Guy Vadeboncoeur, longtime Stewart Museum chief curator and director, has died
The Stewart Museum was founded in 1955 by tobacco heir David M. Stewart and Liliane M. Stewart: It began as a private collection that David Stewart expanded into a collection of more than 30,000 artefacts, archival documents and rare books related to the European presence in New France and North America. It includes scientific instruments, one of Canada's best collections of firearms, European porcelain, Gobelin tapestry from France and objects used in everyday life in the 17 th and 18 th centuries.
For years, the museum was on St-Helen's Island, in a former fortified arsenal built by the British in 1822 and used as a munitions depot. In 2013, it merged with the McCord Museum and, when the Stewart Museum closed permanently in 2021, its collection was absorbed by that of the McCord and the museum is now known as McCord Stewart Museum.
For more than than half-century until his retirement in early 2014, Vadeboncoeur was closely associated with the many projects and endeavours of the Stewarts.
He distinguished himself by integrating his knowledge of history with education and teaching, said Bruce Bolton, who served as longtime director of the museum before leaving to head the Macdonald-Stewart Foundation — an approach that earned him the recognition of peers in a the museum community. During his career, he twice served as president of the Société des Musées du Québec, from 1981 to 1982, and 2005 to 2007, and the Canadian Museums Association from 1983 to 1985, In 2004, he was elected Fellow of the association — a high honour in Canadian museum circles. He also participated in several juries for grants and scholarships in the museum field.
'We started working together in 1966 and stayed with the family. It was quite a collaboration. He was our human computer: He knew all the objects in the museum and when we acquired them,' Bolton said.
'His background in history and education — his PhD was in education for museums — enabled him to inspire so many people in how to bring history alive. Our intent at the Stewart Museum was to hire young people who showed the potential to be great museologists and we succeeded. We have so many people in the museum world who credit their beginnings to the Stewart Museum.'
Vadeboncoeur organized, directed and supervised about 90 temporary and travelling museum exhibitions in addition to three re-imaginings of the permanent exhibition. He contributed to all the museum's publications related to its collections and directed the reorganization of the museum, including the permanent and temporary exhibition spaces, the offices, the workshops the reserves and libraries following work to bring the building up to code carried out between 2009 and 2011.
Because of relationships he developed with universities with programs in museum studies, he represented the museum in Canada and beyond. He taught in the masters program in museum studies at the Université du Québec à Montréal, from where he earned a doctorate in museology. He welcomed dozens of interns at the Stewart from Quebec and elsewhere.
Vadeboncoeur chaired the Museums Committee of the Commission franco-québécoise des lieux de mémoire communs and was a member of the ICOMAM Council: ICOMAM is an international committee of the International Council of Museums specializing in museums and collections of arms and military history.
'The Stewart Museum had a lot of international friends in the museum world and Guy was right there with them,' Bolton said.
There were collaborations, for instance, with museums and other institutions in France. The museum oversaw the transformation of Manoir de Limoëlou in St-Malo, France, the house that once belonged to Jacques-Cartier, into a museum. David Stewart was able to purchase the collection of Abbé Nollet, a French professor who developed scientific demonstration instruments for the kings of France — and Vadeboncoeur was involved an exhibition shown at Versailles.
The Stewart Museum collaborated in an exhibition with the Jewish Public Library held at the museum in 1990, Planets, Potions and Parchments, that featured a fragment from the Dead Sea Scrolls among more than 200 scientific manuscripts, books, maps, amulets, and magical texts brought together from collections in Europe, Canada, Israel, Great Britain and the United States.
Vadeboncoeur is survived by his wife, Jocelyne, his children, Amélie and Alexandre, and their spouses, and his three grandchildren.
