Date(s): Monday, January 16
Time: 4:30 pm - 6:30 pm
Location: : Abbotsford, B101

Creating Cultural Capital: The Museum Industry from a Global Perspective

Join The University of the Fraser Valley’s College of Arts and The Reach Gallery for a special presentation with guest speaker George Jacobs on January 16, 2017 at 4:30 pm in room B101 (Lecture Theatre) on UFV’s Abbotsford campus.

What is the role of museums and culture in our increasingly virtual and changing inter-connected world of accelerated communication and global mobility? “Museums are the souls of civil societies and they serve as repositories of our collective memory,” says Jacobs, “They are an important catalyst for education, tourism, cultural infrastructure, and the quality of life in communities. But museums are more than memory keepers. Museums are engines that drive cultural diplomacy — an art, whose soft power has tested true through the course of history in bridging relationships, forging allies, and facilitating exchange of ideas.”

Creation and sustainability of museums is a multi-billion dollar industry globally. Canadian museologist George Jacob has dedicated his life to the creation and planning of some incredible museums and science centres around the globe. His insights into the need for cultural resource management training, leadership, creation of destinations of higher societal purpose will form the essence of this talk.

For more information about this event, contact Cecelia.Dirksen@ufv.ca

About George Jacob M.Tech., MMS., D.Lt., CCF, FRCGS

Trained at the Smithsonian, educated at the Birla Institute of Technology & Science, University of Toronto and Yale School of Management, he is known internationally for spearheading stellar museum planning and design-build assignments and is one of the leading museum thinkers of our times. A Canadian Commonwealth Scholar, his $480 million + design-build portfolio of over 50 museum assignments can be seen in 11 countries including Singapore, India, Abu Dhabi, Hong Kong, Egypt and across United States. Founding Director of 4 museums in his year career, he is credited with developing the first Masters Studio in Canada on Museum Design at the Faculty of Architecture, University of Manitoba and the first Executive Program on Cultural Leadership and Diplomacy in the United States at the University of Texas. His 100+ opinion columns and editorials on museum design, civic reach, sustainability, public art, exhibit design, master planning and advocacy, have appeared in many newspapers around the world. Author of 3 seminal books on the future of Museum Design and Practice, he currently serves on the Peer Review Board of the American Alliance for Museums, ICOM Canada and the Canadian Association of Science Centres, among others. He was honored to be the Project Director for the production of the 1812 Star Spangled Banner permanent exhibit- Smithsonian’s most treasured national icon- rededicated to the nation by President George W. Bush.

As the founding President and CEO of the $46 million Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum in Grand Prairie Alberta, he has been instrumental in planning, designing and implementing the fastest museum project in Canadian history. The museum has won 9 Awards in 9 months including the Outstanding Achievement from the Canadian Museums Association. This is the first and only museum to offer helicopter rides over the world’s densest bone-bed for horned dinosaurs. In July 2015, Alberta Venture named him as one of the 50 most influential persons. He is a Fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographic Society.

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