Skip to content

Curator camp led to new museum exhibition

Souris Valley Museum recently hosted a successful Curator Camp. Participants visited the museum twice during the past two weeks to learn about what it takes to be a museum curator. "The camp went really well.
curator camp
Liam Knowles, left, with his artifact - Northern Electric Company limited telephone, and Sawyer Bomberak and his artifact - Underwood electric typewriter.

Souris Valley Museum recently hosted a successful Curator Camp. Participants visited the museum twice during the past two weeks to learn about what it takes to be a museum curator.

"The camp went really well. This was our first time running the program," said Mark Veneziano, the museum's executive director. 

The camp was developed for kids ages nine to 15, and two potential future museum curators, Liam Knowles and Sawyer Bomberak, were the first ones to try out the newly developed program. During the camp, they had a chance to learn about the history of the museum and its collection, a starting portion of which was donated by Stanley and Georgina Durr. Participants had a look at what curators actually do.

They also could explore the part of the collection that is usually not on the display. During the second day of camp, they were able to create their own exhibit called Spotlight.

"Participants had a chance to learn about the items that they chose and make their own descriptions, answering why they chose the artifact, what they think it did, what year it was from. They had a chance to really write that out. And then the museum staff printed it off and it's now on display. We are working with the families of kids who participated to have a real exhibit opening … in the next couple of weeks," said Veneziano, adding that Spotlight will be on display for the public to look at for a few months.

The museum hopes to have another Curator Camp in the future, and in the meantime, they are looking forward to hosting their popular No School day programs on Nov. 27 (Who Did It? a program dedicated to detectives and crimes) and Nov. 30 (Video Games), as well as an I Am a Christmas Tree program in December.

"We also hope to have cookie decoration with grandparents again this year, but we are still working on dates and other details as to how it will work with the current restrictions," Veneziano said.

They only can have six participants at a time for their day programs, so parents are encouraged to register ahead, which can be done either on their website at sourisvalleymuseum.com or over the phone at 306-634-5543.