Museum goes digital to chart Aurora at Home

April 16, 2020 · 0 Comments

Your home is your castle, especially in a time of quarantine.

It might be hard for us to get used to for the time being, but it is nothing new.

From photography’s earliest days, the home was often the backdrop for important milestones immortalized by this newfangled technology, but everything old is new again at the Aurora Museum & Archives.

As the Church Street School remains closed to the public in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Aurora Museum & Archives has gone digital, launching their new Aurora At Home Initiative, a new social media campaign that has its roots in tradition.

“We have adapted this project from our 2017 Snapshot Aurora campaign,” explains Michelle Johnson of the Aurora Museum & Archives. “We have a huge collection of photos in our archive that show people on their front porches, on their front lawns, posing for a portrait. Some are formal, some are very informal, but they highlight the house and their outdoor living space.

“This neat phenomenon happened around the turn-of-the-century when photography became more accessible to the masses and technology developed so people could try their hand at being amateur photographers. They didn’t have to go to a studio and, for various reasons, they took their photos outside.

“We thought this was an ideal time to encourage present-day Aurorans to try their hand at the same thing. It isn’t a new activity and we have quite a precedent for it in our collection, but now this serves two purposes: it is something to do – and everyone is looking for something to do right now – and it is a way for a family or a person to kind of document this moment, their experience during the self-isolation aspect of COVID-19, and it helps the Museum to document this moment.”

It has almost become cliché to say the times we’re currently living in are unprecedented but, in many ways, it is an undeniable reality. It is a moment in our collective history, and one the Aurora Museum & Archives wants to preserve for posterity.

“We continue collecting right up to the current day and documenting this pandemic through an Aurora lens is part of our mission and our mandate,” says Ms. Johnson. “We need to find a way to have either digital or physical artefacts from this in our collection so we can do our part for future generations and show how Aurorans navigated this.”

These artefacts can include the colourful lawn and window signs Aurorans have erected in a show of solidarity with our frontline healthcare workers, to the festive decorations residents used to fill their windows for the Town’s Easter Window Decorating contest this past weekend.

But, until it is safe to collect those items or accept donations, the Museum is focused on the digital.

If you have a front porch or yard, the Museum encourages you to snap away and submit your photos to them via social media through the hashtag #auroraathome.

As not everyone has access to an outdoor living space, photos by your front door, or even inside for those who do not feel comfortable going outside at this time, are acceptable as well.

“Right now, what this project is capturing for us, is the community practicing physical distancing and the community in that moment of self-isolation with the household members,” says Ms. Johnson. “This can be a photo of you and your household members, your own bubble, you and your pet – or even your collection of vintage video games you’re playing obsessively. Whatever speaks to you in terms of how you’re navigating this new reality of physical distancing and staying at home.”

Aurora’s archives are a “treasure trove” of content, but some photos in the collection don’t have any context. Studio portraits, for instance, have been donated without any information of who is in the photo or the circumstances in which they were taken. But the Museum is putting these images to good use, posting them online for a “Writing Prompt Wednesday” encouraging community members to use their imaginations to create short narratives on the stories behind the photos.

“It can be as long or as short as people would like, and we’re encouraging people to tag the Town’s social media accounts if they are comfortable posting it online – and we can hopefully showcase some of these literary creations down the road and get people’s imaginations going,” says Ms. Johnson. “We don’t want to inundate the public, but we want to promote these simple and neat activities that are open to people of all ages and all demographics. If people don’t use social media, email is always an option as well.”

For more information on the Aurora Museum and Archives, visit Auroramuseum.ca. Photo entries can be made by connecting with the Town on Facebook @townofaurora and Twitter @Town_of_Aurora.

By Brock Weir