Wildlife photographs, Vikings and native languages are all featured in the upcoming year at the Royal B.C. Museum.
The 2013-14 season will feature three exhibits to engage those interested in wildlife, Scandinavian dark-age history and the traditional languages of B.C. native peoples.
The new season begins with one show running Nov. 29 to April 6 — the Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2013 contest winners from the London Natural History Museum.
More than 100 large-scale photographs will be displayed, chosen from more than 43,000 entries from 96 countries.
Next, on its first North American stop, MuseumsPartner of Austria and the Swedish History Museum present We Call Them Vikings.
Running May 17 to Nov. 11, this exhibit challenges commonly held myths about Vikings.
Insights into Viking life, rituals and the power of their myths will be explored and illustrated with hundreds of artifacts.
Also opening in 2014, although a date has not been set, will be Our Living Languages, First Peoples’ Voices in B.C.
Created jointly by the First Peoples’ Cultural Council and the Royal B.C. Museum, the project will feature video and audio to give visitors a glimpse of the 34 native languages indigenous to B.C. and the efforts to preserve them.
Meanwhile, the Quest Lecture series continues on Oct. 3 at 7:30 p.m. with a talk by Jana Stefan, a Royal B.C. Museum conservator.
Stefan has spent two seasons in the Antarctic working to preserve the base hut of Robert Scott, the doomed explorer who died in March 1912 trying to be first person to reach the South Pole.
The exhibition Race to the End of the Earth, which recounts the Antarctic expeditions of Scott and Norwegian Roald Amundsen, ends Oct. 14.
— Richard Watts
