Canadian War Museum hosts Conference: Is Difficult Important? The Canadian Museum and the Search for Social Value

Canadian War Museum hosts Conference:
Is Difficult Important? The Canadian Museum and the Search for Social Value

Ottawa, Ontario, February 11, 2008 — On February 18 and 19, the Canadian War Museum is hosting a conference that will address how Canadian museums and cultural agencies can deal with contested and challenging subjects and methodologies while fulfilling their mandates and serving their attentive publics. The conference will build upon existing scholarly and professional investigations of difficult subject matters to explore the development of best practices in a Canadian context. It will thereby address broader critical issues, including the role of cultural institutions in civil society, community life, and the creation of knowledge.

Conference Themes

• Is it important for cultural institutions to take on difficult subjects?
• How can institutions do it?
• What stories can or should be told?
• How can institutions share these subjects with their audiences?
• Are Canadian institutions doing this well? Or at all?
• How can institutions manage adverse public or media reactions?
• What does the future look like?

Speakers include Patrick O’Reilly, Chief Operating Officer, Canadian Museum for Human Rights; Dr. Dean Oliver, Director of Research and Exhibitions, Canadian War Museum;
Benoît Légaré, Vice-President, Programming, Montréal Science Centre; François Tremblay, Director of exhibitions, Musée de la civilisation de Québec; Andy Masich, President and CEO, Senator John Heinz History Centre; Tim Willis, Director Exhibitions and Visitor Experience, Royal BC Museum; Jennifer Pace-Robinson, VP of Educations and Experience Development, Children’s Museum of Indianapolis; Karen Colby-Stothart, Director of Exhibitions and Installations, National Gallery of Canada; Hooley McLaughlin, Acting Director, Visitor Experience, Ontario Science Centre; and Lisa Leblanc, Manager of Programs and Interpretation, Canadian War Museum.

Registration Information

Registration fee: $50 (includes coffee breaks, two lunches and dinner on Wednesday night)

To register:

By fax: 819 776-8623 (attn: Victoria Copland)

By email: victoria.copland@warmuseum.ca

By mail: attn: Victoria Copland
Canadian War Museum
1 Vimy Place, Ottawa, ON, K1A 0M8

This Conference is made possible with the generous support of the Donner Canadian Foundation.

Media Information

Manager, Communications
Canadian War Museum
Telephone: 819 776-8608