Commitment
The Musée de la Côte-Nord’s educational mission is twofold, aiming both to generate and share knowledge and to create opportunities to question that knowledge. It’s all about encouraging visitors to discover content and engage them to continue their visit through participative tools and activities. With our status as an accredited museum institution, 4 educational or cultural activities and 2 educational activities must be implemented annually.
Target audiences include both tourists and the local population, in whom the Musée aims to foster a sense of belonging. To further that aim, the Musée wishes to implement attractive and instructive programming, where artifacts and archival records are showcased to immerse each visitor into co-building the region’s history.
Thus, our educational mission furthers our efforts to curate and manage collections drawn from the Côte-Nord’s shared heritage.
This positioning must translate into dissemination activities, through educational and cultural programming. The Musée de la Côte-Nord is therefore committed to promoting its collections by offering activities of various kinds showing a range of content designed to generate and increase visitors’ interest in and understanding of its historical, scientific and artistic exhibits.
- Aligning our educational mission and collection management
- Anchoring to the community
- Elevating the Musée’s community life
- Increasing partnership opportunities
- Accessing new financing programs
Educational strengths
The educational program underscores the areas covered by the Musée’s mission: historical, ethnographical and archaeological heritage; natural sciences; and the arts.
Our collections cover themes such as traditional trades on the Côte-Nord, modes of transportation, traditional Innu clothing and equipment, and the first missionaries’ objects of worship. The use of the Côte-Nord’s hunting and fishing resources and its endemic fauna are also covered.
In terms of human resources, the Musée can count on a well-trained team to support its educational mission: education and cultural action officer, curators, researchers, Vieux-Poste coordinators, and event hosts.
Lastly, on the material and physical fronts, the Musée implements its various activities thanks to professional-grade exhibition rooms, storerooms to ensure the appropriate preservation of its collections, and facilities for community activities. The Musée also manages the operations of the Vieux-Poste de Sept-Îles historical site.
Collections
Collections of forestry tools, miniature modes of transportation, children’s clothing, traditional Innu and non-Indigenous clothing and equipment, medical instruments and objects of worship form part of this collection. They tell us about the trades, architecture, travel, clothing art and worship throughout the various periods.
Within this collection are artifacts from the Paleohistoric period (from 8,000 to 500 years before present) as well as some originating from a trading post (Sept-Îles c. 1673-1842) and a fishing operation (Brador c. 1700-1850). They teach us about the technologies, animal hunting, leather working, use of hunting and fishing resources, trading and daily life before the territory was colonized during the second half of the 19th century.
A vast collection of about 60 stuffed mammals, birds and fish teaches us about the Côte-Nord’s endemic fauna (climate adaptation, food, habitat, migration…). A vast collection of many hundreds of fossils teaches us about the evolution of animal life before the advent of proto-humans.
Educational guidelines
The guidelines are derived from the general objectives set out in the mission statement.
- Offer visitors meaningful experiences (visits, activities, etc.) in the fields of ethnohistory, archaeology, natural sciences and visual arts.
- Spark participants’ curiosity and foster the development of cultural landmarks useful to interpret the modern world.
- Promote universal access to museum culture and raise visitors’ awareness about the role of museums in preserving and disseminating heritage.
- Decentralize educational offerings in order to reach the public and educational institutions throughout the Côte-Nord’s territory.
- Strengthen and create partnerships with external organizations and involve them in the programming planning process, in order to foster their audiences’ sense of belonging to the Musée and meet the needs of local communities.
Specific objectives
The guidelines are derived from the general objectives set out in the mission statement.
- Develop collecting areas in order to build a collection representative of the Côte-Nord, in line with the educational guidelines.
- Host two exhibitions aimed at school audiences as part of annual programming.
- Offer VIP activities via the reception team to accompany travelling, temporary and permanent exhibitions.
- Plan workshops in line with our mission and our ongoing exhibitions on the first Sunday of every month.
- Develop temporary exhibits for schools and families. Rigorously monitor audiences’ interests and level of appreciation. Collaborate with educational institutions to plan annual programming and related activities to ensure they are aligned with the Québec Education Program.
- Collaborate with educational institutions to plan annual programming and related activities to ensure they are aligned with the Québec Education Program.
- Develop cultural programming aimed at bringing communities closer together.
- Showcase the work of the Côte-Nord’s artists and artisans through the store and cultural programming.
- Allocate a budget for event hosting and education activities as well as for the development of educational collections.
In terms of human resources, the Musée will focus on recruiting a person trained in event hosting/education and heritage interpretation, and on specializing its existing staff. The creation of an education committee and the inclusion of an educator into the programming panel may eventually complement this focus.
In terms of physical resources, the Musée will maintain spaces for educational activities and will continue using its youth room as a place to showcase community/art projects. Depending on the nature and needs of its operations, the Musée may also build an educational collection specially for use by the educational program. Lastly, it will also oversee the development of digital tools to accompany visits.
In terms of programs and services offered, the Musée intends to develop activities in line with the Québec Education Program and its components rooted in contemporary Québec’s cultural, economic, geographical, historical, social and political realities: land use, evolving practices, resource use, transport development, etc. These activities will also be an opportunity to showcase the Musée’s professions: conservation of artifacts and archival records, documentation, exhibition planning, archaeological digs, etc.
Lastly, depending on the exhibitions, pre-visit activities, visit and post-visit activities, creative workshops and off-site activities will allow the Musée to achieve its objectives, honour its guiding principles and reach target audiences.
Intervention approach
Programs and services offered
The guidelines are derived from the general objectives set out in the mission statement.
- Subject areas to be explored, in line with those of the Québec Education Program: natural sciences, anthropology, archaeology, history, social studies and plastic arts. Its components are rooted in contemporary Québec’s cultural, economic, geographical, historical, social and political realities. For example: demonstrating the role students play in history.
- Fields of expertise related to the Musée’s professions: conservation of artifacts and archival records, documentation, exhibition planning, archaeological digs, etc. For example: a workshop on inventorying family treasures for exhibition.
- Creating spaces to discuss topics bringing together the past, present and future (land use, evolving practices, resource use, etc.). For example: round table and public discussions surrounding transportation on the Côte-Nord.
- VIP (Visit, Intervention, Participation) tools that may include, depending on exhibitions, pre-visit activities, visit and post-visit activities, creative workshops, independent activities and off-site activities that allow the Musée to achieve its objectives, honour its guiding principles and reach target audiences.