Book club and new executive

Just before winter holidays, Redpath Museum Club voted in the executive council for the 2008 calendar year and chose a book for this season’s book club selection. We will be reading ‘A Short History of Nearly Everything,’ by Bill Bryson. The first book club meeting will take place in the third week of the new semester. RMC welcomes to its 2008 executive:

President: Amberene Chunara

Vice President: Bingnan (Shirley) Zhang

VP Internal: Deborah Hayek

Secretary: Elizabeth McLean

Member At Large: Ingrid Birker

Club members are welcome to fill any unfilled council positions in the new year.

Links: wiki:A Short History of Nearly Everything, Royal Society presentation, BBC interview with Bryson

McGill Activities Night

Redpath Museum Club is starting up again next week.  Catch us at Activities Night on Wednesday, 19 September for 4-9pm at the SSMU/Shatner Building at 3480 McTavish.   We’ll be holding our first meeting of the year very soon to discuss new tours, the book club, projects, and events (including Halloween and Homecoming).  If you’d like to help out with recruitment Wednesday night, are interested in guiding tours, or simply want to know more, please let us know.

24 Hours of Science

The Museum will be offering flashlight tours again on Friday, 11 May for Quebec-wide 24 heures de science. Tours will run at 700pm, 800pm, 900pm, and 1000pm. Science Outreach Coordinator Ingrid will be offering tour guide training at 400pm, Wednesday, 9 May (TBC). Please contact us if you would like to take part in guiding tours.

Links: 24 heures de science, 24 Hours of Science program, Science pour tous

Origami

You are invited to help fold a giant origami Pteradon with Dr. Robert Lang, one of the world’s foremost scientific artists and a pioneer in computational origami. He will be in residence this week at the McGill School of Architecture for one week, folding a 5m square piece of paper made specially for this project by the Papeterie Saint-Armand into a life-sized model of a Mesozoic flying reptile, complete with claws and talons.

Where? Room 114, McGill School of Architecture, Macdonald-Harrington Building, 815 Sherbrooke Street West
When? April 17-20, from 10am to 2pm
Special Lecture with the artist! April 19th at 7pm in the Auditorium.

Links: Origami program, Dr. Lang’s official website, wiki:Robert Lang, wiki:Origami

Mummy training, Museum of Archaeology

The follow-up training for the mummy tours has been rescheduled for Friday, 16 March at 430pm.  Please meet in the museum lobby.  If you missed the first training but are interested in giving mummy tours, please drop in!

Saturday afternoon, 17 March, we’ll have a club trip to Pointe-à-Callière, the Montréal Museum of Archaeology and History.  The plan is to meet at the Redpath Museum steps at 130pm and take the metro down to Old Port together.  There is a guided tour at 230, so we’ll have time to look around before and after.  The RMC have passes for free admission so all you’ll need is metro fare.  If you’re coming, let us know and we’ll wait for you before we leave. We hope to see you there!

Links: Pointe-à-Callière Museum- English, French

Tour guide training and trip

Dino and mummy training went well and this week we will have follow-up training for the mummy tour Wednesday, 14 March at 430pm. Dino training tba.

If you came to last week’s training, we’ll review the material and practise the tours. If you couldn’t make it, come and we’ll get you started. If you can’t make it, please email us at redpathmuseumclub@gmail.com and we’ll try to arrange an alternative training date.

We will also be having a meeting this Monday, 12 March at 430pm at the museum to plan a possible trip to archaeology museum (we’ve got passes!) for a future weekend.

Tour guide training

This semester’s tour guide training begins this week! Meet us in the museum lobby:

Wednesday, 7th March 330-430pm: dinosaurs.
Thursday, 8th March 400-500pm: mummies.

We are also still looking for volunteers for the Sunday mummy tour. If you’ve completed mummy training and have an hour or so to spare in the afternoon to give a tour please email back with your availabilities. Thanks and hope to see you soon!

Nuit blanche

Last night, members of the Redpath Museum Club gave flashlight tours of Redpath Museum from 1000pm Saturday night to 400am early Sunday morning. The night began at 900pm with animated film and concert Long Life (A Horse’s Dream) by Voisa, Montréal’s Georgian singing group. We saw more than 550 visitors in 6 hours; funds are going towards the construction of a giant origami pteranodon.

Links: photos, en lumiere, Night at the Museum program, wiki:Nuit Blanche