Canada and the United States among Creators of Pan-American Virtual
Exhibition

A Pan-American on-line exhibition entitled Festivities of the Living and the
Dead in the Americas was launched on International Museums Day, May 18,
1999.  The initiative is the first phase of the Virtual Museum of the
Americas, a project that is a result of the Summit of the Museums of the
Americas: Museums and Sustainable Communities, convened by AAM, AAM/ICOM and
ICOM-LAC in Costa Rica in April, 1998.  The on-line exhibition was created
by heritage institutions in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Costa Rica
and Brazil.  The Canadian Heritage Information Network (CHIN), a Special
Operating Agency within the Department of Canadian Heritage, is the
project's executive producer.  The exhibition can be viewed at
http://www.chin.gc.ca/museamericas/ 

The partners for Festivities of the Living and the Dead in the Americas
focussed on the historic, socio-cultural, and economic impact of local
festivities on community identity and sustainable development. The
exhibition is available in English, French and Spanish, with the Brazilian
section also available in Portuguese. 

Partners from the United States - the Wyoming Division of Cultural Resources
(Cheyenne, Wyoming) and the Louisiana State Museum (New Orleans, Louisiana)
- contributed invaluable components, respectively examining Cheyenne
Frontier Days and Mardi Gras in Louisiana.  The Canadian partners in this
project created components on the Calgary Stampede (Glenbow Museum,
Calgary), the cultural and agricultural festivals of Manitoba (Manitoba
Museum of Man and Nature, Winnipeg), Quebec Winter Carnival (Musée de la
civilisation, Quebec City), and the Celtic festivals of Cape Breton
(University College of Cape Breton, Sydney).  Additional components have
been developed by the Web Museo de Latinoamérica (Mexico City, Mexico), the
Museo de los Niños (Moravia, Costa Rica), the Fundacion CIENTEC (San José,
Costa Rica), and the Museu de Porto Alegre Joaquim José Felizardo (Porto
Alegre, Brazil).

Recent graduates employed by Canadian museums through the Young Canada Works
internship program, part of the Government of Canada's Youth Employment
Strategy, were instrumental to the development and implementation of the
project.  Seven Canadian interns worked on Festivities of the Living and the
Dead in the Americas, at home and abroad, thereby gaining valuable
museological and technological experience.

The Canadian Heritage Information Network has more than 25 years of
experience working with the Canadian and international museum communities.
Besides coordinating virtual exhibitions, CHIN also provides consulting
services and practical courses on information management for the heritage
community.

Jerry Kappel
Jerold D Kappel CFRE
Director, Development
American Association of Museums
Project Manager
Summit of the Museums of the Americas
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