Curatorial Statement
Bianca Gendreau
Curator, Post and Communication
Canadian Museum of Civilization
Snow: mulling over the possibilities of an exhibition on snow is a fascinating
challenge! It sets in motion all sorts of ideas and sends the imagination off in
different directions. But here’s the greatest challenge: What’s the underlying
thread of the story we want to share with visitors?
As a historian by training, but a curator at heart, I began by asking myself: What’s
the story that we want to tell? What kinds of objects should we feature, in order to
weave a narrative thread that meets our goals for this exhibition? From the start,
I was drawn to the subject and, above all, excited about the potential that it
offered as a theme.
I’ve developed numerous exhibitions since I came to the Museum in 1991, but
this one prompted me to explore the Museum’s outstanding National Collection
(which houses around 3 million artifacts) in its entirety. I roamed the storage
areas of the ethnology, folk art, postal history, Inuit and historical collections,
looking for unique items that tell extraordinary tales. In the end, it was my
explorations that helped me determine the narrative thread for our story: this
exhibition would not only provide historical facts about snow, but would also allow
Canadians to share their own experiences with snow. It would cover both History
(with a capital “H”) and personal histories that reflect our own snow-related
stories and memories.
Snow, whether we adore it or just endure it, is part of our everyday lives. Snow,
through material culture objects, works of art, archival documents and images, as
well as audio and video excerpts, has been designed to share a cultural history
of snow, while also demonstrating its influence on Canadian society. The
overriding concept that emerges from the exhibition is this: while in earlier times,
snow posed a threat to our very survival, today, we recognize it as an integral
part of our cultural identity.
The exhibition touches on certain important events in Canadian history, but
doesn’t cover all aspects of how we have adapted to it. Snow is a theme that
offers endless possibilities but, in the end, our exhibition framework and the
evocative power of the objects we had chosen to feature dictated our thematic
choices.
The development of a major exhibition such as Snow would not be possible
without a team of individuals combining their extensive knowledge with a high
level of innovation and a multiplicity of skills and talents. A project like this is born
of the creativity of a designer and a graphic artist, the imagination of public
programming experts, the skills of audiovisual production experts, and the
attention to detail of display and conservation technicians — talents that meet in
harmony under the direction of a dedicated conductor.