Connecting the Past & the Future at the Elgin County Museum
Photo: Maddie King and Andrew Gunn of young & free press are acting as consultants on the Estate of Donna Vera Evans Bushell. Recently, we arranged a donation of $425,000 to the Elgin County Museum to introduce an augmented reality app to St. Thomas and Port Stanley, as well as enhance cycling trails across Elgin County and add to the collections and facilities at the Museum. The app will be developed by London-based EXAR Studios. As announced on July 27th, Tourism London has provided $100,000 in funding to develop the app for London. This is an exciting project that will boost regional tourism, as well as showcase local history and culture through an innovative new digital platform.
Our team at young & free press is happy to announce a donation of $425,000 to the Elgin County Museum from the Estate of Donna Vera Evans Bushell. This contribution will transform how the Museum connects with the community and presents local history and culture to visitors. With this funding, the Museum will support the introduction of a new augmented reality app for St. Thomas and Port Stanley, add murals and historical signs along cycling trails across Elgin County, establish two new positions to boost the capacity of the Museum to both digitize archival collections and generate content for the new app, acquire more artefacts for the collection at the Museum and conserve existing pieces, and purchase tables, chairs and other amenities to build a welcoming outdoor learning environment for students and community groups.
This major donation will build up the profile of the Museum and boost Elgin County as a compelling tourism destination. London-based EXAR Studios will develop the ‘Engage’ app to allow residents and visitors to see St. Thomas and Port Stanley in a brand-new way. The free app will guide everyone on adventures that are essentially digital scavenger hunts, allowing users to experience attractions just by looking through the camera of their smart phone. Murals will come to life, billboards and signs move, and most significantly, the history and present of the community come to life through a stimulating new visual reality.
Tourism London has provided $100,000 to develop the app for London. This means that, in combination with the funding from the Bushell Estate and input from the Elgin County Museum, the app will enhance tourism in the whole region by allowing residents and visitors to enjoy this unique augmented reality experience in London, St. Thomas and Port Stanley.
Beyond our social media work and partnerships with private companies and government organizations, our team at young & free press function as consultants alongside owner Andrew Gunn through his consulting firm, Andrew Gunn Consulting Inc. This gives our team of teenage staff members the opportunity to provide ideas and develop special community projects!
Currently, we are the consultants on the Estate of Donna Bushell, who passed away in November 2019 in her hundredth year. Andrew and our teenage staff members have taken the lead on announcing the donations from the Estate – ultimately, more than $2.5M will be allocated to support a series of remarkable initiatives in St. Thomas and Elgin County!
“The County of Elgin is thrilled to be a recipient of this generous donation from the Bushell Estate,” stated Elgin County Warden Dave Mennill. “These funds will allow the County to embrace new digital methods of delivering our museum services and provide innovative ways for residents and visitors to engage with our unique rural heritage.”
“This truly generous bequest will allow us to undertake a number of projects we would not otherwise be able to do,” added Mike Baker, Manager of Museum and Archives for Elgin County. “The digitization position will add many resources to the on-line material we already provide, while the cycling trails will give visitors another reason to tour our beautiful County. Finally, the Augmented Reality project is truly exciting as it will put history, literally, in the hands of residents and visitors alike.”
“Our dream is to have Engage in every city that could take advantage of it,” comments Daniel Kharlas, EXAR Studios co-founder and Chief Operating Officer. “We are so excited to be able to explore how we can use Engage to bring communities together in exploring their neighbourhoods and enjoying this new digital layer through time.”
For our part at young & free press, we are thrilled to be able to support the Elgin County Museum to help connect the community and tourists to local history and culture. This is an exceptional way to celebrate the life and legacy of Donna Bushell and her family in Elgin County.
If you are interested in becoming a beta tester and getting early access to the app, sign up at https://www.engage.art
Notes on the Elgin County Museum
The Elgin County Museum promotes the rich historical and cultural heritage of Elgin County by acquiring, preserving, exhibiting and interpreting artefacts pertaining to local history. Through the Elgin County Heritage Centre at 460 Sunset Drive, visitors can experience a series of changing and permanent exhibitions. The Museum has been closed to the public during the COVID-19 pandemic, but will re-open on Tuesday, August 11th with safety procedures in place.
Notes on the Estate of Donna Vera Evans Bushell
Donna Vera Evans Bushell passed away November 9, 2019, in her hundredth year, the last of her family. Donna’s passion was to plant trees and reminisce about her ancestors and friends while her sister Doris Evans taught music as a church organist. The oldest sister, Thelma Joiner, taught elementary school around Aylmer for forty-five years and researched local North Yarmouth history. All three sisters shared a love of their heritage as descendants of the pioneer Westlake, Penhale and Gilbert families who settled along the North Edgeware Road in Yarmouth. Their collected historical papers will eventually be deposited in the Elgin County Archives. Recently, the Bushell Estate has provided funds to build a new sustainable stage at Springwater Forest, establish a water trail and improve walking trails at Dalewood Conservation Area, launch a fund through the Elgin St. Thomas Community Foundation to boost tree-planting projects, support the ‘Track to the Future’ mural project in St. Thomas, enhance the St. Thomas Elevated Park, and build the new Westlake-Evans Civic Park next to the St. Thomas Public Library. The Estate has also supported the introduction of the ‘STEAM Community Studio’ at the STEAM Centre.
