Tag Archives: immigration

Taras Shevchenko Museum

Conservation / Preservation:

Museum

  • Artistic copies of Shevchenko’s art.
  • Several editions of Shevchenko’s Kobzar and a large facsimile copy of Shevchenko’s diary.
  • Ukrainian handicrafts and folk art, including traditional clothing, Ukrainian eggs, embroidery, wood carving, and musical instruments.
  • 1861 Taras Shevchenko death mask is the most valuable item in the museum’s collection.
  • Paintings, etchings, illustrations, posters and artefacts of Ukrainian and Ukrainian Canadian cultural life.
  • Two important monuments of Shevchenko that document the cultural endeavors of the AUUC in Toronto.

Library

  • A substantial collection of books and pamphlets by Shevchenkiana, including facsimiles of the first edition of Shevchenko’s first collection of poetry.

Public Programming:

Exhibitions

  • Shevchenko’s life, art, and poetry, including a prominent exhibit on Shevchenko’s time in exile in the Russian Far East, with paintings documenting a Russian military expeditions to the Aral Sea.
  • The history of Ukrainian immigration to Canada, including passports, naturalization certificates, and other papers documenting the migration of Ukrainians to Canada, union cards, and Workmen’s Compensation cards.
  • Ukrainian handicrafts, furniture, and folk art.
  • The works of contemporary Ukrainian painters and sculptors.

Education

The museum offers tours to schoolchildren as well as to university students and scholarly organizations.

Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre

Conservation / Preservation:

The Sedai Project is committed to collecting, documenting, preserving, and sharing the history of the Japanese Canadians. The Sedai Committee collects and preserves Japanese Canadian history through audio and video recordings, and they continue to search for all Japanese Canadians who were born in the pre-war and war years to sharetheir stories.

Public Programming:

The centre runs cultural arts classes to cultivate an appreciation for Japanese arts, including Japanese language, Bunka Shishu (embroidery), Shodo (calligraphy), Ikebana (flower arranging), and Sumi-e (painting). There are also martial arts classes and tournaments, and classes to learn cooking, origami, Taiko drumming, music, dance, and much more.

Educational Programming

More than 15,000 students from the GTA and beyond visit the JCCC each year to participate in seminars on Japanese history, culture, and the Japanese Canadian experience.

Special Events

Each year, the centre offers many events that showcase Canadian and internationally renowned artists ranging from visual arts to music, dance, film and theatre. These events offer a glimpse into Japanese life, culture and art that are not often seen outside of Japan. In many cases, it may be the first or only opportunity to experience the exhibit or performance in Canada.

Ukrainian Museum of Canada, Ontario Branch

Conservation / Preservation:

Artefacts

  • Historic ceramics, including some by notable ceramics artist, Oleksa Bakhmatyuk (1820-1882).
  • Ukrainian woodwork, including crosses, musical instruments, boxes, plates and bowls, chests and toys.
  • Religious pieces such as crèche, icons, crosses, bibles and prayer books
  • Historic and contemporary jewelry and other adornment.
  • Reproductions of historic costumes of Ukrainian nobility from the eighth to the eighteenth century; folk dress, ritual cloths, kylyms, and household textiles.
  • Prints, engravings, etchings, lithographs, silk screenings, and currency and stamps from the period 1918-1920.
  • Pysanky representing many regions in Ukraine.

Public Programming:

Exhibits

Large rotating and traveling exhibits dealing with historic and contemporary Ukrainian handicrafts and art, Ukrainian immigrants in Canada, and Christianity. Each exhibit is inaugurated with a public lecture.

Educational Programming

Educational programs are developed for each exhibit and can be accessed by school teachers and students of all grades.

Ontario Jewish Archives

Conservation / Preservation:

The OJA has worked in partnership with Heritage Toronto on an initiative that saw 14 sites of Jewish importance recognized in the city with official heritage plaques. In the summer of 2015, the OJA worked to ensure the safe removal of the Mandel’s Creamery glass window at 29 Baldwin Street that featured original Yiddish writing, saving this historic remnant of Yiddish culture in the Kensington Market area from destruction.

Archives

The archives contains over 1,670 linear metres of textual records documenting the activities of Jewish organizations, institutions and individuals; over 60,000 photographs; 400 oral histories; 2,000 blueprints and drawings created by some of Ontario’s most notable Jewish architects; unpublished histories of Jewish communities in Ontario; Yiddish, Hebrew, and English language newspapers; and the Toronto and London Jewish Directories.

Some of the larger fonds include:

    • Act to End Violence Against Women (formerly Jewish Women International)
    • Benjamin Brown (architect)
    • Board of Jewish Education (Toronto)
    • Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care
    • Canadian Jewish Congress, Ontario Region
    • Canadian Jewish News
    • Jewish Community Centre of Toronto
    • Jewish Family and Child
    • Jewish Immigrant Aid Services of Toronto
    • Jewish Vocational Services of Toronto
    • Men’s Clothing Manufacturers’ Association of Ontario
    • National Council of Jewish Women of Canada
    • Rabbi Nachman Shemen
    • Toronto Haddasah-WIZO
    • United Jewish Appeal Federation of Greater Toronto
    • Zionist Organization of Canada

Other fonds relate to synagogues, families, politicians, and photographers’ collections.

Public Programming:

Educational programming

Works in collaboration with university departments at York University and University of Toronto on research assignments. Provides information literacy sessions to school groups from elementary to university level.

Exhibitions

Occasional exhibits dedicated to telling the history of Jewish communities and prominent Jewish individuals in Ontario.

Public Lectures

PowerPoint presentations and workshops about various aspects of Ontario’s Jewish history, given to historical societies, clubs and lodges, student groups and sometimes to coincide with an exhibition, intended for wide circulation.

Tours

Regular historical walking tours of Kensington Market and Pape Avenue Cemetery.

Multicultural History Society of Ontario

Conservation/Preservation:

Archives

Contains materials related to ethnic and immigration history, including

  • ethnic newspapers, news releases
  • oral history tapes
  • historical photgraphs
  • microfilm collections
  • organizational records
  • personal records
  • passports, diaries, scrapbooks
  • documents from social clubs, mutual aid societies, churches, and political organizations.

Online Resources

Develops and manages digital collections and links to multicultural organizations with digital collections.

Public Programming:

Educational programming

Develops and distributes publications, mounts and circulates exhibitions, and stages conferences, public lectures, and special events. The MHSO also provides professional and technical services and training to teachers and students, scholars and community historians, heritage and cultural organizations, and members of ethnicultural and indigenous communities.

Exhibitions

Travelling exhibits related to ethnic, racial and immigration history are available such as,

  • Chinese Canadian Women, 1923-1967
  • Family Stories, Treasured Memories
  • Many Rivers To Cross: The African Canadian Experience

See the MHSO website for more information about the SOciety’s exhibitions.

Online

The MHSO has developed a number of virtual exhibis and digital learning resources. Links to these sites can be found through the society’s website:

  • http://mhso.ca/wp/multi-faceted-websites/
  • http://mhso.ca/wp/learn-online-resources/

Oral History Museum

Gallery contains oral testimonies with photographs and multimedia technology, illustrating immigration adaption in late 20th-century Toronto. The Museum contains over 9,000 hours of interviews from members of 60 ethnic groups.