It’s the 100th anniversary of the world’s first planetarium show! Join Scott Young, our Manitoba Museum Planetarium Astronomer, in the theatre to learn a bit more about how our Planetarium works to show audiences the Universe.
Have you ever stopped to watch a short film at the Allen Theatre in the Winnipeg 1920 Cityscape? Affectionately referred to as “The Charlie Chaplin Theatre” in “The Old Town”, like many businesses in the Cityscape, the theatre actually represents a real place in 1920 Winnipeg!
Join Erin in this video to learn more about the Allen Theatre.
Wow, it’s been four years. I can hardly believe how quickly the time has passed. Stepping into the CEO role at the Manitoba Museum was and continues to be one of the most incredible privileges of my life. As I reflect on my journey, I am filled with gratitude—not only for the opportunity to lead but also for the lessons, challenges, and joys that come with it. Leading in the museum field is especially meaningful, as it demands a deep engagement with history, community, and the future.
Anyone who has changed roles or employers mid-career appreciates the importance of being a lifelong learner. While experience provides a foundation, leadership is never static, and new spaces demand we get comfortable with not having all the answers. Every decision, every challenge, and every collaboration offers a chance to grow. I have come to appreciate and enjoy that learning is not a phase or chapter but a lifelong commitment; it’s part of the entire story. Here, I’ve been given the chance to expand my understanding of museum best practices, how museums can be allies in Truth and Reconciliation, how places of history can and must be places of justice. The Manitoba Museum has refined my ability to navigate change, has called on my courage time and again, and has forced me out of ideas and knowledge I felt comfortable in. I can’t fully express how grateful I am for the ways this role has changed me. Since day one, and often still today, I don’t have many of the answers but I’ve learned to ask thoughtful, curious, open-ended questions, inviting new perspectives, and being willing to evolve.
Leadership is never a solo endeavour. I am profoundly fortunate to be surrounded by passionate, talented colleagues who share a commitment to the Manitoba Museum’s mission. Their dedication to preserving and sharing history, engaging with visitors from near and far, and ensuring our institution’s future is inspiring. In a world that feels ever more chaotic and fragmented, working alongside individuals who care deeply about their work is both grounding and invigorating. The collaborative spirit, the exchange of ideas, and the shared excitement for new projects make every day meaningful.
One of the more complex aspects of leadership is balancing a deep love for an institution with a recognition that change is necessary. Museums are places of tradition, yet they must also be places of transformation. As much as I respect the history and legacy of our museum, I also see areas where we must evolve—to be more inclusive, more accessible, more reflective of the diverse stories that make up our shared past. Loving a place means wanting the best for it, even when that means advocating for difficult but necessary shifts. Growth and progress are acts of care, and it is through change that institutions remain relevant and vital.
The longer I work in this field, the more I appreciate how essential museums are to our collective well-being. Museums are not just repositories of objects; they are spaces where communities gather, where histories are honoured, and where learning happens in profound and unexpected ways. They challenge us to think critically, to feel deeply, and to connect with perspectives beyond our own. At their best, museums are catalysts for conversation, empathy, and action. In an era where misinformation and polarization can cloud understanding, museums offer a space for nuanced exploration of the past and its implications for the present and future.
Working in a museum has reinforced for me the importance of engaging with history not just as a record of what was, but as a guide for what could be. History teaches us what must never be allowed to happen again. In our relationship with the past, the Manitoba Museum is not neutral, meaning, we are not mere observers. We work to acknowledge our shared failings, sit in the discomfort of contemporary injustice, and seek to have a nuanced dialogue with the all too-familiar present we find ourselves in. The past is full of complexities, triumphs, and wrongs. To truly honour history, we must be willing to look at it unflinchingly, to confront uncomfortable truths, and to amplify voices that have too often been silenced. This is not always an easy task, but it is a necessary one. When we engage with history bravely and deliberately, we uncover lessons that help us navigate today’s challenges with greater wisdom, resilience, and compassion.
