The Doukhobor Village Museum has received support from the BC Arts Council for its major exhibit for 2005, Pioneer Scenes As Seen Through Lantern Slides, featuring rare, restored lantern slides and negatives from the early days of the Doukhobor settlement in British Columbia. Most of these have not been published or seen before, and many are in colour.

Richard Brownsey, Executive Director, announced that BC Arts Council under its program of Regional Arts Development has approved a $2500 grant to assist the restoration and printing of these archival slides. This is the second award that the Doukhobor Museum has received from BC Arts Council and was based on the excellent exhibits and ambitious archival projects which the museum has been engaged in for the last two years.

This exhibit is an excellent example of cultural and archival work that museums should be engaged in and for the most part, are not able to do because of limited funding. BC Arts Council assistance in this project is vitally important to the museum's archival work and will be of great benefit to the international visitors as well as the local public.

A preview of one of the Autochrome restorations. Move your mouse over the image to see an 'After' version of a restored Autochrome. (Dial-up users should expect a few seconds delay while image loads. The Autochrome was the 'slide' of yesteryear. These images were encased between two thin glass panes and from an original size of about 3 x 4 inches, these images were projected onto a wall by an apparatus known then as a 'magic lantern' - a projector device lit by kerosene. Before the days of movie theatres, people would look forward to attending these 'magic lantern' displays that would often travel from town to town, charging a few pennies admission. The museum embarked on restoring over 100 of these badly damaged Autochromes and using modern digital technology, cracks, scratches, scrapes, and other blemishes were painstakingly removed. Colours and contrasts were enhanced and corrected. The restored Autochromes will be on display at the Museum for the 2005 season. Some have been printed in larger 20 x 24 inch format. Some of the panoramic negatives that have been donated have also been restored and many of these never-seen-before images are up to six feet in length and over!

Larry Ewashen, Curator of the Doukhobor Museum, indicated that this is a helpful grant for the projected exhibit and is delighted and grateful for the news. "We are confident that this support will help to make this exhibit a success within the community and hopefully will attract other donors, contributing to the long term sustainability of the museum. Perhaps this recognition by the BC Arts council and other community minded organizations will make other local contributors realize what a wonderful gem they have in this museum, and may stimulate them into a more meaningful support of this local resource".