By Sandra Thomas

With MONOVA: Museum of North Vancouver now open in its new home at 115 West Esplanade, we’re excited to welcome locals and visitors alike to our new permanent home in The Shipyards.

In addition to being the new home of restored Streetcar 153 after a decades-long restoration, the Museum includes a powerful new cedar carving of Sch’ich’iyuy (The Two Sisters) by Sḵwx̱wú7mesh carver Wade Baker. And that’s just the lobby.

The Museum’s New Gallery

As the finishing touches are being completed to some exhibits, MONOVA welcomes visitors to explore its spacious core gallery, which includes interactive displays, as well as moving tributes to the past. A section dedicated to Residential School survivors and their families is particularly poignant. The Coast Salish Welcome Circle showcasing local Indigenous culture of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh and Səl̓ílwətaɬ Nations is a central feature of this area.

Juan Tanús facilitating a visioning workshop at the Archives of North Vancouver with key stakeholders from the City of North Vancouver, NVMA staff and Commissioners on July 19, 2017. Photo: Bill Peters.

Designed with Community Input

Exhibits were designed with extensive input from community members, local historians, Indigenous cultural advisors, and MONOVA staff by Juan Tanús and his team from North Vancouver-based KEI Space Design. Once designed, the exhibits were then fabricated by 3DS/Three Dimensional Services in Richmond.

“When we started to design the museum, we wanted to create a space that was unique to North Vancouver, that represented the culture of North Vancouver, the nature of North Vancouver, but also provided a platform for residents and people from further away to understand what North Vancouver is all about,” noted Juan Tanús. “It’s really nice to see how this small group of people that started off with a vision, evolved into a large team that’s been able to transform that vision into reality.”

Created in partnership with the Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations, the Coast Salish Welcome Circle anchors the news core gallery at the Museum of North Vancouver. Photo: Brett Hitchins / Brett Ryan Studios for Urban Arts Architecture

Other features of the core exhibit gallery include:

• Touched by Nature, including an Amazing Animals display with discovery drawers designed for children to explore
• The changing face of outdoor recreation
• A Connections section exploring the many ways people are connected in our community
• Sports: past and present, including Olympic athletes
• Women in Wartime
• History of shipbuilding on the North Shore
• North Vancouver’s waterfront and port operations
• Innovative industries that took shape in North Vancouver
• Two hands-on learning zones for children

The Museums Passion for Place gallery celebrates the extraordinary natural landscape from mountains to the sea and including stories of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh and Səl̓ílwətaɬ Nations, early mountaineering, and local sports. Photo: Brett Hitchins / Brett Ryan Studios for Urban Arts Architecture

And much more… The Museum’s Feature Exhibition Gallery will open later in 2022.

We invite you to stop by! The new Museum is open Thursdays to Sundays from 11:00am to 5:00pm.