Museum activities of Serbs in Canada

collections. Each family wanted to leave a mark of their arrival and
presence in Windsor. In 1976, most of the artefacts were exhibited at
Hiram Walker Historical Museum in Windsor, and for four months
had been seen by a large number of citizens. The success of this exhib-
ition was so great that the Association had strengthened its intention
to expand, strengthen and form a serious museum collection. It was a
large and complex undertaking.
At the same time, the Association has organized many interviews
with older members of the Serbian community who have narrated the
beginnings of a community in Windsor, through their biographies.
This enormous amount of knowledge is recorded and stored in the
collection. In 1987, the Ministry of Citizenship and Culture of On-
tario awarded a large grant to Serbian community in Windsor for the
expansion of the existing Serbian Cultural Centre. The condition for
obtaining the grant was that Serbian Cultural Centre should provide
space and work for the heritage museum.
The Association has formed a task force that would ensure the ad-
equate space for collection storage, office, workshop, library and ex-
hibition space is provided. The same grant provided for the purchase
of necessary equipment for the museum. Finally, the Association's
objective was fully achieved when the new Serbian Cultural Center
opened its doors on August 27. 1987. The ceremony was attended by
representatives of the City of Windsor: Mr. Howard McCurdy and the
Minister for Culture and Citizenship Ontario Ms. Lilly Munro. They
congratulated the Serbian community in Windsor on the incredible
success in promotion of its own cultural heritage and enrichment of
the city of Windsor.
Since then the museum has been very active in forming the col-
lection, preservation and proper storage of museum exhibits, organ-
izing the existing library into a serious research one that will work
systematically to collecting all the newspapers and magazines that
are published by Serbs throughout the Diaspora, creating a database
of all Serbian entrepreneurs and famous ids within the community,
networking with all the cultural organizations of Serbs in Canada and
America. The director of the museum in this very active period, was
Mrs. Stanslava Markovic who established a museum, but also for years
successfully secured funding through a number of grants. Ms. Svet-
lana Miskovic who followed, has often collaborated with the Serbian
National Academy of Canada from Toronto and the Department of
Slavic Studies at the University of Toronto. Mr. Allen Kelly focused
more on the inclusion of the citizens of Windsor in various projects,
recruiting volunteers from high schools and so on. Mrs. Dragica Sto-
jančević has initiated major projects to mark very important dates in
Serbian culture, as was “800 Years of Monastery Hilandar” exhibit,
then mapping of all the Serbian Orthodox churches across Canada and
America. Mr. Bogdan Chuk turned focus more to complete refurbish-
ment of the interior, donations to the collection and the stabilization
of museum’s finances. Mrs. Angie LaMar and Mrs. Anne Dube belong
to the 'newer' generation of museum directors from 2013 to the present.
Revitalization of the museum was launched in 2013 when the
museum received a prestigious grant from the Ministry of Culture,
Tourism and Sports of the Province of Ontario. The idea of digitiz-
ing a portion of the collection was born at the 25th anniversary of
the museum celebration. The director Mr. Bogdan Chuk, Mrs. Anna
Dube, a long time associate of the museum, Mr. Brian Owens, chief
archivist at University Library in Windsor, and several other people
came together to formulate a project to the smallest detail. Cooper-
ation with the Ontario Ministry of Culture and its local representatives
brought fruitful grant to the museum, which was then able to start the
project in the spring of 2013.
The material selected from the collection for digitization referred
only to written heritage. Selected were all anniversary books ever writ-
ten in Serbian language and published in Windsor, all the newspaper
articles written about the local Serbian community, all newspapers
that have been written and issued in the city, such as the Democratic
Thought from 1955 and 1956, the Voice of Canadian Serbs from 1945 to
1983, then all the books written by local writers in Serbian language
and published the Windsor. Monthly reports from Yugoslav Canadian
Association of Windsor (which later merged with Serbian National
Shield Society), Sokol Society documentation, the church Record of
Births, Marriages and Deaths from 1946 to 1970 in the area of Wind-
sor were also included. When selection was completed, there was ap-
proximately 25 000 titles that had to be digitize following the highest
standards of digital conservation.
During a year long project many activities were completed such as;
creating biographies of 20 local writers and editors of the newspaper
Voice of Canadian Serbs, analyzing their texts and literary and polit-
ical activities, exploring the establishment and operation of publishing
houses Avala Printing and Publishing Co. (Property of the Serbian
National Shield Society of Canada), Misic Printing and Perun Press.
Those publishers have issued newspapers, books, promotional materi-
al for social gatherings and festivals and contributed greatly to creat-
ing documents of pretty much all faucets of the community. Research
has opened a number of excellent topics in the history and culture of
the Serbian community of Windsor, as well as the history of cultur-
al, humanitarian and religious societies and associations in Windsor
and their collaboration with other communities in Canada, the United
States the world. The project has spawned a new website with great
review of digitized material, representative parts of the collection in all
categories and a virtual library of digitized texts (www.serbianherit-
agemuseum.com).
Parallel to the project, under the leadership of the museum Board
of directors and the president Mrs. Angie LaMar, the community has
enthusiastically organized donor events that have provided financial
support for the museum. By the mid 2014, when digitization project
was complete, museum has also able to renew its exhibition space,
found a group of permanent volunteers, develop a new administrative
committee that successfully promoted museum activities. In 2014 the
project of digitization, cataloging and identifying a large number of
photographs from the museum permanent collection was completed,
and in 2015 its entire collection inventory was reviewed and docu-
mented. The year 2015 passed focusing on raising and changing the
profile of exhibitions, therefore, connecting the museum with a wider
cultural community, such as, an exhibition covering the topic of the
centenary of the Great War, which was marked by many other com-
munities around the world.
