Collecting Birds: A Beak Behind the Scenes
November 26, 2009 - May 30, 2010
Level 2, Museum

Become a Junior Curator and discover what happens in our natural history labs and storage rooms. See how bird skeletons are prepared. Get the closest look ever at a stuffed puffin. Use bird specimens to learn lots of fascinating facts about the diversity of our feathered friends.

Unrequited Death: Helen Gregory
December 4, 2009 - May 16, 2010
Level 4, Art Gallery

The work of Helen Gregory ponders the boundaries of transience and permanence, nature and culture. The artist’s ongoing investigation of the act of collecting by focusing on organic forms such as skulls, bones, desiccated birds and dead flowers has resulted in a body of work that is simultaneously dramatic, haunting, macabre, beautiful and ostentatious. This exhibition is curated by Lisa Moore.

Water and ice have been recurring themes in the work of Canadian artist Jan Kabatoff. Most recently, the world’s glaciers have been her source of fascination, reflecting deep concerns with change, transformation and the interconnectedness of the natural world.

Since 2005, Kabatoff journeyed to seven different glaciers from Alberta to Mongolia to the southernmost reaches of South America, charting their ephemeral nature as global warming accelerates their melting. Ice Flows and Sound Retreats is a multi-media installation combining painting, mould impressions, hand-dyed textiles, photography and sound recordings of glacial ‘voices’; an experience linking science and human wonder with a shared, growing concern. 

In this new body of work, St. John’s artist Greg Bennett explores the imagery and symbolic value of horses. Bennett’s paintings -full of doubled and mirrored images, overlapping planes and repeating motifs- offer surfaces where the material and the dreamlike meet.

Greg Bennett is the latest artist-in-residence participating in The Rooms’ Space-Based program. This initiative supports emerging and mid-career artists in the creation of new work within our on-site studio.

The Rooms Provincial Archives Division is pleased to present its latest exhibition - Storefront. Storefront is based on the holdings of the Still Images Collection of The Rooms Provincial Archives Division and features historic images of storefronts predominantly from the Water Street area of St. John's, ranging in date from the 1890s to 1955.

The Still Images collection of The Rooms Provincial Archives Division contains over 400,000 images, representing subjects and photographers from around Newfoundland and Labrador. The images for the Storefront exhibition show long-gone scenes from the daily work of shops and the shop owners who ran them. They offer a glimpse into the historic business practices of these businesses, the products sold, architecture and advertising techniques used at the time.

Storefront appears in the Level 2 vitrine exhibition area of The Rooms and will be on display until summer 2010. Digital reproductions of the images featured in Storefront and other images from The Rooms Provincial Archives Division may be obtained by contacting the Archives by telephone at 709-757-8030 or by visiting: http://www.therooms.ca/archives/still_images.asp

For more information about the exhibition or the photographic holdings, please contact:

Sandra Ronayne, Archivist - Still and Moving Images
The Rooms Provincial Archives Division
757-8087, sandraronayne@therooms.ca 

Come and explore the life cycle of an artifact as we prepare a wide selection of rarely seen treasures from our collections for their journey to our regional museum in Grand Bank. From carriages and sleighs, to lighthouses and fishing boats, watch, learn and discover the ‘whys’ and the ‘hows’ with our curators, conservators, cataloguers and collections managers as they clean, restore, and research the province’s treasures.

Explore the history of some of the first money used in Canada at the Colony of Avalon in Ferryland. Rare coins and artifacts from this exciting archaeological site are featured along with coins from the National Currency Collection in Ottawa.

A travelling exhibition from the Bank of Canada’s Currency Museum.

View some of our most interesting new things – antique artifacts, archaeological finds and specimens from nature - all recently acquired for the Museum in our three collecting areas - History, Archaeology & Ethnology and Natural History. Prepare to be intrigued.

As a participant in The Rooms’ Space-Based Program, Tara Bryan explores the form and allure of icebergs in this new series of large mixed-media canvases, projections and molded paper sculpture.

Since 1952 this annual competition has afforded a special opportunity for writers, composers and visual artists to showcase their talents through a variety of media. The Rooms is pleased to present work by the winners of the visual art section of the competition, alongside those designated honorable mentions or works of merit.

Oil explores one of the most important subjects of our time by one of the most respected and recognized contemporary photographers in the world. Edward Burtynsky has travelled internationally to chronicle the production, distribution, and use of this critical fuel. In addition to revealing the rarely-seen mechanics of its manufacture, Burtynsky photographs the effects of oil on our lives, depicting landscapes altered by its extraction from the earth and by the cities and suburban sprawl generated around its use. He also addresses the coming "end of oil," as we confront its rising cost and dwindling availability.

Edward Burtynsky: Oil is made possible with the generous support of Scotiabank Group. This exhibition is organized by the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Angela Antle, Pierre Leblanc and Anne Troake (Canada); and Slavek Kwi, Anthony Kelly and David Stalling (Ireland) have created artwork in response to visits to the Port au Port Peninsula, Newfoundland and Valentia Island, Ireland. Their moving image, photo-installation and sound works function as metaphors for change. Shorelines is organized through Sir Wilfred Grenfell College Art Gallery and curated by Charlotte Jones and Sean McCrum.

As part of the Celebrating Bartlett 2009 commemorative year and to mark the 100th anniversary of the 1909 expedition to the North Pole, The Rooms is featuring an exhibition of archival records relating to the life and career of Captain Robert Abram (Bob) Bartlett, the Bartlett family, and Hawthorne Cottage - the family residence in Brigus. The exhibition highlights textual records, photographic images and certificates from the newly acquired Parks Canada Collection of Bartlett records that are also available to the public for research.

Find out why so many people from Trepassey to Tilting describe themselves as Irish Newfoundlanders. An Tine Beo: The Living Tradition Newfoundland - Ireland Archival Records - visit this new information station and search photos and finding aids allowing you to begin to uncover your own Irish roots.

A project of the governments of Newfoundland and Labrador and Ireland, with generous support from Tom and Susan Foran.

This exhibition introduces you to the Irish who have been here since the late 1600s while exploring the communities they built and celebrating the contributions they made to life here in Newfoundland.

A project of the governments of Newfoundland and Labrador and Ireland, with generous support from Tom and Susan Foran.

Connections : This Place and Its Early Peoples
Ongoing
Level 3, Museum

A Tour de Fort
Ongoing
Atrium

Stroll the grounds of Fort Townshend where British soldiers marched and police paraded. Inside, interpretive panels tell the story of this 18th century symbol of England’s domination over the international fishery and the proud history of the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary who have made the site their home since 1870.