Civic Museum
Celebrating Guelph’s stories!
The Guelph Civic Museum showcases Guelph’s history through permanent and changing exhibits, a fun and interactive families gallery, and special events and activities. Located in the recently renovated Loretto Convent, atop the hill at Norfolk Street and beside the landmark Church of Our Lady, the museum is home to a collection of over 30,000 artifacts that bring Guelph’s past to life.
2012
Guelph Civic Museum opens at 52 Norfolk Street, the former Loretto Convent.
2000
The “Growing Up in Guelph Children’s Museum” opens at the Civic Museum. The popular children’s gallery attracts many more visitors and significantly increases the number of family memberships.
1980
Guelph Civic Museum opens at 6 Dublin Street South, a commercial limestone building built c.1855. The building had many uses over the years but was most recently known as the Knights of Columbus Hall.
1967
Canada’s Centennial Year. The Museum opens in its first home in the horse stables, now the Farmer’s Market.
1960’s
Members of the Guelph Historical Society begin to collect artifacts and displays are mounted in store fronts and community centres.
Upcoming Events
August 2019
Wednesday Wonders: Fantescapes
Join us each week for Wednesday Wonders presentations by special guest stars! Every Wednesday in July and August, 11 AM & 1 PM General admission. AUGUST 21 Fantescapes Escape Room AUGUST 28 The Making Box
Find out more »Fourth Friday: VERSA Visuals
Kick off your weekend with a performance by VERSA! On the Fourth Friday of the month, Guelph Museums offers free admission to the Guelph Civic Museum after 5 p.m. Performance by VERSA at 7 p.m. and 8 p.m. Cash bar. VERSA is a Guelph ON-based audiovisual collective led by Monika Hauck and Alex Ricci. The duo create powerful instrumental music written around live looping bass guitar, and pair this with responsive projections that visualize sound. Low frequency sound is passed…
Find out more »Wednesday Wonders: The Making Box
Join us each week for Wednesday Wonders presentations by special guest stars! Every Wednesday in July and August, 11 AM & 1 PM General admission. AUGUST 28 The Making Box
Find out more »Fifth Friday Pub Night: Fantescapes
19+ Event | No cover charge. Fifth Friday! Something new at the Civic Museum, pub night! On Fifth Fridays, Guelph Museums offers free admission to the Guelph Civic Museum after 5 PM. Featuring mini-escapes and puzzles with Fantescapes Escape Room. Free admission. Cash bar. Located in Downtown Guelph, Fantescapes is Guelph's Premier Escape Room Facility. Unique, immersive escape rooms, puzzles everywhere and a boutique featuring "geeky" art and craft items fan merchandise, instruments and steampunk items. There are hidden mind benders, ever-changing…
Find out more »September 2019
Downtown EarlyON Playtime
Weekly program offerings for children from 0 to 6 years old and their families, offered through the EarlyON Child and Family Centre. Free drop-in family programming that promotes early learning and development from 9:30 to 11:30 AM on a weekly basis. The EarlyON Child and Family Centre at the Guelph Community Health Centre has been in existence since 2003. EarlyON has eight off-site Neighbourhood Playtimes and two main locations (Downtown and Stone Rd Mall) each providing a multitude of free drop-in and…
Find out more »Tales from the Hill
Join Guelph Guild of Storytellers and special guests on the first Wednesday of each month. Free admission.