As I continue on this leadership journey, I carry with me a deep appreciation for the experiences that have shaped me, the people who inspire me, and the mission that guides me. Leadership is not just about directing change—it is about nurturing a culture where curiosity, courage, and collaboration thrive. It is about ensuring that museums continue to be places where history illuminates the present and inspires a better future.
I am grateful for the chance to do this work, for the colleagues who walk this path with me, and for the ever-evolving lessons that come with leading in a space so vital to our collective story. The challenges are many, but the rewards—the opportunity to shape a meaningful, inclusive, and forward-thinking institution—are immeasurable. For that, I am truly thankful.
Dorota Blumczyńska
Manitoba Museum CEO
May brings us later sunsets and shorter nights, making stargazing a late-night affair. With some bright planets, a meteor shower, and lots of interesting events, it’s well worth staying up for.
Mercury is too low to the horizon to be visible from Canadian latitudes this month.
Venus is low in the eastern sky just before dawn, only visible because it is so bright that you can spot it even when all the other stars have been devoured by the dawn. It stays in essentially the same spot relative to the horizon each morning, its orbital motion around the Sun offset by our own planet’s motion.
Mars begins the month near the Beehive star cluster (M44) in the constellation of Cancer the Crab. It slowly moves left (east) relative to the stars, but the Sun is moving faster and starts to catch up to it. This means Mars is lower at sunset and sets earlier each day. On May 1st, Mars is about halfway up the sky in the west-southwest as it gets dark. By month’s end, it is only about half as high above the horizon and due west once the sky is dark. It’s also fading fast, no longer outshining all of the stars as it did this past winter.
Jupiter is slipping into the sunset as well, low in the west-northwest as darkness falls. It’s already probably too low for very good telescopic views, but take your last looks this month before it disappears completely behind the Sun.
Saturn is low in the east at sunrise, difficult to spot due to the bright twilight until mid-month. The ringed planet reaches its equinox in May, which means the rings are perfectly aligned with the Sun and cast no shadow on the planet. The rings are largely invisible from Earth as well, being tilted only a few degrees from our line of sight.
Uranus passes behind the Sun as seen from Earth on May 17, and is invisible all month.
Neptune is near Venus in the bright twilight sky before sunrise, but will be very difficult to spot until later this year (and impossible without a telescope)..
Of the five known dwarf planets, none are visible with typical backyard telescopes this month. However, the asteroid (4) Vesta reaches its brightest point this month, just barely visible to the unaided eye as a faint “star” in a sea of other faint stars. Figuring out which dot is Vesta requires patience and a detailed chart like the one in the RASC Observer’s Handbook or planetarium software like Stellarium.
All times are given in the local time for Manitoba: Central Daylight Time (UTC-5). However, most of these events are visible across Canada at the same local time without adjusting for time zones.
Thursday, May 1, 2025 (evening): Mars and the Beehive star cluster are in the same field of view of a typical pair of binoculars tonight, and for the next several nights. You can spot Mars’ motion from night to night against the distant background stars.
Friday, May 2, 2025 (all night): The asteroid Vesta is at its brightest, although it will be almost the same brightness for the next two weeks.
Saturday, May 3, 2025 (evening): The nearly-first-quarter Moon joins Mars and the Beehive star cluster (see image above). Today is also International Astronomy Day, and events are planned across the country and around the world to bring astronomy to the public. The Planetarium will join the Winnipeg Centre of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada and Assiniboine Park Conservancy for a free telescope session at Assiniboine Park near the duck pond (weather permitting). Event details here.
Sunday, May 4, 2025 (evening): First Quarter Moon.
Tuesday, May 6, 2025 (morning): Saturn’s rings cast no shadow on the planet (visible only in telescopes). This morning is also the peak of the annual Eta Aquariid meteor shower, which may produce about 10 meteors per hour in the hours between 2am and dawn today.
Monday, May 12, 2025: Full Moon.
