One of the unanticipated benefits of becoming Canadian Citizens is the Cultural Access Pass. The official description of this includes … engages new citizens in cultural experiences through complimentary access to participating institutions in their region. This means I get free access to a bunch of museums and other attractions for a year!
In the five years it has taken to gain the pass most of the institutions are of course very familiar – the Vancouver Art Gallery, theRoyal BC Museum and the Vancouver Museum for instance. The first of these we actually became members of for the first few years. We didn’t renew this year but we still get to go! The Royal BC Museum will be a thrill if we get over to Victoria and the Vancouver Museum has been on the list since we arrived in the city.
This weekend we took the time to visit a couple more of ‘participating institutions’ namely the Museum of Anthropology and the Gulf of Georgia Cannery National Historic Site. The former we are very familiar with, but it was great to go back. If you’ve never been, the totem poles and Bill Reid exhibits are a must, but this time did not have the focus of our attention. What did was the contribution to the exhibit Border Zones: New Art Across Cultures by Gu Xiong. It was wonderful. I have to admit, seeing the preparations for finished Arthur Erickson’s design of the whole building was also cool as was realizing the extent of the World War II Battery on the same site!
Today we visited the Cannery in Steveston. We’ve walked past this so many times so it was great to go in. This is a Parks Canada site and I was truly impressed by what they’ve done. So much history in canned fish! I thoroughly recommend a visit, as I do for all the institutions covered by the Cultural Access Pass. What a great way to start my life as a Canadian!
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