Find out more »Into the Light: Eugenics and Education in Southern Ontario
Into the Light examines local histories and ongoing legacies of racial “betterment” thinking in Southern Ontario that de-humanized and disappeared those who did not fit the normative middle-class lives of white, able-bodied settlers. In the early to mid 20th century, eugenics (race improvement through heredity) was taught in a number of universities throughout Southern Ontario, including Macdonald Institute and the Ontario Agricultural College, two of the three founding colleges that formed the University of Guelph. Educational institutions played a significant role in…
Find out more »VibraFusionLab: Bridging Practices in Accessibility, Art and Communications
Experience sound and vibration technologies through art installations by David Bobier, Lindsay Fisher, Marla Hlady, Ellen Moffat, Gordon Monahan, Alison O’Daniel, and Lynx Sainte-Marie. By making sound tangible through touch, this exhibition aims to change public perceptions of difference and disability. Presented in partnership with VibraFusionLab, an innovative centre for vibrotactile research and creative practice based in London, Ontario. Walkabout Tour with David Bobier: Hands On! Sunday, September 29, 2 p.m. Civic Museum | Free admission Guest curator David…
Find out more »Military Lecture: Deadly Skies & Cavalry of the Air
To open the Fall 2019 Military Lecture series, there will be two presentations about aviation during the First and Second World War. Offered in partnership with the Laurier Centre for Military, Strategic and Disarmament Studies. Admission by donation. Ross C. Morton, presents Deadly Skies During the Second World War, the Royal Air Force's Bomber Command kept detailed accounts of their achievements and failures in a central registry and used this information when planning future military action whereas the accidents experienced at…
Find out more »Fourth Friday: Storyteller Brad Woods with Mike Janzen and Jeff Bersche
Celebrate Culture Days and the opening of fall exhibitions, Into the Light and Bridging Practices in Accessibility, Art, and Communication, with a performance by Storyteller Brad Woods with Mike Janzen and Jeff Bersche! On the Fourth Friday of the month, Guelph Museums offers free admission to the Guelph Civic Museum after 5 p.m. Performances at 7 p.m. and 8 p.m. Cash bar. Brad Woods has told stories at festivals, theatres, conferences, prisons, churches and pubs all over North America and the…
Find out more »Culture Days: Moving Histories, Neighbourhood Mysteries
A two-hour guided bus tour documenting the Onward Willow neighbourhood. Hosted by community story advocate and CFRU Mobile Studio Coordinator Jenny Mitchell, Moving Histories, Neighbourhood Mysteries invites you to step onboard a bus and discover the stories of our neighbourhoods. Whether you are new to the neighbourhood or an old friend, come join us on the storytelling bus, and see the neighbourhood through the eyes and words of three local storytellers who have called this neighbourhood home. Presented in partnership with Guelph Film…
Find out more »October 2019
Downtown EarlyON Playtime
Weekly program offerings for children from 0 to 6 years old and their families, offered through the EarlyON Child and Family Centre. Free drop-in family programming that promotes early learning and development from 9:30 to 11:30 AM on a weekly basis. The EarlyON Child and Family Centre at the Guelph Community Health Centre has been in existence since 2003. EarlyON has eight off-site Neighbourhood Playtimes and two main locations (Downtown and Stone Rd Mall) each providing a multitude of free drop-in and…
Find out more »Tales from the Hill
Join Guelph Guild of Storytellers and special guests on the first Wednesday of each month. Free admission.
Find out more »Military Lecture: The Aftermath of the 1918 Influenza
Kandace Bogaert presents, The Aftermath of the 1918 Influenza Pandemic Among Ontario’s Soldiers’ Families. Offered in partnership with the Laurier Centre for Military, Strategic and Disarmament Studies. Admission by donation. Kandace Bogaert, Assistant Professor and Cleghorn Fellow in War and Society, Dept. of History, Laurier University, her research is focused around the long-term family impact of soldier deaths from flu in 1918, and soldier suicides during the Great War.
Find out more »Harvest Tea
Treat yourself to a seasonal afternoon tea at the Civic Museum. There will be two seatings, at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. Enjoy fresh scones, jam, shortbread cookies, fresh fruit and bottomless pots of McCrae Private Blend and Guelph Town Garden Blend teas. Tickets in advance.
Find out more »Fourth Friday: Kevin Mak Latin Jazz Quintet
Kick off your weekend with a performance by Kevin Mak Latin Jazz Quintet! On the Fourth Friday of the month, Guelph Museums offers free admission to the Guelph Civic Museum after 5 p.m. Performance by Kevin Mak Latin Jazz Quintet at 7 p.m. and 8 p.m. Cash bar.
Find out more »History Haunts: Ghost Stories of Guelph
An evening of unusual tales by local storytellers about Guelph’s past. Suitable for teens and adults. 19+ cash bar. Tickets will go on sale Friday, September 13, 10 a.m.
Find out more »History Haunts: Ghost Stories of Guelph
An evening of unusual tales by local storytellers about Guelph’s past. Suitable for teens and adults. 19+ cash bar. Tickets will go on sale Friday, September 13, 10 a.m.
Find out more »November 2019
School’s Out, Museum’s In PD Day – We Are All Treaty People
On this PD Day, we're celebrating Treaty Recognition Week. Learn about the importance of treaties, treaty rights and relationships. Learn more. General Admission.
Find out more »Tales from the Hill
Join Guelph Guild of Storytellers and special guests on the first Wednesday of each month. Free admission.