Tuesday, May 20, 2025: Last Quarter Moon.
Thursday, May 22, 2025 (morning sky): The Moon is near Saturn in the predawn sky, with brighter Venus farther east.
Friday, May 23, 2025 (morning sky): The Moon has moved to a point midway between brilliant Venus and much fainter Saturn, low in the eastern sky before sunrise.
Monday, May 26, 2025 (evening): New Moon
Outside of the regular events listed above, there are other things we see in the sky that can’t always be predicted in advance.
Aurora borealis, the northern lights, are becoming a more common sight again as the Sun goes through the maximum of its 11-year cycle of activity. Particles from the Sun interact with the Earth’s magnetic field and the high upper atmosphere to create glowing curtains of light around the north (and south) magnetic poles of the planet. Manitoba is well-positioned relative to the north magnetic pole to see these displays often, but they still can’t be forecast very far in advance. A site like Space Weather can provide updates on solar activity and aurora forecasts for the next 48 hours. The best way to see the aurora is to spend a lot of time out under the stars, so that you are there when they occur.,
Random meteors (also known as falling or shooting stars) occur every clear night at the rate of about 5-10 per hour. Most people don’t see them because of light pollution from cities, or because they don’t watch the sky uninterrupted for an hour straight. They happen so quickly that a single glance down at your phone or exposure to light can make you miss one.
Satellites are becoming extremely common sights in the hours after sunset and before dawn. Appearing as a moving star that takes a few minutes to cross the sky, they appear seemingly out of nowhere. These range from the International Space Station and Chinese space station Tianhe, which have people living on them full-time, to remote sensing and spy satellites, to burnt-out rocket parts and dead satellites. These can be predicted in advance (or identified after the fact) using a site like Heavens Above by selecting your location.
What do our conservators do when there isn’t a box the right size to fit a particular artifact? They make one of course! These custom boxes are designed to fit each item perfectly, supporting its conservation for years to come. In this video, join Assistant Conservator Estelle in the lab to learn how she makes these precise pieces.
There’s a lot of buzz in the news right now surrounding the future of the Hudson’s Bay Company and their heritage collection, and it has brought up a lot of questions regarding the beloved HBC Museum Collection here at the Manitoba Museum. While I can’t speak to the artifacts that are currently owned by the HBC, I can offer some reassurances and some history behind the over 27,000 artifacts that are here under our care at the Manitoba Museum.
The HBC Museum Collection originated in the 1920s as part of the Company’s 250th anniversary celebrations. The collection was pulled together from artifacts collected by former and current employees, with one retired employee being sent on a large-scale collecting mission. The method of acquisition for these artifacts is part of my current research, I have been doing a lot of archival digging trying to track down how they acquired these belongings. Nevertheless, a collection came together and was originally exhibited in the Winnipeg store (first at York and Main, later once the larger department store construction was finished it moved to the location at Portage and Colony), and later in other department stores across the country.
Image: The original HBC Museum Collection display in the store at Main and York, before it moved to the larger department store in 1926 (Source: HBCA 1987-363-H-23-64)
The Collection was then loaned to the Province of Manitoba in 1960 and was on display and housed at Lower Fort Garry, under the curation of Barbara Johnstone. Eventually HBC looked to find a more permanent home for the collection where it would be publicly accessible. After many lengthy discussions, and through the support of First Nations leaders like Phil Fontaine, it was decided that the Manitoba Museum was the best place. In 1994, the HBC officially gifted the collection, deemed a collection of National Historic Significance by the Canadian Cultural Properties and Export Review Board, as a gift to the Nation to the Manitoba Museum (then called the Manitoba Museum of Man and Nature).
Inside the HBC Museum Collection storage areas, located above the HBC Gallery.
The Manitoba Museum has been the custodian of this significant collection ever since, and through the development of the HBC Gallery established a permanent display for part of the collection. The items that are not on display are still accessible for community members, researchers, students, and artists, and many belongings are loaned to other institutions for public display as well.
