Objectives and Results -- Intercultural Understanding and Dialogue

Objective

To promote greater intercultural understanding and dialogue.

Results

• After three years of preparation and three months of being closed, the Children's Museum reopened its doors on December 9, 1994. Indoor exhibition space now totals 2,036 square metres, or 22,000 square feet. The expanded Children's Museum is now focused more than ever on ethnicity in our society, and attracted a record 35,000 visitors in the first month following its reopening;
• The First Peoples Hall Consultative Committee delivered an overall conceptual framework, sufficient to begin the basic architectural fit-up of the exhibition space;
• Research work and exhibition development were carried out on the Doukhobors, the Vietnamese and the Quebec folk art exhibitions, as well as for the Celestial Celebrations series of events;
• The first annual Qaggiq `95 festival of Inuit culture was launched, as part of the Winterlude festival in the National Capital Region;
• In the Arts and Traditions Hall, the exhibition, Just for Nice: German-Canadian Folk Art, continued;
• An Aboriginal Training Programme on Museum Practices was carried out for a second year in 1994-95. A further seven trainees have successfully completed the programme;
• The Cultures Canada programme presented fifteen concerts, and See and Hear the World was expanded to seven concerts over the fall and winter. The introduction of fees for the Friday evening events brought higher admission revenues but did not (with 11,605 spectators) maintain, as had been expected, the 1993-94 attendance figure of 23,054.

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