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...
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Museum Summer Camps – Felting, Forging and Printmaking
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...
Meditation and the Practice of Photography
Meditation and the Practice of Photography Norman Riley created the Peace Park Perspectives exhibit after completing his artist in residence program at Glacier National Park last summer. He reflects here on his experience and how the experience was about more than...
Saving Community Memory
In a race against time, the Fernie Museum's Community Memory Project seeks to document the memories of the current generation of community elders to help create a greater understanding of our history. This project will build on the research of past museum staff and...
A 13 year old miner: The tragic tale of Stephen Balayti
This is the story of one of Fernie's ghosts - the tragic tale of a young man lost in the 1902 Coal Creek Mine Explosion; the largest mine disaster in BC's history in which 130 men and boys perished. Stephen wasn’t more than a lick of a kid at 13 when he started...
Fernie’s Italian Community Cultural Memory Project
The Rise and Fall of Emilio Picariello travelling exhibit that opened at the Fernie Museum on September 19, 2015 revealed a deep-seated desire to understand Fernie’s past. This was particularly true for members of the Italian community. At museum visits and the...
A 1900s Cold Case Examined
Emilio Picariello is a character who captures the imagination. His entrepreneurial spirit garnered him many successful legal businesses. The rising tide of Prohibition, meant that bootlegging was a natural progression of “Emperor Pick’s” acumen. However bootlegging...
The Roots of Brewing in Fernie
In celebration of the Fernie Brewing Company's Cheers to Charity Program here's a quick look at the origins of brewing in Fernie. The Fernie Museum is the recipient of the proceeds of the Cheers program until February 13. Go have a paddle in the FBC tasting room,...
Guilty or Innocent? A Curator’s Perspective
Finding the smoking gun ... A historian (and curator) wants lots and lots of archival material – documents, correspondence, newspaper accounts, diaries, journals, photographs, etc. – to consult so as to be able to tell a compelling story. The icing on the cake is if...
What is a Chautauqua?
Chautauquas were held annually in Fernie from 1918 to the late 1920s. Chautauqua was a travelling institution begun at Chautauqua Lake, NY with roots in Canadian Methodist Temperance rallies. Chautauquas carried education, inspiration and entertainment across North...