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Montreal Gazette
7 hours ago
- Montreal Gazette
Guy Vadeboncoeur, longtime Stewart Museum chief curator and director, has died
Guy Vadeboncoeur, the longtime chief curator and executive director of the Stewart Museum, has died. He was 76. The cause was cancer. The Stewart Museum was founded in 1955 by tobacco heir David M. Stewart and Liliane M. Stewart: It began as a private collection that David Stewart expanded into a collection of more than 30,000 artefacts, archival documents and rare books related to the European presence in New France and North America. It includes scientific instruments, one of Canada's best collections of firearms, European porcelain, Gobelin tapestry from France and objects used in everyday life in the 17 th and 18 th centuries. For years, the museum was on St-Helen's Island, in a former fortified arsenal built by the British in 1822 and used as a munitions depot. In 2013, it merged with the McCord Museum and, when the Stewart Museum closed permanently in 2021, its collection was absorbed by that of the McCord and the museum is now known as McCord Stewart Museum. For more than than half-century until his retirement in early 2014, Vadeboncoeur was closely associated with the many projects and endeavours of the Stewarts. He distinguished himself by integrating his knowledge of history with education and teaching, said Bruce Bolton, who served as longtime director of the museum before leaving to head the Macdonald-Stewart Foundation — an approach that earned him the recognition of peers in a the museum community. During his career, he twice served as president of the Société des Musées du Québec, from 1981 to 1982, and 2005 to 2007, and the Canadian Museums Association from 1983 to 1985, In 2004, he was elected Fellow of the association — a high honour in Canadian museum circles. He also participated in several juries for grants and scholarships in the museum field. 'We started working together in 1966 and stayed with the family. It was quite a collaboration. He was our human computer: He knew all the objects in the museum and when we acquired them,' Bolton said. 'His background in history and education — his PhD was in education for museums — enabled him to inspire so many people in how to bring history alive. Our intent at the Stewart Museum was to hire young people who showed the potential to be great museologists and we succeeded. We have so many people in the museum world who credit their beginnings to the Stewart Museum.' Vadeboncoeur organized, directed and supervised about 90 temporary and travelling museum exhibitions in addition to three re-imaginings of the permanent exhibition. He contributed to all the museum's publications related to its collections and directed the reorganization of the museum, including the permanent and temporary exhibition spaces, the offices, the workshops the reserves and libraries following work to bring the building up to code carried out between 2009 and 2011. Because of relationships he developed with universities with programs in museum studies, he represented the museum in Canada and beyond. He taught in the masters program in museum studies at the Université du Québec à Montréal, from where he earned a doctorate in museology. He welcomed dozens of interns at the Stewart from Quebec and elsewhere. Vadeboncoeur chaired the Museums Committee of the Commission franco-québécoise des lieux de mémoire communs and was a member of the ICOMAM Council: ICOMAM is an international committee of the International Council of Museums specializing in museums and collections of arms and military history. 'The Stewart Museum had a lot of international friends in the museum world and Guy was right there with them,' Bolton said. There were collaborations, for instance, with museums and other institutions in France. The museum oversaw the transformation of Manoir de Limoëlou in St-Malo, France, the house that once belonged to Jacques-Cartier, into a museum. David Stewart was able to purchase the collection of Abbé Nollet, a French professor who developed scientific demonstration instruments for the kings of France — and Vadeboncoeur was involved an exhibition shown at Versailles. The Stewart Museum collaborated in an exhibition with the Jewish Public Library held at the museum in 1990, Planets, Potions and Parchments, that featured a fragment from the Dead Sea Scrolls among more than 200 scientific manuscripts, books, maps, amulets, and magical texts brought together from collections in Europe, Canada, Israel, Great Britain and the United States. Vadeboncoeur is survived by his wife, Jocelyne, his children, Amélie and Alexandre, and their spouses, and his three grandchildren.
