Projects

For a number of years, our Foundation worked behind the scenes with the Maritime Museum and the Department of Communities, Culture and Heritage to encourage the Province to restore CSS Acadia, Canada’s first purpose-built hydrographic vessel.

CSS Acadia, like her museum sister ship HMCS Sackville, is a Canadian maritime heritage treasure. Acadia was launched in 1913, at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England, at the yards of Swan, Hunter and Wigham Richardson Ltd., She is of the same vintage as RMS Titanic (although admittedly a tad smaller) and is a National Historic Site. During her career Acadia mapped Canada’s coastal waters from Nova Scotia to Hudson’s Bay. She also served as a commissioned ship in the Canadian Navy during both World Wars and is the only ship still afloat that survived the Halifax Explosion.

In the Spring of 2019, the Nova Scotia Government, led by the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal, made an extraordinary multi-year commitment to restore Acadia. For anyone who loves our connection to the sea, this project is hugely important and very exciting.

Over the past year, Acadia’s Douglas fir decking has been completely replaced (a complex and exacting process that, in itself, consumed forty weeks). All of her hawsers and mooring lines have been renewed and a fitted winter convering acquired. Below decks, her electrical wiring and fittings have been completely renewed, wi-fi has been installled throughout, new environmentally friendly heads have been put in place; the mahogany and oak woodwork in the hydrographers’ quarters has been refinished and the furniture re-upholstered. The officers, petty officers, and crew quarters and galley have been freshly painted.

Staff at the Museum are also working on new and engaging ways to tell Acadia’s fascinating stories to visitors, young and old.

The grand old ship was due to be slipped at the Irving Shipyard in Shelburne this past April, so that necessary structural restoration could take place. Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic wrecked havoc with the with the Shipyard’s schedule.

However, the pandemic will eventually come to an end, the Shipyard will clear its backlog of work, and a wonderfully restored CSS Acadia will rise again as the jewel of the Maritime Museum and the Halifax Waterfront.

In the Spring of 2019, the Nova Scotia Government, led by the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal, made an extraordinary multi-year commitment to restore CSS Acadia. For anyone who loves our connection to the sea, this project is hugely important and very exciting.

Question: What do Jigs Start Here, The Yarmouth Shantymen, The Burundi Drummers, The Side Cats, Dan McKinnon, The Dory Bungholes, The Ragged Robins, Vladimir Sitnikov, Wontanna, The Brogue Saxophone Quartet, Heather Green, The Hilltown Stompers, Naming the Twins, Jiggers Mist, David Bradshaw, The Fine Tuners, The Missing Keys, Vince Morash, Put the Kettle On, and Salt Water in Your Socks have in common?

Answer: They’re just a few of the musical groups and solo artists who have made the Maritime Museum’s Tuesday Night Tunes a “must-attend” summer evening event on the Halifax Waterfront for the past six years.

These free performances take place every Tuesday evening during July and August at 7pm, in the Museum’s intimate outdoor courtyard; although when it rains, everyone moves inside the Museum to the beautiful Small Craft Gallery.

In past seasons, Tuesday Night Tunes have included a variety of musical genres from Acadian and Celtic music to sea shanties, African drumming, classical, roots and jazz.

Tuesday NIght Tunes are supported by the Canadian Maritime Heritage Foundation and Develop Nova Scotia. For the past six years, these wonderful concerts have been a perfect way to enjoy a summer evening on the waterfront. Museum admission is generally free from 5 pm until 8 pm on Tuesdays, so a visit to the Museum topped off by a free concert makes for a great, inexpensive family night out.

A Taste of the Tunes

In 2015 we partnered with Cunard and the Maritime Museum to create the Samuel Cunard Prize for Vision, Courage and Creativity, which we award each year to an extraordinary individual who demonstrates the world-changing vision, courage and creativity exemplified by Samuel Cunard throughout his life.

The Cunard Prize Luncheon and award ceremony has taken place each year on board Queen Mary 2, during one of her visits to Halifax. It is a major friend-raising event for the Maritime Museum and our Foundation. Since 2015, the Cunard Prize has been awarded to Jim Irving, John Risley, the Right Honourable Paul Martin, Ken Rowe and Zita Cobb.

In 2018, we created a new award for a mid-career ocean entrepreneur, the Samuel Cunard Innovative Spirit Award, to honour an extraordinary individual who, early in their career, has demonstrated the innovative spirit exemplified by Samuel Cunard throughout his life. Paul Yeatman was the inaugural recipient and in 2019 the Innovative Spirit Award went to Sandra Greer.

Unfortunately, due to the pandemic the 2020 Samuel Cunard Prize event has been postponed until 2021. We will rise again.

