Charlie Costain: scientist and heritage advocate

Ela Keyserlingk is a retired textile conservator who worked at CCI from 1976 to 1997. Originally from Germany, it was love that first brought Ela to Canada, but it was curiosity and determination that led her to an internship opportunity at CCI, which blossomed into an exciting career. In this episode, you will hear Ela tell us what it was like to work on some of Canada’s most important textile objects.

Peter Homulos recounts how he went from being a geology student to a director of the National Inventory Programme, the precursor of the Canadian Heritage Information Network (CHIN), all before he was 30 years old. The mandate of the Programme was to maintain the records of Canada’s cultural properties, but it evolved into creating a computerized inventory of collections to facilitate the sharing of information. It was also responsible for research and development on information management, collections documentation standards and collections management systems. From a modern perspective, it is difficult to convey how groundbreaking and even controversial this initiative was.

Our first guest from the Canadian Heritage Information Network, otherwise known as CHIN, is Lyn Elliott Sherwood. She was the Director General of CHIN from 1993 to 2003. She then went on to become the Executive Director of the Heritage Group at the Department of Canadian Heritage. During her time at CHIN, she was responsible for the creation of the organization’s most well-known program, the Virtual Museum of Canada (VMC). The VMC is a collection of online exhibits contributed by Canadian museums and heritage institutions. The program is still ongoing but is now managed by the Canadian Museum of History. Lyn Elliott Sherwood spoke to hosts Nathalie Nadeau Mijal and Kelly Johnson about her favourite heart-stirring moments while working at CHIN.

You know that archeologists are often the ones excavating artefacts, which you can then visit in a museum. But, what happens between the excavation and the display? That’s where Judy Logan comes in. She was an archeological conservator at the Canadian Conservation Institute (CCI) from 1981 to 2006. She was also one of the first graduates of the Queen’s University Master of Art Conservation program. Join your hosts, Kelly Johnson and Nathalie Nadeau Mijal, as they ask Judy about working as a conservator at CCI and around the world.

Your hosts, Nathalie Nadeau Mijal and Kelly Johnson, interview Brian Arthur, who was the second director of the Canadian Conservation Institute (CCI). He held this post between 1976 and 1980. Originally from the United Kingdom, Brian Arthur became a world-renowned expert in the conservation of pottery (or as he calls it, "sticking pots together"). He moved to Canada in the early 1970s to work at the Historic Sites Division of Parks Canada. In this episode, you will discover how he guided CCI through challenging early days to become a worldwide leader in conservation.