Winnipeg Free Press
a day ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
For young and Buddhist-curious, a moment of modern mindfulness
NEW YORK (RNS) — New York Zendo Shobo-ji was quiet on a Saturday morning in late June, far removed from the muted hum and chatter that lingers in Lenox Hill, in Upper Manhattan, even on rainy summer days. Inside, a small group of young adults sat zazen as an ordained member of the Triratna order led them through a mindfulness meditation. 'Be aware of the sounds around you, the quality of the air,' the practice leader said. As if on cue, a bird began cooing in the temple's garden. The fact that everyone in attendance was on the younger side was by design: The practice is part of the Young Buddhist Initiative, a program designed to help those age 35 and underexplore Buddhist teachings and meditation — no experience needed. Previous sessions have covered topics such as mindfulness, the three poisons (greed, hatred and delusion, the root mental states that Buddhists say cause human suffering) and the meaning of enlightenment. The initiative is run by the Triratna Buddhist Community of New York and New Jersey, part of the international Triratna Buddhist Community founded in 1967 by Sangharakshita, the British spiritual teacher born as Dennis Lingwood. 'Triratna' refers to the Three Jewels or Three Refuges of Buddhism: the Buddha, Dharma (the Buddha's teachings) and Sangha (the Buddhist community). The fellowship describes itself as bringing Buddhist traditions into the modern world in a way that suits contemporary lives. ___ This content is written and produced by Religion News Service and distributed by The Associated Press. RNS and AP partner on some religion news content. RNS is solely responsible for this story. ___ In the United Kingdom, young people's retreats can attract more than 100 attendees; in the United States, it's just getting started. While the New York-area branch doesn't have a permanent headquarters, it runs regular Zoom events as well as in-person meetings and retreats at various locations, such as New York Zendo Shobo-ji. Ananta, who goes by a single name and is CEO of the nonprofit Karuna USA, led the recent day's practice, guiding the meditation from awareness of one's breath, body and surroundings to a reflection and discussion on recent actions that participants felt either proud of or guilty about — not to be deemed morally good or bad but to reflect on and let go. 'Experiences are preceded by mind, led by mind, and produced by mind,' he read from the Dhammapada, a collection of the Buddha's sayings. 'If one speaks or acts with an impure mind, suffering follows even as the cart wheel follows the hoof of the ox … If one speaks or acts with a pure mind, happiness follows like a shadow that never departs.' The Young Buddhist Initiative began out of a desire to create a nurturing space where young people could support each other in their spiritual practice. Ananta came across Buddhism at age 18 through a meditation group at his university in London and knows the value of having a cohort of like-minded peers. 'There are people like you who also have spiritual aspirations andare interested in leading a particular lifestyle. That can be very supportive.' Tamojyoti, an ordained member of the Triratna community who goes by a single name, agreed. 'We just have a different consciousness than young people. And I think maybe why those young people groups work so well is because that consciousness can flourish,' she said. One of the attendees at the session, Kizzy Joseph, a 28-year-old therapist from Brooklyn, was seeking to have conversations about spirituality with people in her age group and had been looking for Buddhist spaces across the city. Most groups she found took a too-intellectual approach to Buddhism, skewed older or were predominantly white. Headed to her first meeting with the Young Buddhist Initiative, Joseph feared she would be the only Black person in the room. 'To my happy surprise, there were three other women of color and another person of color — I think they identify as nonbinary. I was really surprised by how diverse the space was.' According to the 2023 PRRI Census of American Religion, the average age of a U.S. Buddhist is 52, but survey numbers come with the caveat that gathering statistics about Buddhists is difficult, as many people, like Joseph, engage in Buddhist beliefs and practices without formally identifying as Buddhist. Protestant by birth, Joseph became unhappy with the rigid religious structure she was raised in and began exploring different approaches to spirituality in her teens. She feels a 'gentle calling'toward Buddhism and finds it less forceful than the faith of her childhood, but doesn't defineherself as a Buddhist. In her personal life, she also practices ancestor veneration and Reiki. Still, the Young Buddhist Initiative provides something that she hadn't found in other spaces: a feeling of connectedness and emotional safety. 