The Royal Ontario Museum Vault Tour

I recently donated to the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) and became a member of the Young Patrons Circle (YPC). As a patron I will get to attend exclusive events organized by the YPC and get VIP access to the ROM’s collections and experts. I decided that this would be a good way for me to give back while also providing me with a way to network and to socialize with new people.  My first event that I attended as a patron was a vault tour on January 20, 2016.

Museum Vault Tour

There were several different tours that you could sign up for and I took the Canadian culture tour which consisted of artifacts from the First Nations people. It was a really interesting tour and you could tell that our leader was very passionate about his work. I took a bunch of photos of some of the behind the scenes pieces but I chose to only include a few of them here. The First Nations tribes have a rich and interesting history and I could in no way due them justice. I love being a Canadian but it is hard hearing about some of the terrible things that this country did to the Indigenous people. While I love visiting museums and seeing artifacts from different places, you do wonder why we have them and if we even should. I know that being kept in a museum has helped to ensure that these pieces were not lost or destroyed over the years but I am not sure if that gives us the right to still hold on to them. The ROM does have a policy in place with regards to repatriation to the people of First Nations communities.

This picture is of me and one of the organizers of the event standing in front of snowshoes. The one on the right is the artifact and the one on the left is a copy that they had made. As you can see, the snow shoes are really big so they made a pair to test them out to see if people could actually walk in them – turns out they could. Apparently there is another pair of snow shoes that are 8 feet long!!

In this picture, you will see our guide with an automatic harpoon that was used to hunt seal through the ice. It is fascinating the ingenious things that people can create.          

January 20, 2016 was National #MuseumSelfie day so of course I had to take one! 🙂

This entrance way of the ROM was so pretty I just had to get my friend to take some pictures!

Tulle Skirt & Stripes

I ordered this tulle skirt from Chic Wish, back in the spring, and I had never worn it. I bought it because I thought it was so pretty but when it arrived I wasn’t sure what to do with it. It’s longer than I had expected which is unusual because skirts are usually shorter than I anticipate them being. When I heard about the vault tour at the ROM I decided I was going to wear the tulle skirt and that I would dress it down with a striped sweater and my backpack purse. It’s funny, but I still get almost nervous when I put together a look that is a little more out there than old Charlene would wear. Like, I wonder what people would think? When the truth is, as long as all of your bits are covered, no one is paying attention to what any one else is wearing. I’m a lot more decisive these days since my accident so when I decide I’m going to do something I stick with it. So, I wore the skirt and I had a great night!

Skirt: Chic Wish, Sweater: Dynamite (similar), Backpack: RW&Co (similar), Booties: Nine West

Charlene xoxo