga'a (Tsimshian).

Many of the large sculptures on the ramp once formed parts of the cedar plank houses in which First Nations families lived. Some of the carvings functioned as posts supporting roof beams, while others stood decoratively against interior or exterior walls. Coastal house sculptures generally represent ancestors or powerful beings associated with the history of the residents of the house.

The boxes were used for storage and the four sides are made from a single plank of western red cedar, which is scored and bent into shape.

The design of the Great Hall was inspired by the post-and-beam architecture of the First Peoples of the Northwest Coast of British Columbia. Here you will find magnificent examples of works in red cedar originating from several communities, including the Haida, Kwakwaka'wakw, Gitxsan, Nisga'a, Haisla, Oweekeno, and others.

Featured in the Koerner Gallery are more than 600 European ceramics collected over a period of almost eighty years by Dr. Walter C. Koerner (1898-1995), and donated to the Museum in 1990.

The collection contains examples of tin-glazed and lead-glazed earthenware and stoneware from the late fifteenth to the early nineteenth centuries. Some of the pieces are considered to be the finest in North America, and the collection as a whole is unique in the world.

Also on display in this gallery is a small selection of ceramics drawn from the Museum's own research collections, arranged in the form of a time line to provide context for the Koerner pieces. Specially commissioned ceramics and textiles by contemporary Vancouver artists highlight the beauty and artistry of the collection as a whole.

The collection is organized both chronologically and geographically to demonstrate developments in European ceramic technology and style. Texts and maps located throughout the exhibit discuss these developments, and show relationships and influences of tastes and techniques between craftspeople and communities as far removed as China and Europe

This central heating stove dates from about 1560.

The re-opening festivities included the unveiling of a new panel by Coast Salish artist John Marston. It stands over 6 ft tall.

This magnificent panel will be accompanied by excerpts from “Killer Whale and Crocodile,” a documentary about John’s journey to Papua New Guinea, where he met and was inspired by Sepik carver Teddy Balangu to carve this work.

Since 1927, the University of British Columbia has collected ethnographic material. In 1947, this material was brought together to form the founding collections of the new Museum of Anthropology, which opened in the basement of UBC's main library in 1949.

Construction of the current Arthur Erickson designed building was made possible by a grant from the Government of Canada, marking the 1971 centennial of B.C.'s entry into Confederation. The museum was completed in 1976.

The Museum houses some 535,000 ethnographic and archaeological objects and is Canada's largest teaching museum.

Although the exterior is still rough around the edges, there are lots of things to see there as well. For more information, see Newsletter #151.

Newsletter #170
RCM Launches Olympic Speed Skating Quarter

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