The current president of the board of the directors Mrs. Anne Dube
began her mandate before the end of 2015 in close cooperation with the
curator of all recent exhibitions Mrs. Julka Vlajić. The cycle of exhib-
itions dedicated to Serbia in the First World War began in August 2014,
when the museum was the host and organizer of unveiling a memorial
plaque on the occasion of 100 years of internment of Serbs in Canada
in conjunction with the Ukrainian community across the country, as
well as programs of lectures by Dr. Marin Mandres and Mrs. Draga
Dragašević. Newspapers Voice of Canadian Serbs recorded the story
of this event and exhibit in the September issue of 2014. The second ex-
hibition with the same theme started in April 26. 2016 under the name
of Great Serbian Golgotha 1915-16 (Voice of Canadian Serbs, January
2016). The cycle ended with an exhibition of the latest in a series titled
Heroine of the First World War, which opened in autumn 2016. During
the summer 2016 there were two short art exhibitions; the first opened
mid-May and the second in mid-July, which invited two painters from
Serbia, Sunčica Markovic and Zoran Milosevic. This is a fine example
of cooperation that should be followed.

The current state of cultural and museum activities in Canada
The awareness about preservation of Serbian cultural identity outside
of Serbia is very strong, but it is usually manifested only through a
narrow spectrum of activities. Among them, folk dance and music have
the most dominant place, in terms of the concert and direct perform-
ance. It is evident that the Serbs love to dance, but what is the reason
for its dominance among other Serbian cultural societies in Canada?
Perhaps the answer lies in a number of skilled and dedicated choreog-
raphers, or efficiently organised independent cultural societies (SCA
Oplenac and the Academy of Serbian Folk Dances “Miroslav Bata
Marčetić”), or the great possibilities and opportunities for perform-
ance or popularity among the youth. Most often is the case that many
communities across Canada have their folklore companies active
within church congregations under the auspices of the Serbian Ortho-
dox Church. Folklore sections very often visit each other during the
holidays or important competitions, so their communication is inten-
sive. The most successful and most visible folklore dance companies
have the opportunity are able to best represent Serbian culture to the
general public in the Canadian context.
Literature is the next dominant cultural activity among the Serbs.
For several decades now Toronto is dominating in this area in On-
tario and beyond. The bookstore “Serbica”, Serbian National Academy
of Canada, Serbian Orthodox Diocese of Canada publishing house
“Istocnik’’, the Association of Writers “Desanka Maksimovic”, the club
of the magazine “People Talk” and the Serbian Benevolent Association
“Jovan Ducic” usually organized literary evenings, promotions of new
books of poetry and the local Serbian prose writers and enthusiasts.
Recently, Serbian General Consulate also started to offer opportunities
to many writers to showcase their achievements. Many names can be
counted, to most of them are primary impulse is writing as a creative
expression through which they keep Serbian language and alphabet
and create opus of modern literature in Serbian language in diaspora.
This is certainly a feat that is not easily accomplished.
Visual art is also an active branch of tangible cultural heritage
which is very attractive to creative Serbs across Canada. The majority
of them is somehow centered in Toronto where they exhibit in a variety
of exhibition spaces. Serbian National Academy in Canada is a leading
showroom space in Toronto, although spatially small, it has managed
over time to attract about sixty icon painters, designers, painters and
sculptors, presently its permanent members and exhibitors.
Speaking of the creative impulse and cultural achievement, it is im-
portant to mention significant projects initiated independently by his-
torians and filmmaker enthusiasts. There are two recent projects which
are very important for the history Serbian community in Canada. The
first project was completed on August 20.2014 when two commem-
orative plaques were uncovered for Serbs imprisoned in the Canadian
work camps during World War I, one in Windsor and the other in
Niagara Falls. The initiator of the entire project is the Ukrainian com-
munity that was able to press Canadian government to accept and
recognize the existence of the process of internment of its undesirable
immigrants in the First World War. The initiator of the same project
for the Serbian community was Mrs. Draga Dragašević, who was able
to shed light on this part of history of Serbian community in Canada
after six years (2008-2014) of painstaking and detailed research. Her
efforts have resulted in a museum exhibition entitled “100 Years Since
the Captivity in the First World War,” at the Serbian Heritage Museum
in Windsor (http://www.serbianheritagemuseum.com/category/exhi-
bitions/). The article in the Voice of Canadian Serbs in September 2014
issue and an essay for the journal People Talk, No. 23/24, followed by a
lecture at the Serbian National Academy in October of the same year,
which was recorded by Serbian television Toronto. Perhaps the research
continues, but we now have a well-documented period, little known to
Serbian history in this region. Otherwise Mrs. Draga Dragašević is a
librarian by profession, who began her career with now famous Mrs.
Stanislava Marković at the City Library in Windsor. She then moved
to Toronto and worked as co-host of Serbian radio program "Šumadi-
ja" with her husband Mr. Boro Dragasevic for almost 40 years. In its
heyday Radio "Šumadija" was the most listened to radio program of
Serbian community locally and globally and had a huge impact on the