On this day 10 years ago, Friends of Dalnavert Museum was officially incorporated.
By Dr. Vanessa Warne
Winnipeg Free Press front page photo by Wayne Glowacki, article by Alexandra Paul (“Dalnavert Museum to reopen under new ‘sustainable’ guidance, advocates say,” 2015)
In May 2015, the front page of the Winnipeg Free Press featured a photograph of Dalnavert Museum’s elegant parlour. The parlour looks, as it has since the museum first opened in 1974, great. There’s sheet music on the piano, an elegant lace cloth on the table, and a silver tea set waiting to be admired. All these things form a lovely backdrop to four women who smile at the camera. They’ve gathered in the parlour to celebrate the creation of a new non-profit organization: the Friends of Dalnavert Museum.
As the Manitoba Historical Society (MHS), the long-time steward of the Museum, turned its attention to a set of ambitious province-wide projects, the Friends of Dalnavert Museum (FDM) readied itself for the task of caring for an historic home, its heritage gardens, and an extraordinary collection of artifacts.
Truth be told, the smiles of the four women in the photograph don’t capture the mix of emotions they felt. That was, at least, the case for me. I felt exhausted and anxious. I felt worn down by juggling my responsibilities at work and home with hours spent planning for the future of Dalnavert. I felt worried about the challenges ahead and the length of our to-do list. But I also felt excited about the approaching reopening of the museum. I looked forward to bringing my students back to the museum to learn about social history and material culture. And I felt joy at being back inside the museum, moving through its halls and seeing its rooms again. Above all else, I felt grateful for the hard work and clear thinking that both MHS representatives and the newly formed FDM team had invested in the future of this special place.
The creation of the Friends of Dalnavert Museum was initiated by long-time museum volunteer Inés Bonacossa, who today, a decade later, continues to support the museum in two roles: Board Member and Collections Registrar. Adèle Hempel steered the planning efforts. Whereas both Inés and I had volunteered at the Museum during the time of its operation by the MHS, Adèle did not have a prior connection to Dalnavert. Despite this, and though she had many responsibilities in her role as Director of Research, Collections, and Exhibits at the Manitoba Museum, Adèle volunteered to not only join us but lead us. She contributed a wealth of knowledge of the heritage sector. Cindy Tugwell, Executive Director of Heritage Winnipeg, also gave generously of her expertise. The optimist in the group, Cindy encouraged us to believe in the power of grass-roots community organizations to do good things.
But the women in the photograph were only four members of a much larger group united by the desire to secure a bright future for Dalnavert. Many people wrote letters to city officials and the media. Some pledged funds to assist with the transition and then called up their friends and got them to pledge funds. Others attended meetings to offer suggestions and discuss possibilities. Stakeholders found all sorts of ways to express their belief in the importance of the Museum for our city and our province. And the Friends could not have been more fortunate in the very first hire they made: the wonderful and resourceful Thomas McLeod, the first Executive Director of Dalnavert Museum under FDM’s stewardship. In his time at the Museum, Thomas worked small miracles, day after day, week after week. He brought to his work both administrative acumen and a heartfelt passion for history.
Time has justified the efforts of all the stakeholders who came together in 2015 to form FDM. In the last decade, the Museum has welcomed thousands of visitors to explore and learn. The museum has also, since 2015, welcomed more than 30 young people as summer students and interns, providing them training opportunities and meaningful paid work. With community support, the museum’s small but mighty staff have, with creativity and determination, conjured a decade of wonderful programming into being. We weathered a pandemic and now we’re planning for the next decade.
It probably goes without saying that it’s not easy to keep the doors of a house museum open. The costs of maintaining a heritage house and caring for a precious collection are significant. The generosity of individual donors and corporate sponsors have been essential to the museum’s survival and will continue to be. It would also be hard to overstate the importance of the support of The Winnipeg Foundation to the Museum’s reopening and future well-being. The same is true of Dalnavert’s knowledgeable and welcoming community of volunteers. As Dalnavert’s hardworking and resolute Executive Director, Sarah Watkins, regularly notes, the day-to-day operations of Dalnavert would not be possible without the contributions of volunteers. I am proud to count my own daughters among them. Both were little girls back in 2015 and both have volunteered as tour guides in the years since.
These are the kinds of things we were planning for, and dreaming of, back in 2015. This is the future we hoped for. And this is my chance to thank all the people who worked alongside me then and who have contributed to the Museum’s well-being in the years since. May we long continue to gather at Dalnavert not only to learn about the past but also to plan, and dream, for the future.
Dr. Warne at Dalnavert for Doors Open in 2024
Dr. Vanessa Warne is a specialist in Victorian literature and material culture. Her book, By Touch Alone: Blindness and Reading in Nineteenth-Century Culture, will be published by University of Michigan Press in July 2025. She is the co-creator and host of the podcast Victorian Samplings, which explores the objects Victorian people made and cherished. You can check it out on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or via Craftingcommunities.net. Listen in to hear some great Dalnavert content. When she isn’t teaching at the University of Manitoba, she is busy exploring the nineteenth-century history of lace.