'It's first and foremost about creating an environment where people of all ages, including younger people, feel comfortable and welcome. One of the things I'm noticing is that we have a number of transgender people that are young, and so I think it feels almost like the environment is open and welcoming for everyone,' said Michael King, a 58-year-old New Yorker who has been attending Triratna meetings and practices for four years. (Despite its name, New York's Triratna practice attendee ages typically range from 40 to 60, hewing closely to PRRIs national average.) The group tries its best to cultivate that environment. Those in attendance at the late June session spoke quietly but frankly about fights in personal relationships or embarrassing moments at work, receiving acceptance, not judgement, in return. A break for tea and cookies in the temple's kitchen made room for casual conversation. When it was time to discuss karma and hypothetical moral situations, we were reminded that it's not about a strict binary of 'good' or 'bad,' but 'skilled' or 'unskilled': that is, aligned with Buddhist precepts and leading to either happy or unhappy results. Sundays Kevin Rollason's Sunday newsletter honouring and remembering lives well-lived in Manitoba. The five precepts of Buddhism — abstaining from killing living beings, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying and intoxication — were also interpreted through a modern lens. Alcohol, for example, was considered not to be bad if used moderately; on the other hand, mindlessly scrolling through social media could become a form of intoxication. The group discussed white lies, supporting friends and power dynamics, never landing on an answer that was considered universally correct. For Tamojyoti, Buddhism can provide a way to transform the anxiety that many young people feel in response to the state of the world into action. 'Young people want to stand for something, and Buddhism is all about your truth, your values, interconnection, compassion.' 'If we're going to change the way this world is operating, it's going to happen through young people,' King said, expressing a desire for young people to come to the Dharma and make an impact. 'I think a lot of people in my generation have wanted to live more of a Dharmic life, meaning that we're pulling away from those structures. But those structures can't change unless we're in there changing them.' ___ Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP's collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
Edmonton Journal
a day ago
- Edmonton Journal
'Gizmo', 'Satan,' and 'McLovin': Inside the changing world of pilot calls signs at CFB Cold Lake
As far back as the Second World War, Canadian pilots have used call signs to identify themselves to colleagues in the air and on the ground. Article content Such short-hand monikers are used in official and unofficial communications as well as by Canada's allies, and have appeared in pop culture through films like Top Gun. Article content Article content The Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) says call signs serve as more than identification markers, and reflect both generations of aviation heritage as well as the contemporary pilots who assign the nicknames to their peers. Article content Article content While once considered to be permanent, call signs and the policies that govern them have been updated in recent years amid controversy over some individual nicknames and the process by which they were assigned. Article content Article content Those concerns prompted an overhaul of standards around call signs and the process used to choose them, according to over 200 pages of records acquired by Postmedia via several access to information requests that produced records primarily from CFB Cold Lake in Alberta but also to other bases. Article content 'While the RCAF continues to value tradition and camaraderie, we recognize that certain call signs previously considered acceptable may no longer reflect the evolving culture of the organization,' reads a statement to Postmedia from Maj. Marie-Eve Bilodeau with the Canadian Armed Forces. Article content 'Our approach remains flexible, allowing the fighter force culture to evolve alongside broader societal expectations.' Article content Article content The documents list close to 100 different call signs, and while the origins of many of those are difficult to determine many are apparent attempts at humour. Article content Call signs referencing first or last names were common, including one pilot with the surname Chu who was given the call sign 'Pica' in reference to the Pokemon character. Article content Entertainment was a popular source of inspiration for call signs including 'Bollywood,' 'Jar Jar,' 'Gizmo,' 'Footloose,' and 'McLovin' in apparent reference to the 2007 film Superbad. Article content 'Call signs, much like nicknames between good friends, are intended to maintain tradition and contribute to esprit de corps,' Bilodeau stated. Article content Some call signs were acronyms, including 'POG' in reference to TSN's Play of the Game highlight segment, 'RIC' referring to an officer who rides (his motorcycle) in crocs, and 'DATA' for a pilot whose colleagues apparently believe doesn't always think ahead.
