Biodiversity

 Staircases lead from one level of the NAC to the next, and in the core of these staircases hang these chandelier installations which are quite eye catching.

A wooden tree was placed in a lobby area nearby, by a local artist. The Ottawa 200 Biodiversity Tree features two hundred species, past and present, in the Ottawa Valley. Ben LaChapelle is the artist. I found it fascinating.

It was time to go. It had been a long day, and I was not up to doing the dusk to dawn circuit of Nuit Blanche. I departed the NAC. This is part of the 2017 additions, a glass tower that includes circuitry to project images on the glass.

I crossed the street, taking another look back. It had been quite a day.

NAC Sightings

 Continuing where I left off in this visit to the National Arts Centre during the Ottawa Bicentennial celebrations, this shirt and skirt date to 1984. At the time, k.d. lang was participating in the Edmonton Folk Festival.

Two works of art exhibited together, both by First Nations artists- a painting and a canoe. Frank Polson painted Anishnabek Traditional Territory in 2020, commissioned by the NAC. Pinock is an Anishinaabe Algonquin who specializes in making canoes in the traditional fashion. This one dates to 2019.

Nearby, an informal stage area, lit dimly at first, with music shortly to come, and dancers off to the right. The audience was waiting.

This area is part of the 2017 additions. This large staircase has always caught my eye.

For today, I finish with this. The late Canadian classical pianist Glenn Gould owned this piano, and it was willed to the NAC. It is kept here, still in tune, and occasionally played in performance.

Bytown

In the 1840s, Sister Elisabeth Bruyere and fellow Grey Nuns from Montreal came to Bytown, establishing a hospital, orphanage, school, and other social services. Sister Elisabeth's legacy remains today, with two hospitals in the city under the umbrella of the Bruyere organization, and a convent still active beside one of them.

After the Canal was built, timber was the dominant industry in the Ottawa Valley, and with both sides of the river being involved, the growing urban centers were keys to that industry. This is a remarkable artifact, a table carved by an employee of one of the lumber companies, done in three dimensions, showing the areas of the timber companies around the islands in the river.

The portrait on the wall is that of J.R. Booth, a lumber tycoon and railroad baron who established himself in what was Bytown and later became Ottawa. At one point, his lumber company was the largest in the world.

The actual work of the lumber men was a hard one, for months out of the year, out in the bush. 

This display case features some of their artifacts. 

Joseph Montferrand was one of the lumberjacks, a French-Canadian giant of a man who became a legend in the Ottawa Valley, today still remembered in folklore. It was said he once beat 150 men on the Chaudiere Bridge, members of an Irish street gang looking to make trouble.

Caulk boots, with nails or cleats on the soles, were used by the river drivers to pass over slippery logs. The bible box beside it was carved by Robert Spallin during time off in the camps.

This belt is an example of those worn by French-Canadian lumbermen.

Tools of the trade.

For a time, Bytown had a reputation as the most violent town in British North America, with riots, old-world biases spilling over into fights, and access to alcohol leading to troubles, all with minimal law enforcement in those early years.

Winter Playground

 Jacques Cartier Park is over in Gatineau, on the shores of the Ottawa River. Each year during Winterlude, it is transformed into a winter playground, and particularly busy on the weekends.

A staging area for buskers. One was setting up as I was departing. I took note of the woodworking here.

There are a couple of oversized Muskoka chairs here in the park.

The main draw is a huge slope of snow, with multiple lanes for snow tubing.

Another activity- zip lines.