COMMUNITY WRITING: CONNECTING LITERACY AND THE LITERARY

Reading the
Museum &
Read Saint John

Reading the Museum is sponsored by the Canadian Museum Association and the National Literacy Secretariat to promote the use of the museum as a resource for family literacy. As part of the program, The New Brunswick Museum developed a project titled "Once Upon a Time," a storybook collection based on the permanent gallery exhibitions. READ Saint John, a local literacy organization, was invited to write stories based on each of the galleries. Now published,.... these stories bring the displays alive and are available to museum visitors.

• Brenda Jarvis, Coordinator, READ Saint John
• Julie Cormier, Helen Frigault, Learners from New Brunswick Museum-Read Saint John

EXCERPT FROM
Once Upon a Time in the Fine Arts Gallery
By Julie Cormier & Brenda Jarvis

Once upon a time I came to the Fine Arts Gallery. I didn’t come here by choice. I came with my sister, as she had to do a school project. My mother had to keep an appointment and she says that I am old enough to take care of myself. Sis promised me two dollars if I would come and behave myself.

I looked down a dimly lit room. A man carved out of wood was standing in the corner when we came in. He was great! He carried an old, flint lock rifle and wore feathers around his head. He was so smooth, the wood shone.

"Don’t touch, Mike."
"Is this an Indian?"
I asked my sister, ignoring her commanding whisper.

"No. The name of the piece is Indian Hunter."

"Why would anyone carve a man and call him an Indian Hunter?" I asked.

"Mike, if you read your history, you would learn about all the cruel things we have done to each other."

I DIDN’T HAVE TO READ MY HISTORY.

She brought me here didn’t she?

I followed her and she stopped in front of a picture that showed a group of people. They were sliding and skating. The women wore big long skirts. There were no cars around. Horses pulled people around in sleighs. She said that was what it was like here a hundred years ago.

It was quiet in this gallery, I stayed close to my sister as she looked at pictures of people. They were all straight faced. No one smiled. One picture of a woman has a squirrel in her hand. Her name was "Pamela". She held the squirrel but she didn’t look at it. She seemed frozen as if she were afraid the squirrel was going to bite her.

The picture of the boy next to her didn’t look friendly either. He didn’t look afraid of anything. He looked like a bully. He just looked mad at the world. Across from him is a little girl. She is a pretty little girl, wearing a coat with a fur collar. She looks so sad. She made me feel sad. My sister then moved around and started into another room.

There were so many pictures of people in the gallery. My sister went from picture to picture writing down things on her pad. I sat on the seat in the middle of the room and looked around. All these people seemed to be looking at me and no one was smiling. The men were all wearing dark suits and the women all in long dresses. I got up to join my sister and their eyes followed me. It was kind of _creepy.