Kids, come and play with the playhouse!
(Bring your parents with you.)
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Friends of Cortes Island’s and the Cortes Island Museum’s Great Blue Heron project celebrates, raises awareness about, and engages the Cortes community in the monitoring of this beautiful, iconic and threatened coastal bird. This project has two parts, Great Blue Herons Come to School and the Great Blue Heron Watch.
Although commonly seen on Cortes, heron numbers are in fact declining in BC as a result of predation, human disturbance and habitat loss. So much so, that they are now listed as a species of special concern by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Species (COSEWIC).
Here on the walls, this fascinating and iconic creature has come to life through the eyes, hands, and hearts of each student at the Cortes Island School.
With the intent to use the visual arts to express the many aspects of the Pacific Great Blue Heron, the creative process to do so unfolded over six weeks and included discussions and skill-building activities. Students scrutinized heron’s long legs and beak, its habitat, food and feathers, and of course, took a good look at why they are at risk on Cortes Island. There was much enthusiasm about sightings: in my backyard in a tree; standing on one leg on a rock in Smelt Bay; flying.
And now, heron has landed here! On canvas and paper, in paint, with mixed media and assemblage. Is the Great Blue Heron at risk of disappearing? Perhaps. But with inspiration from our children, we can become more aware of this magnificent creature and take steps to ensure we might still catch glimpses of it in the future.[divider_flat]
Curated by Jane Newman & Cortes Island kindergarten to grade 9 students.
We gratefully acknowledge the Campbell River Community Foundation for their financial support of this project.
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Current exhibits pertaining to the social and natural histories of Cortes Island and its surrounding waters change each year. Each year new exhibits focus on particular aspects of history so there is always something new and interesting to entice visitors to return. Major exhibits are held over. Some exhibits remain permanent to provide a more complete history of Cortes Island.
This year we are celebrating 20 years of programming at the museum with of a series of exhibits, started with an evening of poetry featuring Gilean Douglas.
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Click here to see all current exhibits.
- Reflect Imagine Celebrate – celebrating 20 years of programming at the museum
- Curiouser and Curiouser – curiosity cabinets
- The Big Tree – mounted outside
- Comfy Corner – binders full of Cortes and surrounding islands history
- History Panels – history of Cortes Island
- Wild Cortes – at Linnaea Farm, 1255 Seaford Road, our satellite exhibit.
