Setting Up the New Cannery Cat’s Collection Exhibit

Continuing the blog series by the Society’s Youth Leadership Volunteer Hania describing the process of the Exhibit Team’s planning and development of a new Cannery exhibit. 

For the Cannery’s 125th anniversary, the Youth Leadership Team has been working on a new temporary exhibit called The Cannery Cat’s Collection.  This exhibit presents the stages of the Cannery from an operating salmon canning factory to the historic site and museum that it is today, 125 years later,  through the perspective of a fictional “Cannery Cat”. The exhibit describes how our Cannery Cat has lived here from the start, hidden in the nooks and crannies, slowly ‘collecting’ artifacts to tell its story.

On April 24th, the team gathered to start setting up the exhibit by following a hand-drawn map that was prepared during the planning stages, showing where the artifacts would be displayed.  The exhibit area and plexiglass cases first had to be cleaned in preparation. While three people set up the large text panels, the others arranged and created capsule scenes for each display. This took a lot of patience and creativity to place the artifacts in perfect order. Then multiple photos were hung evenly using professional tools to make sure they were placed just right. The marketing team students were also on hand to take photos and record the process to use for this blog and for future promotions.

The Cannery Cat’s Collection, opening on May 4th, is the final project for these Youth Leadership students. It will mark the end of their year of learning and volunteering with the Gulf of Georgia Cannery Society.