We're taking our Canada Day activities online this year! Please join us for a guided exhibition tour of our exhibition Taking the Long View, art activities, plus a quiz and puzzles with great prizes. We're partnering with Fanshawe Pioneer Village, London Children's Museum, and the London Heritage Council for a full day of activities. Learn more by clicking here. All activities and full schedule will be released shortly.
Schedule
10:00 am
-History Quiz, prize: 30 limited edition cloth face masks
-Online Puzzle #1, prize: jigsaw puzzle
-Online Collection Contest, prize: tote bag
11:00 am
-Puzzle #2, prize: jigsaw puzzle
11:15 am
-Taking the Long View exhibition tour
12:00 pm
-Yoga moment
-Puzzle #3, prize: jigsaw puzzle
12:30 pm
-Grey Jay Art Activity
1:00 pm
-Puzzle #4, prize: jigsaw puzzle
1:15 pm
-Tree Ring Collage Art Activity
2:00 pm
-Puzzle #5, prize: jigsaw puzzle
2:45 pm
-Maple Leaf Rubbings Art Activity
3:00 pm
-Puzzle #6, prize: jigsaw puzzle
Sunset
-Poems by Thomas King projected at the Museum
Contests
Canada Day History Quiz - 10:00 am to midnight
Start your day off with a brain teasing history quiz and hourly puzzles! The quiz and contest rules will be released on our Facebook page at 10:00 am on Canada Day and you'll have until midnight to complete it. Those with the 30 best scores will win a limited edition cloth face mask by Robin Henry of the Indigenous arts education space, Rezonance Printing. Prizes will be available for curbside pickup at a later date.
Museum Puzzles - hourly from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm
The puzzles will be also be released on our Facebook page at 10:00 am, 11:00 am, 12:00 pm, 1:00 pm, 2:00 pm, and 3:00 pm. The puzzlers with the fastest time for each online puzzle will receive a physical 1,000 piece Group of Seven or Tom Thomson jigsaw puzzle. E-mail abidinosti@museumlondon.ca with a screenshot of your completed puzzle (completed puzzle and your time must be visible) by midnight on Canada Day to be entered. The prize puzzle will not be the same painting as the online puzzle. Prizes will be available for curbside pickup at a later date.
What's Your Favourite in our Collection? - 10:00 am to midnight
We want to know what your favourite work of art is at the Museum!
-Take a look at our online art collection
-Share your favourite piece on your social media (make sure to include the title and the artist's name) and tag #MuseumLdn @MuseumLondon
-And e-mail mshreeram@museumlondon.ca with your favourite piece to be entered. We'll be giving out tote bags to the first 30 that e-mail us! Prizes will be available for curbside pickup at a later date.
Exhibition Tour and Art Tutorial Videos
Taking the Long View Exhibition Tour - 11:15 am
Join us for a virtual exhibition tour with an introduction by Cassandra Getty, our Curator of Art. We'll be taking you on a guided walkthrough of our permanent collection exhibition, Taking the Long View and highlighting key works. The video will be launched on our Facebook page on Canada Day and will be available for watching after as well.
Yoga Moment - 12:00 pm
Join us on our Facebook page at noon for a short three minute yoga stretch with Celina Marlatt.
Grey Jay Art Activity - 12:30 pm
Did you know that Canada's national bird is the Canada Jay? It is also known as the grey jay or the whisky jack, which is a variation on the name Wisakedjak, a benevolent trickster in Cree, Algonquin, and Menominee cultures. Art instructor Jacqueline Demendeev will lead an online video tutorial showing you how to create one using materials you can find at home. You'll be able to watch the video on our Facebook page on Canada Day.
Explore the relaxing practice of illustrating the natural world. Learn a few simple techniques to assemble and create a personalized drawing of the Canadian Grey Jay. No prior art experience is required.
Recommended materials:
1. bird template printed or traced off of a computer screen (see template image below)
2. Scissors
3. A piece of paper that is 8 inches by 10 inches or larger. Cardstock is ideal, but printer paper will do in a pinch.
4. Pencil
5. Pencil crayons in: Grey, Brown, Green, Black
6. Optional: Blue watercolour paint, paintbrush and water
Tree Ring Collage Art Activity - 1:15 pm
Join artist Angela Van Velzer as we explore a year in the life of a tree. Canada is turning 153 years old in 2020. What does a year feel like to you? Look at the shape, colour, and number of rings in a tree to consider its lived time. Excavate through piles of old paper wrap, newsprint, cards, notes or maps around the house to make a tree ring collage of your own lived history.
Recommended Materials:
1. many sheets of construction paper/coloured cardstock/painted paper/newsprint/old school notes
2. scissor
3. glue
4. markers/oil pastel/pencil crayon/crayon
5. mount on matte board, wood panel, glass, or cardstock
Optional Materials:
-yarn/string/thread and needle
-black ink pen/marker/magazine cut out words
-Painted Paper: If you have old scraps of paper (old school notes, newspaper, maps) why not give them a second life with adding paint (watercolour or acrylic) to give them a lift. Prep these before carrying out the art project as the paper will need time to dry.
Maple Leaf Rubbings Art Activity - 2:45 pm
Get to know our national symbol in a new way. Go for a nature walk and locate maple trees in your neighbourhood. We all know the big sugar maple leaf from the Canadian flag. There are also soft silver maples, feathery Japanese maples, or purple Norway maple trees around London. You might want to thank the tree for bringing you its shade, quiet, and steady presence before taking a leaf for this art project. Can you guess how old this tree is? The oldest known maple tree in the world is right here in Ontario near Peterborough and it is 330 years.
Artist Jen Hamilton shows us how to make a leaf print using the centuries old practice of rubbings. Gather your supplies together and watch as the textured surface of the leaf transfers onto your piece of paper. Make multiple copies in different colours on a single sheet of paper. Name your creation or add words to describe your relationship to the trees in your neighbourhood.
Recommended materials:
1. paper
2. pencil
3. coloured pencils or crayons
4. leaves
Thomas King Projected Poetry
Enjoy an evening walk at the Forks of the Thames / Deshkan Ziibi after dusk July 1st and discover a late-night art project. Museum London will be projecting selections from Guelph writer Thomas King's new poetry book 77 Fragments of a Familiar Ruin on our massive two storey windows facing the river. "These poems are a eulogy for what we have squandered, a suggestion for what might be salvaged, a poetic quarrel with our intolerant and greedy selves, and mythological currents that flow through North America."
The projections will run all night and if you are not able to view it, we will be re-screening on other evenings in July, dates to be posted.
Face Masks by Robin Henry
Touch as a Scarcity
Robin Henry is an illustrator and print maker in London who, they write, “pulls influence from both their european and Anishinaabe backgrounds. These face masks appropriate Michelangelo's Sistine chapel mural by depicting god and Adam’s hands reaching out just shy of touching one another. A familiar feeling, and an iconic image, made more relevant and more intimate in these times. Touch as a scarce commodity. Each of these face masks is hand printed and entirely unique.”
Canada Day London 2020 activities are made possible by the Government of Canada.
Grey Jay Template
