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New museum exhibit more than just Olympics, skiing

Whistler Museum set to reopen next week with fresh artifacts, photos

The new exhibit might be called Whistler’s Olympic Journey, but you’ll find more than just Olympic history at the Whistler Museum when the doors are reopened next week.

Sure, visitors to the newly refurbished museum will find out about the resort’s previous five bids to host the Winter Olympics, and see artifacts such as bid books from 1976 and other attempts — but they’ll also discover Whistler’s natural history, its pioneer beginnings and a host of characters who helped shape what’s here today.

“We’re not the Olympic museum,” said Leah Batisse, museum curator. “… I want (people) to come away with the fact that Whistler is more than just skiing.”

The museum has been closed to the public since about mid-2008 and has since moved next door into the old library building, located behind the new library. The inside of the building has been refurbished with wood and stone details, and new information and photo panels, display cases and interactive elements are being installed.

The “new” Whistler Museum will open to the public next Thursday (Dec. 17) with a free exhibit launch day from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.

With the 2010 Games around the corner, an important part of Whistler’s history is its Olympic journey. But in the new exhibit, that story is one component of Whistler’s broader history, Batisse said.

A mock-up of Rainbow Lodge will help illustrate the pioneer days of Myrtle and Alex Philip, while the Toad Hall poster and other photos illustrate the squatters and ski bums of the 1970s. Through characters such as Franz Wilhelmsen and Eldon Beck, the stories of resort development are told, while Michael Allen’s photos give insight into the lives of Whistler’s black bears.

“The museum’s reinventing itself,” Batisse said of the new exhibit. “The final product is going to be great.”

For those familiar with the exhibit that was in place before the museum closed last year, there will be a lot of new artifacts and photos to discover. At least 90 per cent of the artifacts are new to the exhibit, said Sarah Drewery, collections supervisor.

“There are a few key items… such as the Olympic bid books and Dave Murray’s downhill suit (that) are the same, but the vast majority of the artifacts we’re using were not displayed in the old exhibit,” she wrote in an email to The Question. “That is actually a real strength to the new exhibit.”

Drewery also acknowledged community members who donated photos to the museum to help flesh out parts of Whistler’s story — such as squatters, mountain biking and Paralympic athletes — where the museum’s existing photo collection wasn’t strong.

“We have been really lucky that so many people were prepared to give us their photographs for free and this has really helped us to enrich the exhibit,” she said.

The new space also includes video screens with additional photos and key footage from Whistler’s past, such as the announcement in 2003 when the resort was named host to the 2010 Games. Storytelling and film screening areas are other aspects, as well as a photo opportunity area with props in the Olympics exhibit.

Admission to the exhibits on opening day is free. After Dec. 17, the museum will be open every day from 1 to 6 p.m. with admission prices of $10 for adults, $5 for students and seniors, $4 for youth age 7 to 17, and $20 for families. Kids under 6 are free. Call (604) 932-2019 for more info.

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