The idea that initiates a museum exhibition can come from anywhere. Sometimes it’s a grand plan, sometimes it’s an offhand comment.
The current exhibition, What’s Old Is New, was born from a conversation with local Redcliff collector Fred Hauck. Fred and I both share a deep interest in history, though we often approach it from different perspectives. One evening, a few years ago, Fred and I were talking about the homesteader period in Alberta, a time when our respective grandparents and great-grandparents came to Alberta to start new lives. Both of us grew up with family stories of the difficulties our ancestors went through in the early 20th century.
Our discussion eventually centred around how innovative early homesteaders could be. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, farmers and ranchers often lived far from towns and cities.
They relied heavily on what they could raise and grow for food and had to make do with the often meagre resources they had. Creativity and resourcefulness were particularly important. Old or broken items were usually repaired, or often kept in case they could be made into something else.
Our conversation, and Fred’s collection of artefacts made and re-made by homesteaders, became the seed from which the What’s Old Is New exhibition grew.
While developing the exhibition, it struck me that, at its core, I was really looking at how people use materials, not just homesteaders.
Throughout history, people across the world have managed their available resources. In the western world today our resources seem endless, but that was not always the case. As a society, we are beginning to realize there are limits. This makes me think of the phrase “reuse, reduce, recycle” and how its meaning has changed over the decades. For instance, an item such as a light-weight plastic water bottle would have once been seen as a useful container, years later as garbage, and now as a recycling obligation and potential commodity. Many items now recycled were once viewed differently, and sometimes still are.
Some artists focus their work on “found objects” where they use or modify materials and objects, combining them into wonderful and thought-provoking pieces. Many people who enjoy a bit of DIY (Do It Yourself) around the house, repurpose and upcycle all sorts of materials. Good examples can be found all over the city in people’s yards, incorporating objects into their gardens, like iron bed frames for flower beds.
Over the past few decades, the world has come to better understand the challenges it faces with the vast amount of manufactured goods that need to be recycled or disposed of. Here at the Esplanade, we are thinking about our role in this. For instance, What’s Old Is New was designed to be recycled after the exhibition ends. The information panels and artefact labels are produced on recycled paper that can be recycled again.
The display cases we reuse all the time, and even the divider walls can be dismantled and used again. Come down and have a look. I am sure everyone can take home an idea of how to look more closely at the materials we use and reuse.
The exhibition is open until the 4th of December, 2021. For more information visit esplanade.ca.
Tom Huilt is the museum collection technician for the Esplanade Arts & Heritage Centre
