Call for Artists | Above Ground: Queers in the Kootenays
May 14, 2018 | Call to Artists
EXHIBITION DATES August 27th-September 4th 2018, Location TBA, Nelson, BC September 27th- October 14th 2018, Fernie Museum, Fernie, BC WHY The purpose for this art show is to highlight the work of queer and trans/gender non-conforming artists in the Kootenay region...

Documenting Collections | A Butter Churn
Feb 3, 2018 | Fernie Museum, Museum Collections
This is the first in a series of posts that will highlight the Museum's collections as we continue to evaluate, research, catalogue and rehouse the collections over the next three years. For most of us, it’s just butter: innocuous stacks of foil-wrapped bricks or...

Filumena | The Fernie Museum Goes to the Calgary Opera
Jan 27, 2017 | Fernie History, Fernie Museum, Museum Exhibits, Museum Programs and Events, Touring Exhibits
Emilio Picariello was an adventurous and hard-working family man whose ambitions led him to challenge the law of the land for profit. On the other hand, he was well known in the community for helping the less well off. His contravening of the Prohibition Act,...

Fred Alderson – Hosmer’s Hero
Dec 12, 2016 | Fernie History
It's December 9, 1910. At 7:10 pm, Fred Heale heard a sound. Pop. Not a boom, or a crash, as you might expect. Not a gout of flame or a roar of crumbling rock. Just a small sound, like a distant rifle shot on a windy morning. Pop. Then a gust of burning wind,...

Christmas In Hosmer, 1910
Dec 9, 2016 | Fernie History
Imagine a cold afternoon, in town. It’s a town so young that, if it were a human, it would not yet have taken its first steps- and already it’s bursting with 1,200 people, with shops and hotels and a school, with rutted frozen-mud streets and hastily-erected wood...
Lip Stick and Pin Curls to Boost Morale
Sep 25, 2016 | Fernie History, Fernie Museum
Hardship and heartache were the norm during World War II. Rationing, in every Allied country, made life difficult with shortages of food, clothing and general supplies. Watching young men leave, knowing it might be the last time you glimpsed their faces, would break...
Rationing and Fabric Shortages
Sep 6, 2016 | Fernie History, Fernie Museum
Rationing, making do, shortages – no matter who you were or where you lived in the early 1940s this was the stuff of daily life. Every effort was being made to win the war. Keeping spirits up also required a huge effort. Despite blackouts in the face of nightly...
Shoulder Pads and Knee-length Skirts
Sep 2, 2016 | Fernie History, Fernie Museum
Jackets enhanced with shoulder pads, narrow waists, knee length skirts – my uniform for work during the 1980s. But it wasn’t the cusp of a new innovative design in fashion – it was a nod to the difficult war years of the early 1940s. What I love about the Fernie...
Exhibit Inspiration
May 24, 2016 | Fernie History, Fernie Museum
It's a rare and welcomed thing when you read or see or experience something that inspires you to act. We are inundated with images, stories and views every day but it's not often that many of us are moved to act upon any given source. Last year the Fernie Museum did...
Museum Summer Camps – Felting, Forging and Printmaking
Apr 12, 2016 | Fernie History, Fernie Museum
A guiding principle of the Fernie Museum is that one can learn from the past - past events, past activities, past traditions - and that learning leads to a better understanding our world today. The museum’s summer camps will be a chance for kids to connect Fernie’s...