Find out more »John Galt and the Instant City
A new musical by acclaimed Canadian musicians Mike Ford and Murray Foster that explores John Galt and the founding of Guelph in a new light. Two performances: Friday, November 8, 7 p.m. and Saturday, November 9, 2 p.m. Tickets in advance | $20 + HST Meet the creators, cast and crew Mike Ford Mike Ford is a Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal-awarded singer-songwriter, whose bilingual Canada Needs You, Flames Across the Border and le retour d’étienne brûlé concerts have been performed in schools across Ontario. …
Find out more »John Galt and the Instant City
A new musical by acclaimed Canadian musicians Mike Ford and Murray Foster that explores John Galt and the founding of Guelph in a new light. Two performances: Friday, November 8, 7 p.m. and Saturday, November 9, 2 p.m. Tickets in advance | $20 + HST Meet the creators, cast and crew Mike Ford Mike Ford is a Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal-awarded singer-songwriter, whose bilingual Canada Needs You, Flames Across the Border and le retour d’étienne brûlé concerts have been performed in schools across Ontario. …
Find out more »Community Tea
Karonhyakatste is a mixed blooded Haudenosaunee woman, experiential knowledge teacher and story teller. Join us as we share in a circle learning about our roles and responsibilities to be good stewards of the earth, through our connection to food and the world around us. She will be explaining the significance of each item: Cold cedar tea with cinnamon and lemon Wild rice - cold Mini Indian tacos Salmon crostini Corn soup with chicken (vegetarian option) Strawberry short cake Tickets in…
Find out more »Downtown EarlyON Playtime
Weekly program offerings for children from 0 to 6 years old and their families, offered through the EarlyON Child and Family Centre. Free drop-in family programming that promotes early learning and development from 9:30 to 11:30 AM on a weekly basis. The EarlyON Child and Family Centre at the Guelph Community Health Centre has been in existence since 2003. EarlyON has eight off-site Neighbourhood Playtimes and two main locations (Downtown and Stone Rd Mall) each providing a multitude of free drop-in and…
Find out more »Military Lecture: Crerar’s Lieutenants
Geoff Hayes presents, Crerar’s Lieutenants. At the height of the war in 1943, the future head of the First Canadian Army, General Harry Crerar, penned a long memorandum in which he noted that there was still much confusion as to "what constitutes an 'Officer.'" His words reflected the army's preoccupation with creating an ideal officer who would not only satisfy the immediate demands of war but also conform to pervasive, little-discussed notions of social class and masculinity. Geoff Hayes' talk…
Find out more »Fourth Friday: Callisto
Kick off your weekend with a performance by Callisto! On the Fourth Friday of the month, Guelph Museums offers free admission to the Guelph Civic Museum after 5 p.m. Performance by Callisto at 7 p.m. and 8 p.m. Cash bar. Callisto is a trio that indulges in three part harmony and other musical whimsy. We love to play Canadiana, old standards, and original tunes. Callisto is made up of Tricia Brubacher, Peter Balka, and Julie Corey. Past performances include: the Elmira…
Find out more »Fifth Friday: Fizz-ics Pub Night
19+ Event | No cover charge. Ever wonder why the bubbles in your beer fizz, or why bottles have different colours? What does the widget in Guinness do? Why does the head on your pint vary and what would it be like to brew beer in space? Join faculty and students from the Department of Physics, University of Guelph as they lead you through a fun and interactive evening about the science behind beer! This event is the final night of STEM…
Find out more »December 2019
Downtown EarlyON Playtime
Weekly program offerings for children from 0 to 6 years old and their families, offered through the EarlyON Child and Family Centre. Free drop-in family programming that promotes early learning and development from 9:30 to 11:30 AM on a weekly basis. The EarlyON Child and Family Centre at the Guelph Community Health Centre has been in existence since 2003. EarlyON has eight off-site Neighbourhood Playtimes and two main locations (Downtown and Stone Rd Mall) each providing a multitude of free drop-in and…
Find out more »Tales from the Hill
Join Guelph Guild of Storytellers and special guests on the first Wednesday of each month. Free admission.
Find out more »Fourth Friday: Tragedy Ann
Kick off your weekend with a performance by Tragedy Ann! On the Fourth Friday of the month, Guelph Museums offers free admission to the Guelph Civic Museum after 5 p.m. Performance by Callisto at 7 p.m. and 8 p.m. Cash bar. Tragedy Ann is a forward-looking folk duo from Guelph, Ontario. Liv Cazzola and Braden Phelan find warmth in questions and daring in answers, making space for the tear that lies behind laughter. With intimacy and care, the duo favours a flashlight…
Find out more »
