| In this issue:
Museum Hours
10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Beginning May 19th the Museum will be open seven days a week.
Visit our website for more information and what's on at the museum.
| |
| Biodiversity Day
Thursday, May 22, 2014
10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
To celebrate International Day for Biological DIversity (aka Biodiversity Day) the Museum is offering free general admission. Come celebrate biodiversity by delving into our collection showcasing the weird and the wonderful.
| |
|
Research is happening right now, right here at the Biodiversity Research Centre. Discover the questions scientists are asking about our world and explore how they are answering them.
| |
| Wondrous
April 2 - July 27, 2014
Produced by a collection of artists for WWF-Canada and Science World British Columbia, Wondrous: The Forest and Sea of the Great Bear exhibition powerfully illustrates the relationship between the land and the ocean, forest and river, economy and ecology.
| |
| Alumni Weekend
Saturday May 24, 2014 Alumni Weekend 2014 is a chance for the public and UBC Alumni to explore the campus.
At the Museum, we will open our doors with free general admission for registered Alumni Weekend participants and celebrate biodiversity with family programming, museum tours, puppet shows, and more. You’ll also be able to catch a screening of the documentary, Raising Big Blue.
Note: The Beaty Biodiversity Museum, parking, and UBC campus will be busy on May 24. Please plan extra time for your visit.
Click here for more information and to RSVP for UBC Alumni Weekend 2014.
| |
| Become a Member
A Beaty membership means joining and supporting a lively community of people inspired by biodiversity, engaged with the natural world, and dedicated to conservation.
The best way to enjoy everything the museum has to offer is through membership. Benefits include year-round admission to our world-class museum, with over 500 permanent exhibits, rotating art exhibits, tours, activities, crafts, and more. - See more at: http://beatymuseum-dev.webi.it.ubc.ca/join#sthash.X1whOhOq.dpuf
The Beaty Biodiversity Museum membership program offers great benefits to our supporters, including year-round admission to our world-class museum, with over 500 permanent exhibits, rotating art exhibits, tours, activities, crafts, and more. The best way to enjoy everything the museum has to offer is through membership. A Beaty membership also means joining and supporting a lively community of people inspired by biodiversity, engaged with the natural world, and dedicated to conservation.
| |
|
The Beaty Biodiversity Museum strives to inspire an understanding of biodiversity, its origins, and importance to humans through collections-based research, education and outreach. As Vancouver’s natural history museum, we work to promote a greater sense of collective responsibility for the biodiversity of British Columbia, Canada, and the world. The unique combination of world-class research, paired with beautiful, compelling exhibits, strives to make the research conducted at UBC more accessible to the public.
Explore the university’s spectacular biological collections, with 20,000 square feet of exhibits showcasing over 500 permanent exhibits. Among our two million treasured specimens are a 26-metre-long blue whale skeleton suspended in the atrium, the third-largest fish collection in Canada, and myriad fossils, shells, insects, fungi, mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and plants from around BC and across the world.
| |
|
| Dear Museum Supporter...
How familiar are you with the organisms in your backyard or city? This month, we introduce you to our new exhibitions and programming, focusing on the world around you. As this year's theme draws to a close, we hope you enjoyed the Extreme Adaptations stories woven into our activities. On Friday May 9th, the Museum’s programming will be transformed with a focus on Backyard Biodiversity. Join us for new museum tours, activities, puppet shows, and more! The Herbarium Project exhibition launches on Friday May 16 and explores a location very close to us, the Herbarium Collection here at the Beaty Biodiversity Museum. The exhibition will feature a series of paintings that encourage us to move beyond a functional relationship with nature and to build a stronger emotional bond – to view nature not as a resource, but as a source of cultural, emotional and aesthetic value. Wondering where to celebrate Biodiversity Day on Thursday May 22nd? Look no further! The Museum will be offering free general admission to those wishing to honour the day by exploring our diverse biological collections.
We hope our new programming will inspire you to explore your backyard; no matter how big or small. See you in the museum!
| |
| Artist Karen Yurkovich explores our complex and variegated relationship with nature. Using specimens from the UBC Herbarium (a part of the Beaty Biodiversity Museum collections) she re-examines these taxonomically organized pieces of nature through their aesthetics, their symbolism, their mythologies and their histories. Recognizing and celebrating the ubiquity with which nature is integrated into our culture and daily lives, these paintings encourage us to move beyond a functional relationship with nature and to build a stronger emotional bond – to view nature not as a resource, but as a source of cultural, emotional and aesthetic value.
Alongside the paintings will be displayed some of the original Herbarium specimens, as well as the artist’s research materials, providing a unique insight into Yurkovich’s artistic process.
Opening
Thursday, May 15, 2014 | 7:00 – 9:00pm | Beaty Biodiversity Museum Atrium
Come celebrate the opening of The Herbarium Project, including a short talk from the artist, Karen Yurkovich. This special event is free with admission to the Museum, but an RSVP is required. Please reserve your spot soon to avoid disappointment. Alcohol will be served at this event to guests 19+. Please bring two pieces of valid identification.
| |
| Way Cool Biodiversity Series
First Sunday of every month | 1:00 p.m.
