Partner Organization: Maple Ridge Museum & Community Archives, Maple Ridge, BC 

Storm enjoys working with and learning about different belongings and was provided the opportunity to develop these skills at the Maple Ridge Museum & Community Archives. Primarily supporting the Curator, Storm assisted with deaccessioning, collections organization, exhibition development and (de-)installation tasks. Storm also participated in community engagement and outreach activities by attending the Earth Day Repair Café event and through supporting the Vancouver Coast and Mountains Tourism Challenge. 

Since the Maple Ridge Museum is a pretty small museum, I had a ton of opportunity to talk to different members of the team there. Throughout my time with the museum, I chatted with everyone about what their role(s) are and how they work. With the museum assistants I talked with them about the projects they were working on and got to ask questions about their experiences working in the heritage sector. When I noticed someone had a minute I would strike up a conversation and ask questions, not all the time but enough to understand what everyone’s roles are and how they worked. 

Storm’s main project was to rehouse belongings excavated from a local archaeological site, following protocols shared by Katzie First Nation. 

The hierarchy in the museum is pretty loose. So even though I was a student assistant, my opinion on projects were valued and I was asked my thoughts on the new exhibits that were being made. There was an environment created where I felt like a valued team member and I had the ability to freely communicate my ideas and they were taken into consideration. 

storm strutinski