The Slovak Canadian Heritage Museum (SCHM) opened in Oshawa in 2010 with the aim of making audiences ‘aware of Slovak heritage in Canada through the exhibition of heritage artifacts.’ The museum (which had previously been located in Markham, a town to the West of Toronto with a long history of Slovak settlement) opened in Oshawa in a former furniture store, originally belonging to a Mr Michna, a Slovak immigrant who came to Canada in 1924. Of the new location (about 30 minutes to the East of Toronto), museum director Margaret Dvorsky says “it’s a good place to start, the city fathers are happy we are here.”
Museum president Margaret Dvorsky and Jaromir Lukac at the SCHM
Visitors to the museum can try their hand at weaving and a number of other traditional needle crafts. On display are items of bobbin lace, embroidered folk costumes (kroje) and fabrics which have been traditionally printed using wax and indigo dye.
Some of the textiles on display at the SCHM
As well as running the museum itself, Margaret, Jaromir, and other members of the SCHM committee organize an annual Slovak Heritage Festival. They packed Recording Voices & Documenting Memories off with a copy of the very first program for the Slovak Heritage Festival in 2004, which included a bilingual Slovak-English map of the festival site in Markham, ON:
Extracts from the first Slovak Heritage Festival program, 2004
More information about the Slovak Canadian Heritage Museum (including a number of particularly lovely photo galleries) can be found on the organization’s website, at http://www.schm.ca/. The museum is staffed by a corps of volunteers and open from Tuesday through Sunday at 485 Ritson Road, Oshawa, Ontario L1H 5K1.
No comments:
Post a Comment