The Military Museums

Tour of Duty

The Military Museums :: Founders Gallery

September 27, 2018 – January 13, 2019

Canadians and the Vietnam War

This personality based exhibit will relate a range of soldiers’ perspectives on the Vietnam War. Artifacts and oral histories from Canadians who were there will be presented. The central narrative will cover the estimated 40,000 Canadian citizens who enlisted in the U.S. military and fought overseas in the war. Other stories will be presented, including U.S. and South Vietnamese veterans who later moved to Canada.

Importantly, Canada’s official connection with the war will also be presented – the story of the International Commission of Control and Supervision. This little-known peacekeeping mission was responsible for overseeing the American withdrawal, and enabling the repatriation of hundreds of American POWs. The veterans associated with the Vietnam War have received very little recognition in Canada, and we hope to help correct this oversight.

An exhibition of 20 posters from the Whitney Museum of American Art selected from the recently acquired Daniel Wolf Collection of Protest Posters will give shape to social forces and cultural history in the United States from the early 1960’s through 1972. As well, a sample of Vietnamese block prints from the village of Dong Ho exemplify a traditional New Year artform that declined during the war and is now being revived.

In association with the exhibit, The Moving Wall – a half-size replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., will also be on display at the Military Museums between Oct 6 - 14, 2018. This is the first time in 25 years that the Moving Wall has been to Canada, and the first time it’s ever been to Western Canada!

The Canadian Vietnam Memorial Wall, which contains the names of all known Canadians killed in Vietnam, will also be on display at the Museum between Oct 6 - 8, 2018.

Öde

The Military Museums :: Founders Gallery

June 22, 2018 - Sept 23, 2018, Ongoing

Öde

ÖDE is an artwork created by the artist Sarah Beck. The work will continue to be an ongoing exhibit and is free to view outside the front entrance of The Military Museums.

This work address the idea of security as commodity versus security as human right and is meant to inspire conversation around access to defence. The inspiration for this work comes from the artist’s research into the Ghost Army of the Second World War. The Ghost Army was made up of artists who designed and painted inflatable decoy tanks to fool Nazi troops.

This project also stems from the artists research into Nazi tank training manuals. These manuals used advertising style motifs to quickly train German soldiers in the use of tanks. These manuals used catchy and easy to recall rhymes as well as drawn illustrations that reminded the artist of building instructions for furniture produced by companies like Ikea.