What We Do
The Lake Country Museum is dedicated to preserving our history (view our collections policies) and presenting it to our visitors as well as providing our community opportunities to learn.
Some projects that we regularly undertake:
- Offer 13 weeks of Day Camps outside the school calendar
- Maintain an evolving permanent exhibition at the Museum
- Collect, preserve and display artifacts representing our local history
- Collect and preserve historic photographs and albums
- Collect manuscripts and records of organizations and businesses
- Support a bursary (The Arnold Award) for students at George Elliot Secondary School in Lake Country
- Interpret our history to our community and visitors
- Offer public and school lectures on local history topics and issues
- Take videos of local events to document our history
- Interview local residents and write family histories
- Work with UBCO student researchers
- Maintain a website, a Blog, a Facebook presence and an Instagram account
- Collaborate with CentrePiece, an Okanagan Centre community event
- Host the OK Patio Café, a lovely lake view, summer restaurant
As special projects we recently have:
- Developed ten grade 1-4 history lesson plans for elementary school curriculum
- Placed interpretative Historical Markers in all four communities in conjunction with the District of Lake Country
- Mounted thematic exhibitions, All Fired Up, featuring international ceramics and pottery, Hecho a Mano: traditional handcrafts of Mexico, Kakonosedai. A Century of Community, celebrating the Japanese pioneers of Lake Country and their descendants and The Okanagans and their Neighbours
- Mounted an audio visual history of the Japanese Canadian community in Lake Country on the Canadian Heritage and Information Network (CHIN) — The Japanese Canadian Pioneers of Lake Country, 1839-1939.
- Digitized and mounted on our website fifty manuscripts from our collection — Life Histories. Historical Manuscripts of the District of Lake Country
- Accessioned and mounted online the large Rainbow Ranche Collection in collaboration with the University of British Columbia
- Accessioned the Dorothea Allison photograph collection and the George Goulding photograph album collection
- Digitized the Letters of Dorothea (Scott-Coward) Allison and posted them with their typescripts and biographical sketches, on the website
- Created and maintained satellite exhibits at the DLC Municipal Hall, George Elliot Secondary School and at the Lake Country Community Complex
- Created Oral Histories of Lake Country Artists, a documentary film of twelve local artists in collaboration with the BC Arts Council, the Lake Country Art Gallery, UBC Okanagan, ARTSCO, and the Lake Country ArtWalk and Public Art committees
- Collaborated with the Okanagan Indian Band to celebrate the history of the Okanagan First Peoples in this region
- Created a Heritage Driving Tour of Lake Country (hardcopy and digital App format)
- Created our second online exhibition with the Virtual Museum of Canada – Canadian History Museum, Applebox Belles: The Women of Lake Country’s Packinghouses. This documents the experiences of women in Lake Country’s early packinghouses
Special projects in progress are:
- Creating QR codes for some of the exhibits in the Museum
- Creating History pins at various local areas of interest
- Collaborating with the Oyama Community Hall Association to install a permanent, legacy exhibition commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Oyama Hall and Community Club.
- Creating heritage markers placed along the Okanagan Rail Trail.
Are you interested in joining us? There are numerous opportunities for you, whatever your interest. Contact us for further details.
Annual Reports
CONSTITUTION (2018)