The doors may be closed, but you can still take a guided tour via your desktop
By Erika Morris
Photo: Courtesy of Canadian Museum for Human Rights/Mike Peters.
As COVID-19 has shuttered businesses, art galleries, and museums, Winnipeg’s Canadian Museum for Human Rights has virtually opened its doors to visitors. At the click of a link, you can take a guided tour of the museum’s exhibits, galleries, and architecture.
On the museum’s website, you’ll find two guided tours designed to allow those who are homebound during the coronavirus crisis to explore the museum.
The first virtual tour to be posted on the site is a 20-minute video that takes you through two of the museum’s galleries: “Indigenous Perspectives” and “Canadian Journeys.” The first includes an 800-year-old moccasin print and the “Spirit Panels” installation, which features 13 panels inspired by the artistic vision of Indigenous youth. In the second gallery, visitors will hear about Canadian human rights defender Viola Desmond, the woman on our $10 bill, at an exhibit that tells her story.
The latest tour is 10 minutes long and takes you up the museum’s famous glowing alabaster ramps to the “Inspiring Change” gallery, where you’ll find a tree filled with squares of yarn crocheted by the South-African grandmothers of AIDS orphans. Then the tour takes you up a glass elevator to the top of the museum for a panoramic view of Winnipeg from the Israel Asper Tower of Hope observation platform.
The museum’s virtual tours aren’t limited to its website. There’s also a mobile app that allows people to travel through the exhibits by means of audio tours. Visitors can explore each gallery via narration, photos, images, and videos. Sometimes the curators and program developers’ own voices are used to explain their work. These virtual audio tours are available in English, French, and sign language.
In these challenging times, it’s never been easier to take an educational field-trip from your desktop.
