My Residency in Banff, Alberta, Canada

Was determined to have Sunday off. Decided I would spend the day visiting 3 of Banff’s main museums.
Set off with Flossie, a Canadian artist who has lived in Australia for a long time.
We walked to the Cave and Basin Museum (site of the Banff original hot springs), following the trail. It was snowing lightly and the ground was very slippery with the ice underneath.We came to the Museum via the Marsh Broadwalk Trail, where we saw 2 of the smaller hot springs steaming away amongst lush green and white algae. It’s quite unique and beautiful.
The first thing we noticed was the strong smell of the sulphur as we walked into the Museum, coming from the interior pool in the cave. The Basin is a long disused outdoor bathing pavilion, which used to be the largest in Canada. Unfortunately due to persistent structural problems and low attendance, it was forced to close in 1992. There is also an adjoining mineral pool, which is now home to a rare species of snail. Despite the history of this site, I was a little disappointed: the display on the 2nd floor seemed a bit tired and didn’t go into enough detail.
Second stop was Banff Park Museum (Western Canada's oldest natural history museum). Now this was really worth a visit. When you step inside, it’s as if you’ve stepped back in time into a 19th Century eccentric explorer’s collection of stuffed animals, birds and insects. The rooms are wood-panelled and full of glass display cases that house the collection, which spills out onto the top of the cases and onto the walls of the building. It’s amazing. It was developed in 1895 by Norman Sanson, a former soldier and local meteorologist, who became the Museum’s curator and who went out and personally collected many of the specimens. Everything is here- mostly animals from the locality, but also some that have no relation to the area, but came to the Museum through trading networks.
Last stop was the Whyte Museum (of art, culture and history of the Canadian rockies). This was founded by local artists and philanthropists Peter and Catherine Whyte. Saw quite a stunning exhibition of landscape photographs by Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky. They were obviously shot with a large format camera and showed amazing colour and detail. These documentary photographs focus on humanitity’s impact on the planet, capturing images of the land altered by mankind. Despite this they have a certain ambivalence and it’s difficult to know what the position of the photographer is regarding this.
Spent quite along time in an exhibition about the Luxton Family, local pioneers responsible for putting Banff on the map. It was quite fascinating, not least because of the three generations of women in the family who were very active and the strong ties the family had with the Indians in the region.
Finished the day with another group dinner and a screening of ‘Man on Wire’.