National Library News September 1999 Vol. 31, no. 9

Exhibitions at the National Library: A Retrospective

Exhibitions play an important role at the National Library (NL) for they offer Canadians a privileged view of their published heritage. They offer the Library the opportunity to display and interpret its vast collection of books, periodicals, government publications, newspapers, printed music materials, sound recordings and literary and music manuscripts for exhibition visitors. Exhibitions provide intellectual and physical access to the National Library’s collections and promote an awareness and understanding of Canada’s published heritage. In other words, exhibitions bring the National Library’s collections out of the closed stacks and into the public light.

Recently, I had the pleasure of interviewing Andrea Paradis who was the National Library’s exhibitions officer from 1978 to 1998. Andrea is now enjoying a well-earned early retirement, but she was happy to share her thoughts with me as she looked back over 20 years of exhibitions at the Library.

The National Library’s major exhibitions are planned years in advance, and themes are chosen carefully. Every effort is made to choose topics that are relevant to, and representative of, a variety of Canadian regions and cultural groups and that take into account different sensibilities. Exhibitions are based on the National Library’s rich collections – particularly in the areas of Canadian literature, history, music and rare Canadiana. Curators of the major exhibitions are drawn from the National Library staff or from the community of experts and scholars outside the Library.

Often, an exhibition will highlight a gift to the Library, such as the "Incunabula, Hebraica and Judaica" exhibition of 1981, which displayed 150 highlights from Jacob M. Lowy’s 1977 donation to the Library of his collection of rare Hebraica and Judaica. This exhibition was well-received by those with a special interest in Jewish tradition and scholarship, and within the Canadian community at large. A lavishly illustrated catalogue was produced and is available on the NL Web site at <www.nlc-bnc.ca/services/elowy.htm>. In 1985, a facsimile exhibition, comprising framed reproductions from the original exhibition, travelled across Canada.

Exhibitions are also planned to mark a special milestone or anniversary. Andrea recalls that her arrival in 1978 coincided with an exhibition marking the 25th anniversary of the National Library. The major exhibition in the year 2000 on the life and work of internationally renowned jazz musician Oscar Peterson has the dual purpose of displaying his musical archive that is held at the National Library, and celebrating his 75th birthday.

Some NL exhibitions travel to distant locales. For example, the award-winning "Glenn Gould 1988" was remarkable in many ways, not the least of which was its international exposure. It travelled across Canada and to Tokyo, garnering worldwide attention. This exhibition was based on the National Library’s large collection of personal papers and possessions acquired from the Gould estate in 1983.

Travelling exhibitions have normally required partnership and sponsorship. One recent exception was a display of items from the Rare Book Collection at the Canadian Embassy in Washington. Each year, the National Library lends dozens of items from its collections to other institutions in Canada and abroad for incorporation into their displays and exhibits.

In addition to its major exhibitions, the National Library mounts a number of smaller exhibitions throughout the year in its Special Collections Exhibition Room and in display cases in the Library. Visitors to the National Library this summer were charmed by a small retrospective exhibition celebrating Dayal Kaur Khalsa, the children’s author and illustrator, whose papers and original art are held in the Library’s Canadian Literature Research Service collection.

A glance at some of the titles of major exhibitions mounted by the National Library over the past 20 years gives an idea of their infinite variety: "Made in Canada: Artists’ Books" (a six-part series that ran from 1980 to 1990), "New Brunswick Authors" (1984), "Aboriginal Rights in Canada" (1985), "Bells Through the Ages" (1986), "Multiculturalism in Canada" (1987), "Claude Champagne 1891-1965: Composer, Teacher, Musician" (1990-1991), "Passages: A Treasure Trove of North American Exploration" (1992), "North: Landscape of the Imagination" (1993-1994), "Sir Ernest MacMillan: Portrait of a Canadian Musician" (1994-1995), "Out of This World: Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy" (1995), "New Wave Canada: Coach House Press and the Small Press Movement in English Canada in the 1960s" (1996-1997), "The Art of Illustration: A Celebration of Contemporary Canadian Children’s Book Illustrators" (1997) and "Cultivating Canadian Gardens: The History of Gardening in Canada" (1998).

It was this variety of subject and theme that made Andrea’s job as exhibitions officer so interesting and challenging. When asked to choose a particularly memorable exhibition, Andrea mentioned "Heroes of Lore and Yore: Canadian Heroes in Fact and Fiction", which was mounted in 1983. She recalled that this exhibition provoked a lot of discussion as to who qualified as a "hero" and who did not. The exhibition featured a bulletin board entitled "Post Your Own Heroes" where visitors could add their own contenders for the title of "hero", an initiative that is being re-visited some 15 years later in the Department of Canadian Heritage’s "Path of Heroes" project.

"Heroes of Lore and Yore" is now available on the NL Web site at <www.nlc-bnc.ca/heroes/ehome.htm>. Since 1995, all of the National Library’s major exhibitions have been mounted on our Web site and some earlier exhibitions such as "Glenn Gould" can also be accessed. Visit these exhibitions in virtual form through the NL Web site at <www.nlc-bnc.ca/events/exhibits.htm>.