Outdoor museum a first for Maple Ridge

The Maple Ridge Museum is bringing history to the people this summer with Museum in the Park.

Every weekend during the summer there will be tents, manned by summer student workers and volunteers, set up just outside the museum in Jim Hadgkiss Park. There will be fun activities and interactive displays set up for people to learn about the history of the area.

This is a first for the museum.

“It’s a pilot project for a bigger project we are hoping to get going in the fall called Museum on the Move,” explained museum curator Shea Henry.

The current building that houses the museum isn’t adequate to hold programs, or events of any kind, she said.

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“After 25 years trying to get a larger, more appropriate facility for the museum, we’ve decided to just take the museum outside,” she said.

There will be teaching kits and artifacts that people can touch and interact with and fun children’s games.

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“We have so many wonderful ideas here on how to make a really dynamic, modern museum that we would love to see Maple Ridge have. We just don’t have the capacity and the space to do it in our current buildings,” said Henry.

Museum in the Park begins July 10 and runs 11-3 p.m. every weekend until Labour Day at 22520 116 Ave. in Maple Ridge.