The Oliver & District Heritage Society has some new and returning faces this year. Julianna Weisgarber was selected as the new Executive Director and began her new role on Jan. 2nd. Julianna previously worked as the ODHS Collections Manager, and spent four years training and supervising staff and interns, improving collections care, assisting the public, and developing events and programs. Julianna brings 7 years of museum experience to her role, and is a graduate of the University of Sydney’s Master of Museum Studies program and the University of Northern British Columbia‘s Anthropology program. Passionate about community engagement, Julianna is looking forward to building new opportunities for the Heritage Society to engage with Oliver residents.

Also joining the ODHS is Veronica Parkes, who started in her new role of Curator on March 4th. Veronica is a trained conservator and graduate of the Cultural Heritage Conservation and Management program at Fleming College and previously worked for the Kelowna Museums Society. She is the recipient of a degree in Ancient Mediterranean Studies and Medieval Studies from Wilfrid Laurier University. Veronica will be maintaining the artifact and archival collections and developing programs, exhibits, and events that will increase the Heritage Society’s interactions with other organizations and with the general public.

The Society’s current goals are to expand services and engage with the community in new ways, which means sometimes leaving the confines of the buildings themselves. Plans include developing educational kits that can be used in classrooms, creating programs for people who cannot visit, and increasing the number and variety of special events. Julianna and Veronica will be hard at work on these objectives over the next year. Feel free to stop by and say hello to them when you next visit the Museum or Archives.

Julianna Weisgarber

Executive Director

Oliver and District Heritage Society Museum and Archives

www.oliverheritage.ca l 250.498.4027 l 430 Fairview Rd, Oliver BC

I acknowledge that my work place is within the unceded ancestral and traditional territory of the S’yilx-Okanagan Nation.