The popular Way Cool Biodiversity Series runs the first Sunday of every month. This series is appropriate for visitors of all ages and backgrounds, and is included with admission or membership. Keep notes! We will ask you to pick your favourite at the end of the year.
Did you know that grasslands make up only 1% of British Columbia but are comprised of over 30% of the province's rare and endangered vertebrates, many rare plants, and a host of rare and captivating insects? BC grasslands might be small in area but they are big on diversity. From western meadowlarks to badgers, prickly pear cactus to bluebunch wheatgrass, and black widow spiders to ground beetles and ants –grasslands are full of interesting species each with its own unique place in the wide variety of grasslands found in BC. Join Bill Harrower, PhD Candidate in the Botany Department and Biodiverstiy Research Centre at UBC to learn more about the species that make up this fascinating part of our province.
Ocean Viruses are way cool because…
Sunday, June 1, 2014 at 1:00 p.m.
They come in all shapes and sizes, and far outnumber the known stars in our universe! Viruses are found throughout the ocean - from the surface waters down to the crust below the seafloor. Despite their small size, they have critical roles wherever they live and are important to the complex food webs we rely on for our own food. Join Cheryl Chow, Post-Doctoral Fellow in UBC's Department of Earth, Ocean & Atmospheric Sciences, in learning about the microscopic, but mega-important, world within the ocean.
| |
| Backyard Biodiversity
Launches Friday May 9, 2014
From oceans to mountains, desert to rainforest, and every ecosystem between, British Columbia is filled with varied niches and organisms, ranging from the familiar to the fantastic. The Beaty Biodiversity Museum’s current feature theme reflects this diversity in a variety of programming designed to introduce you to your wild neighbors.
You’ll be stimulated by our amazing assemblage of local species through arts, science, interactive programming, exhibits, and quiet spaces. Each collection within the museum houses specimens from around the globe, but we have a special connection those from our backyard.
As you explore the museum, think about the different backyards you use – everything from your window, balcony, yard, neighborhood, and city; to region, province, and country. The Beaty Biodiversity Museum will help you appreciate the biodiversity in your backyard, no matter how big or small.
For more information on Backyard Biodiversity, click here.
| |
| Celebrating Five Years of BRITE Internships
Biodiversity Research Centre, UBC Vancouver Campus
Tuesday, May 6, 2014 | 5:00-6:30pm
You’re invited to join us on the afternoon of Tuesday, May 6 to celebrate five years of BRITE internships!
BRITE or Biodiversity Research: Integrative Training and Education is an NSERC-CREATE-funded training program. For the past five years, the Biodiversity Research Centre ( BRC) at the University of British Columbia (UBC) has hosted the BRITE Internship Program. The program has connected graduate students with non-governmental organizations, government agencies, and industry partners through paid internships, linking scientists-in-training with organizations that need them.
To celebrate this milestone, the BRC is hosting a reception on Tuesday, May 6. This event will be a chance for members of the public interested in biodiversity, research, and education to find out more about this unique and effective program. Join us as past interns describe their experiences, from the eelgrass meadows of BC to the rainforests of Indonesia. Learn about the opportunities provided by the BRITE program from interns and internship hosts.
The BRITE program has always depended on vision and financial support from biodiversity leaders. In order to make sure this program continues, BRC director and MacArthur Foundation “Genius Grant” recipient Dr. Sally Otto founded the Biodiversity Internship Fund at UBC with a personal gift of $100,000. The reception will be the occasion to thank our initial donors (Dr. Sally Otto, Dr. Kai Chan and an anonymous donor) and to publicly launch the effort to raise $1 million towards the Fund to guarantee that the BRITE Internship Program continues now and into the future.
Join us in celebrating the accomplishments of the BRITE Internship Program on Tuesday, May 6 from 5:00 to 6:30 pm in the Beaty Biodiversity Museum. For more details and to RSVP, please visit: http://celebratingbrite.eventbrite.ca.
| |
| A Window into the Collection...
The specimens in our museum’s collection may not move, but they sure are active! The Beaty Biodiversity Museum’s active research collection is abuzz with activity this spring. What happens behind the scenes in a research collection? Here’s a peek into just a portion of what has happened in our collections over the past month.
New specimens: April welcomed many new specimens into our collections. The Herbarium’s collection received 24 boxes of bryophyte specimens, and 52 shoeboxes of fungi specimens, too. Our entomological collection is also growing, thanks to sampling trips to the various locations around the Lower Mainland.
Loans: Other specimens have (temporarily) left the building to support the activities of community groups and other institutions. In April alone, our specimens and staff have supported Nature Vancouver, YVR’s Wildlife Management Technician Training Course, Metro Vancouver, Stanley Park Ecological Society, Vancouver School Board’s Scientist in Residence Program, and the Oregon Spotted Frog Recovery Team, among others.
Collections maintenance: Even if they are not entering or leaving our collections, research specimens keep everyone here very busy. Last month, our entomological collections curator, Karen Needham, completed a year’s work of re-organizing all of the Hymenoptera specimens, and her volunteer just began the same task with our largest moth family within the Lepidoptera. Fossils have been crossing the road from Pacific Museum of Earth to be assessed and catalogued, and our preparatory labs have been buzzing with artist drop-ins, mammal preparation sessions, and wet lab specimen preparation sessions, too.
| |
|