Former Prime Minister Paul Martin Accepts Cunard Prize

Samuel Cunard…

…was a visionary and entrepreneur extraordinaire. Born and raised in Halifax, he had world-changing dreams which he coupled with the courage to make those dreams real. He is one of our community’s true heroes.

Between 2016 and 2019, our Foundation collaborated with Ka’nata Productions to create the Sea Dome, a 360° theatre inside a geodesic dome and collaborated with a variety of writers, artists and new media to create two productions, Bluenose: The Legend and A Whale Story. In essence, the Sea Dome was a New Media sandbox for the Maritime Museum, our Foundation and our private sector creative partners where we could experiment with telling powerful stories from our maritime heritage in new and engaging ways.

Unfortunately, in early September of 2019, the SeaDome was devastated by Hurricane Dorian. In 2020, we were confronted by the COVID-19 Pandemic. However, we’re confident that the Sea Dome will rise again.

Stay tuned.

In essence, the Sea Dome was a New Media sandbox … where we could experiment with telling powerful stories from our rich maritime heritage in new and engaging ways.

Gloria from Halifax wrote: Fabulous! Bring these to the public school students please!

MacKenzie from the UK wrote: Really loved it. … I was speechless because of how good it was.

In 2015, our Foundation collaborated with the Black Halifax Collective, a number of poets, spoken word artists and actors, and the Delmore Buddy Daye Learning Institute in an innovative, interactive multidisciplinary project that celebrates the rich history and culture of the vibrant Black community that has flourished here since the 1700s.

BlackHalifax.com presents a series of thirteen video vignettes written and performed by Black poets, writers and actors that dig into personalities, sites, and events of historic significance to the African Nova Scotian community. All of the writing is original and it sparkles. These are Black Voices telling Black Stories in a powerfully engaging way.

Here are four videos that, taken together, are a fine introduction to this exciting project:

Thomas Peters: Written and performed by Valerie Mason-John

William Hall: Written and performed by Jacob Sampson

15 Ships to Sierra Leone: Written and Performed by Afua Cooper

Richard Preston: Written and performed by George Elliot Clarke

Black.

Voices.

Matter.

Watch all thirteen videos at BlackHalifax.com

In the Spring of 2015, we collaborated with the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia and a group of Nova Scotian philanthropists led by John Risley to acquire paintings, prints and cultural objects from the collection of Peter Winkworth, a wealthy Englishman who had spent his life amassing an extraordinary collection of Canadian paintings and cultural objects. The thirteen items acquired for the people of Nova Scotia were both rare and iconic, and illuminated important aspects of Nova Scotia’s history and culture.

This is a very rare example of a 17^th century French period representation of a Mi’kmaq family in an ocean-going canoe in the waters off Cape Breton. It illustrates an important aspect of our province’s maritime heritage. 

We also acquired this extraordinary view of Pictou Harbour in 1830. In foreground, the Richard Smith the first steam mail packet/passenger ferry to PEI from Pictou is illustrated:

We also acquired this heat-of-the-battle scene on the deck of the USS Chesapeake as she was being taken by the crew of the HMCS Shannon: 

Peter Winkworth spent his life amassing an extraordinary collection of Canadian paintings and cultural objects. The thirteen items acquired by Nova Scotian philanthropists for the people of Nova Scotia were both rare and iconic, and illuminated important aspects of Nova Scotia’s history and culture.

Although African Nova Scotian, Mi’kmaw, Acadian, and women veterans have served Canada in both wars and peacekeeping efforts for over a century, their contributions were often ignored when the victory parades were held and medals given out.  In this way, often the contributions of visible minorities have often become largely invisible in our collective memory.

In 2014, our Foundation joined a community group committed to changing this by celebrating the stories of veterans from marginalized communities. We built on the group’s experience holding celebratory concerts they called Unsung Heroes in Chester and Halifax. In November of 2014, with the support of Citizenship and Immigration Canada, we held a spectacular celebration, Unsung Heroes – Héros méconnus, at the Confederation Centre in Charlottetown. And then in November of 2015, we followed that with another remarkable concert at St. John’s Anglican Church in Lunenburg, which also celebrated the contribution of the Canadian and Norwegian merchant navy vets.

Instead of focusing on blame and negativity, the Unsung Heroes – Héros méconnus concerts celebrated the contributions of First Nations and new Canadians, French and English, Black and White, men and women, Merchant Marines and soldiers – all brought together for a concert of joyous music and performance as well as somber remembrance. 

The Unsung Heroes – Héros méconnus concerts were unique in their celebration of such a wide group of heroes and brought together little known but profound stories from men and women of all cultures in Canada. 

Check out this short video for a taste of these extraordinary events:

Their Stories Matter

Because

Their Lives Mattered

These concerts were unique in their celebration of such a wide group of unsung heroes and, importantly, brought together little known but profoundly important stories from men and women from marginalized communities across our region.