As Ken Blackburn steps away from 19 years at the Museum at Campbell River, he took the time to reflect on its transformation from a dusty archive to a highly respected institution that is a key player in not only the cultural life of the community but also its economy.
Blackburn came onboard with the museum as it, like many others across the country, was stepping into a central role in incorporating heritage and culture into the economy and identifying the added value of culture and cultural institutions as partners in prosperity.
It has now established itself as a major player and that will serve Campbell River well in the coming years, said Blackburn the now-retired Programs Manager for the Museum at Campbell River.
"I think Campbell River is a city of the future," Blackburn said. "Everybody's coming here, you know, maybe the migration will come slowly north from the (south) Island but everybody's heading to the Island.
"The world will be coming here and the truth of the world coming here is people have a high expectation of cultural amenities, cultural resources. They want to go to theatre, they want live music, they want our galleries, they want strong museums."
They want experiences that complement their hike, bike ride, mountain climb, whale watching trip or whatever but afterwards, they'll want some kind of cultural experience. And whether you're talking about visitors or younger people in creative industries, culture and heritage facilities will attract them and keep them here.
"So, we can do that here," Blackburn said. "In fact, we can probably do it as well as anywhere; Strathcona Park, I mean, biking trails and hiking trails, parks, lakes, rivers, ocean ... Wow!"
And once that demographic starts moving here, you need to make sure your cultural institutions are ready. And they already are.
"So people coming in are wowed," Blackburn said, "which for my experience here they have been, you know. People come in and can't believe that that museum is there. It was to me. First time I was in Campbell River, I came up for the job interview at the Museum at Campbell River and I expected ... I didn't know what to expect. I expected that kind of like Tom Thompson's house. You know, the Robert Service cabin in the Yukon. I expected kind of an old cabin.
"It was just like a mirage. Like I was shocked (by what the museum actually was like)."
So when visitors come here and are surprised by what they see, Blackburn understands.
It's one of Campbell River's strengths, he says. Combined with public art programs and the partnerships between cultural institutions and community organizations and businesses.
"The arts are doing Campbell River a lot of good service," Blackburn said. "That's for sure. And I think that's what people will really appreciate when they come here."
One of the strengths of the museum is its rise to prominence at the centre of the community's cultural life, it's more than just an archive with artifacts on display. The idea of how history is told has changed.
"It's started to kind of migrate to being this community gathering place," Blackburn said.
When Blackburn started the living history program, the point was to try to see history as being active in the present and being very much about the present, he said. And while the museum was bringing people together to experience programs, experience history, it was also bringing them together just to socialize and be part of the community.
It's been a credit to the community and the staff of the museum to build that kind of resource, Blackburn said. He came along after the museum had already embarked down that path and was happy to contribute to moving it forward in concert with the time.
And Blackburn hasn't just been riding that wave, he's also rolled up his sleeves and put in the work. He has coordinated over 800 programs which includes managing 19 Haig-Brown Festivals, managing 19 Haig-Brown Writer-in-Residence Programs, creating the Living History series of 12 video documentaries, curating 10 exhibitions for the museum, creating the annual Haig-Brown Lecture, now in its 14th year, and incorporating heritage into the Art in the Hospital and the Public Art program.
Blackburn's tenure at the museum was accompanied by his other job as executive director of the Community Arts Council which would explain his interest in blending art and heritage into his life's work.
"To be able to blend the arts and heritage into kind of a core of culture, that's something that I've been really interested in and also, I think, pretty proud of being able to make it happen," Blackburn said.
Blackburn is also more than just an arts administrator, he's an artist himself. He's known for edgy, contemporary and multi-disciplinary work. He holds a BFA from Queen’s University and an MFA from the University of Windsor. With a background in sculpture, he works through a broad spectrum of mediums and environments.
