How do you imbue a bygone era with a sense of meaning and life? A convincing answer sits along the banks of the Indian River in Keene, Ontario. With over thirty historic and reproduction buildings populated by knowledgeable in-costume interpreters, Lang Pioneer Village Museum creates an immersive experience of Peterborough County in the 19th century. … Read more
For people without a disability, accessibility can be all too easy to overlook. Those with barriers to mobility, sensory deficits, or cognitive issues, however, often need to ask questions others take for granted—will I be able to experience a destination as intended? Will supports be available if needed? For that matter, can I even get … Read more
Jump to Video “Canoes as far as the eye can see” might be an exaggeration, but only slightly. The Canadian Canoe Museum’s expansive new collection hall is home to over 500 canoes, carefully arranged from floor to ceiling in a climate-controlled storage space. Turn down one aisle and you might see a selection of traditional … Read more
How to describe Wanderlight Alpaca Experience’s newest offering, Alpaca Quest? The popular Lakefield-area business offers some excellent agritourism experiences, like the Private Alpaca Walk that provides guests a chance to commune with a loveable group of alpacas. Alpaca Quest, though, is the first of its kind—best think of it as a time-travelling outdoor escape room, … Read more
Peterborough residents know the Old West End as one of the city’s most tranquil, beautiful neighbourhoods. For painter Nan Sidler, that makes it the perfect home base to pursue her chosen artform, landscape painting. “I just love the trees in the neighbourhood,” she says. “It’s so gorgeous.” Guests will have a chance to appreciate the … Read more
“I get most of my inspiration probably within 15 kilometres of where I live here. It’s just not necessary to go much further,” says painter Jane Robertson. Visitors on the Northumberland Hills Studio Tour, which ran September 9-10 in 2023, would probably agree—the region’s expansive landscapes lend themselves to painting. “It’s really about patterns and … Read more
Kelly Whyte of Rapley Fields Art Studios doesn’t have to go far to find inspiration. I live just south of Bobcaygeon,” she says, “and we own 100 acres. It’s fields and trails and woods. I ski on it, I hike on it, I snowshoe, so a lot of my scenes come from just my backyard, … Read more
Bingo isn’t usually this rowdy. It’s a game associated with retirement homes and second-language classrooms, but tonight the crowd is hooting and hollering, laughing at bawdy jokes between each call. That energy has everything to do with Betty Baker and Sahira Q, two drag queens on stage at Farmhill Weddings outside Keene. Drag queens aren’t … Read more
“Observation is probably the biggest thing—noticing small details,” Fred Preddy says. He’s sitting in an evocatively lit parlour, wearing a waistcoat that would have been the height of fashion a century and a half ago. As one of the owner-operators of Escape Maze south of Peterborough, Fred’s used to fielding questions about how the experiences at his interactive gaming facility are designed.
We’re used to seeing far-off places in our media. New York lofts, tropical beaches, Icelandic vistas—all perks of living in the Internet age. But it can make it all too easy to forget about the scenery and stories in our own backyard. Darryl James’ Close Kicks project is unabashedly local, and there’s a thrill of recognition in his music videos to seeing our landscapes and streets not as stand-ins for another place or era, but as themselves. Speaking to James and his collaborator Luis Segura, aka Louwop, at Lindsay’s Academy Theatre, it’s clear their commitment to nurturing the local scene runs deep.