CBC News | Posted: February 15, 2016 12:00 AM | Last Updated: February 15, 2016
$30-million project scheduled to open Jul. 1, 2017
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Caption: Behind the scenes of the Canadian Museum of Civilization renovations. (CBC)
It's not expected to open until 2017, but the Canadian Museum of History is offering an early glimpse at how its redesigned Canada Hall could eventually look.
CBC News got a tour of the under-construction hall, closed since 2014 as the museum builds a permanent gallery that — according to the museum's website — will be "the largest, most comprehensive and engaging exhibition on Canadian history ever developed."
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Caption: Construction is underway at the revamped Canada Hall at the Canadian Museum of History. (CBC)
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Caption: The new Canada Hall is expected to open in 2017, in time for Canada's 150th birthday. (CBC)
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Caption: Crews work to overhaul Canada Hall at the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, Que. (CBC)
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Caption: Workers carry out renovations to Canada Hall in the Canadian Museum of History. (CBC)
The previous Canada Hall took museum-goers on a chronological journey through Canadian history, starting with Viking settlers arriving in Newfoundland and Labrador and ending with a late 20th-century visit to the Wildcat Cafe in Yellowknife.
In 2013, the museum's director of research, Dean Oliver, described it as only covering "the arrival of white people in the 11th century [to] the groovy years of the 1970s."
The new hall will span two floors and will cover 13,000 years of Canadian history, from the earliest indigenous people to the 21st century, said Jean-Marc Blais, the museum's director general.
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Caption: Jean-Marc Blais, the museum's director general, says the new Canada Hall will span 13,000 years of Canadian history. (CBC)
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Caption: This grain elevator was one of the exhibitions in the earlier incarnation of the Canada Hall at the Canadian Museum of History. (CBC)
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Caption: This replica of Yellowknife's Wildcat Cafe was also part of the previous version of Canada Hall. (CBC)
The $30-million renovation project is expected to be complete by Jul. 1, 2017, in time for Canada's 150th anniversary.
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