Eye on the Esplanade: Connecting
By Aaron Nelson on February 7, 2020.
SUBMITTED PHOTO Aaron Nelson connects with staff members at weekly catch up meeting.
Connecting is what we do at the Esplanade. We connect our community to each other, we connect our community to our past, and we connect our community to the world. Our team that delivers these experiences is connected, skilled and passionate about what they do. Our Archives staff receive calls from all over the world from people seeking meaningful information. They may be interested in their personal genealogy research, or they may be interested in a “history mystery” and are looking to confirm facts. A good example would be the mysterious bunker under the old post office … More on that later.
Connecting to our past is important but we spend an equal amount of time connecting with our future through the more than 5,000 children a year who attend our education programs. These children are learning about our colonial and indigenous past and present, about creativity in the context of our contemporary art spaces and how the objects in our museum are connected to treasures stored in museums in the Ukraine, India and Peru.
Like many museums around the world, the vast majority of the artifacts in our collection are not on display as there is not enough space. So why do we have so many objects? Well think of each object as telling a story, and in fact if a photograph is worth a thousand words, imagine how many words an object is worth. If you think about it, all these words become stories and these stories connect with other stories and these become our shared history. So what might look like a worn our baseball glove in our collection is actually the physical manifestation of a great story that is documented and can be remembered for years to come.
One of the most important thing we can do is connect our community to each other. Many evenings throughout the year, there are anywhere between 300 and 700 people sharing an experience in our theatre. At its core, the theatre is a space to share an experience, whether it is music, theatre, film or dance, the theatre brings people together … to connect. It is a space in our community where we can connect with a circus group from Quebec, a singer songwriter from the Maritimes, or Burton Cummings himself, all memorable experiences.
To circle back to that bunker under the old post office, sorry to break the news, but it wasn’t really a bunker, it was a civil defence emergency hospital, not a real mystery, just good emergency preparedness. However, I will tease you with another mystery. Did you know there is a massive room underneath the theatre at the Esplanade? And did you know that it only has a half door that is over a meter off the ground? What could this possibly be? Is this a bunker? Don’t call the Archives staff, but if you see me around ask me, and I will tell you what it is all about. It will give us a chance to connect.
Aaron Nelson is Manager of Community Connections & Support.
