A 65th birthday is a landmark year, and such is the case for the Western Development Museum which is celebrating 65 years in the province and in Yorkton.
Susan Mandzuk with the Yorkton WDM says that the anniversary is exciting for the museum, and it shows that even long after the museum's founding, it is still important to keeping Saskatchewan's history alive.
"It's nice to know that we are still relevant, and we are definitely going to make sure that we are relevant in the years coming."She notes that it's the staff, volunteers and WDM supporters who keep the museum an exciting place to visit. She says they are a big part of the facilities continued success.
In the future, the museum's mandate will expand to include more content from the immediate post-WWII era, to ensure that part of the province's history continues to be preserved. What will remain consistent is the Yorkton museum's mandate, that being telling the story of people. The goal of the museum when it was founded was to preserve the abandoned farm machinery in 1949, but it has since grown to tell the story of much more.
"Originally people thought that the WDM was a tractor museum, but we're much more than that. We're focusing on moving forward and collecting from the different decades."
Mandzuk also says that the museum will also continue to explore different partnerships, and notes that the current Omaciw - Hunter of the Prairie Sea exhibit, made possible with a partnership with the Royal Saskatchewan Museum, is a great example of how such partnerships can bring exciting content. She says that Omaciw is bringing in visitors new and old to the museum, and bringing a different part of Saskatchewan's history to life in the city.
"It is something totally different that we have in our galleries that isn't part of our mandate, but is part of the history of Saskatchewan."
To celebrate, there will be two big birthday promotions. First, the birthday celebrations will occur on April 6, 2014, the first Sunday after the museum's anniversary date on April 2. There will also be birthday cake on that day. The second will see anyone celebrating their 65th birthday in 2014 gaining free admission on their birthday, as well as a gift from the museum itself.