Rest assured, the HBC Museum Collection here is safe for future generations to come and enjoy, and I encourage you to come visit if you have not been to the Manitoba Museum in a while! The Nonsuch and HBC Galleries remain popular with visitors of all ages, but we’ve made some amazing upgrades in some of our other permanent galleries too. Museums play an important role in preserving history for the public and keeping it accessible, and visiting Museums helps support these institutions so they can continue to serve the public for years to come.
One prevailing comment I hear about my job, whether in person or via social media, is “your job sounds so cool!” And you know what? It is. But I’m about to reveal the dark underbelly of my job, the bane of my existence, the thing that frustrates me to my core: dirty data.
Last year, the Museum implemented a new Collections Management System (CMS) after years with an old database that was vintage in all the wrong ways. The worst part of our old database was the inability to control the data being entered into the system, resulting in dirty data in desperate need of attention.
Dirty data is incorrect data, misspellings, outdated or inaccurate information found in various fields in our database.
One cause of dirty data is information changing over time, like the reclamation of First Nations place names or changes to the nomenclature we use to categorize objects, leading to inaccuracies in our existing data. However, the biggest culprit of dirty data in our system is human error. With hundreds of individuals creating or entering data into dozens of fields over a fifty-year period, mistakes are bound to happen. This ranges from simple spelling errors to lazy cataloguing resulting in variations in what should be one accurate piece of data.
Here we see many variations on the name of a now-defunct Winnipeg-based beverage company: Blackwoods, Blackwood’s, Blackwoods Ltd., Blackwood’s Ltd. Over the years, different cataloguers have entered the manufacturer name in various ways, either due to information available to them, like the name ‘Blackwoods’ embossed on a bottle, or an error in judgement.
In case you’re dying to know, the correct name is Blackwoods Ltd.
Dirty data is bad for a handful of reasons. One, the most detrimental to the function of the CMS, is reduced data quality – these errors mean that impacted objects are overlooked in searches of the system.
For instance, if I searched for Culture = Canadian, any records with the erroneous Canadain or Canandian in the Culture field would be missing from my results. Due to a typing error, we could be missing out on key objects that would be super relevant to a curator or researcher.
Another downside of dirty data is damage to our reputation. Errors in our collections data have an impact on how others may perceive us – if this particular data is incorrect, what else is incorrect? We have an obligation, as a museum, to maintain and provide accurate, up-to-date information about our collections.
We are currently in this phase of our new CMS implementation. I’m exporting data, reviewing it, making necessary changes, and then importing the cleansed data back into the database.
Here, I’m standardizing the nomenclature for our History collection. Our former database had Category and Class fields and now I’m also adding the tertiary Subclass dataset, which will allow us to get even more detailed in searches without having to exclusively use Object Name. For example, I can now search Drinking Vessels and get all the cups, mugs, tankards, glasses, teacups, tumblers, etc. in the collection instead of having to search individually for all these kinds of objects.
We also have a handy-dandy “search and replace” feature that the database “super users” (where’s my cape?!) can use to easily swap out one dataset for another.
Our new collections management system has some key features that helps us prevent the entry of dirty data:
Further to this, additional training and support for the creators of data is also a top priority moving forward. Will some dirty data still sneak in now and then? Absolutely. But then I’ll be there to scrub it clean.
Zara Nelsova was known as the Queen of the Cello, but did you know she was from Winnipeg? Learn more about the life of this famous cellist and get a close look at three of her performance gowns in Cortney’s latest video.
Happy Earth Day! Renewable energy is critical to having a healthy planet. Here in Manitoba we have a lot of rivers and stream, which we harness to create hydroelectricity! But how does it work?
Join Mike in the Science Gallery to watch a demo with our hydroelectric generator.
The immersive dioramas at the Manitoba Museum are many people’s favourite part of the Museum. Did you know that five of the classic dioramas were designed and painted by iconic Canadian artist Clarence Tillenius?
Learn more about his process in this video with Erin.
