Ingenium – Canada's Museums of Science and Innovation, formally the National Museum of Science and Technology, is a Canadian

Crown corporation A state-owned enterprise (SOE) is a government entity which is established or nationalised by the ''national government'' or ''provincial government'' by an executive order or an act of legislation in order to earn profit for the governmen ...

responsible for overseeing

national museums A national museum is a museum maintained and funded by a national government. In many countries it denotes a museum run by the central government, while other museums are run by regional or local governments. In other countries a much greater numb ...

related to science and technology. The name is based on the Latin root of the word ingenuity. Until June 2017, the corporation was branded as Canada Science and Technology Museum Corporation The corporation oversees the

Canada Agriculture and Food Museum The Canada Agriculture and Food Museum (french: Musée de l'agriculture et de l'alimentation du Canada) is a national agricultural museum in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Occupying several buildings within the Central Experimental Farm, the museum ope ...

, the

Canada Aviation and Space Museum The Canada Aviation and Space Museum (french: link=no, Musée de l'Aviation et de l'Espace du Canada) (formerly the Canada Aviation Museum and National Aeronautical Collection) is Canada's national aviation history museum. The museum is located ...

and the

Canada Science and Technology Museum The Canada Science and Technology Museum (abbreviated as CSTM; french: Musée des sciences et de la technologie du Canada) is a national museum of science and technology in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The museum has a mandate to preserve and promote ...

. The organization is headquartered in

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

. The corporation's museums are associated with the Canadian Museum Association, the

Virtual Museum of Canada The Digital Museums Canada (DMC; , ''MNC'') is a funding program in Canada "dedicated to online projects by the museum and heritage community," helping organizations to build digital capacity. Administered by the Canadian Museum of History (CMH) ...

and the

Canadian Heritage Information Network , nativename_a = , nativename_r = , logo = Logo of Canadian Heritage Information Network.png , logo_caption = , seal = , seal_width = , seal_caption = , picture = , picture_width = , picture_caption = , formed = , preceding1 = ...

. Ingenium has an open documents portal where the corporation shares working documents and corporate plans. It also maintains an

open data Open data is data that is openly accessible, exploitable, editable and shared by anyone for any purpose. Open data is licensed under an open license. The goals of the open data movement are similar to those of other "open(-source)" movements ...

portal.

Ingenium Centre

In 2016, the

Government of Canada The government of Canada (french: gouvernement du Canada) is the body responsible for the federal administration of Canada. A constitutional monarchy, the Crown is the corporation sole, assuming distinct roles: the executive, as the ''Crown ...

announced $150 million in funding to build the Ingenium Centre. The state-of-the-art facility is designed to protect and showcase Canada's national science and technology collection of 85,000 artifacts and nearly two million 2D artifacts. Construction started in 2017. The completed building is 36,000 m² and almost 10 storeys high. The library, archives, conservation labs, workshops and staff moved in 2019 and early 2020. The artifact move is expected to last through 2021.

History

Ingenium was established through an

act of parliament Acts of Parliament, sometimes referred to as primary legislation, are texts of law passed by the Legislature, legislative body of a jurisdiction (often a parliament or council). In most countries with a parliamentary system of government, acts of ...

(the Museums Act) on July 1, 1990 and is governed by a

board of trustees A board of directors (commonly referred simply as the board) is an executive committee that jointly supervises the activities of an organization, which can be either a for-profit or a nonprofit organization such as a business, nonprofit organiz ...

headed by a

president President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

and

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

. The museum's reconstruction, "digital strategy" and its change of name were documented in the TVOntario film "How to build a museum for the 21st century", broadcast in December 2018. Since 2007, Ingenium is supported by the Ingenium Foundation. The foundation achieved official charity status on April 1, 2008. In 2014, the Canada Science and Technology Museum was forced to close because of toxic mould pollution. Three years into the renovation, in 2017, the three museums under the Canada Science and Technology Museum Corporation, the Museum's CEO Alex Benay announced the rebranding of the network to Ingenium. As of September 2018, the Ingenium's Science and Technology Museum stopped collecting artifacts for the foreseeable future.

Exhibits

Exhibits are housed in the

, the

and the

, all located across

Ottawa, Ontario Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

. Shared, the three museums under the corporation host twenty permanent exhibitions: * Artifact Alley - Artifact Alley is the main hall of the Canada Science and Technology Museum. The hall displays more than 700 artifacts, some of which are interactive. * Canola! Seeds of Innovation - created to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the creation of Canola in collaboration with the Canola Initiative National Advisory Committee (CINAC) * Crazy Kitchen + - the oldest exhibition in the collection, it dates back to 1967 when the Canada Science and Technology Museum opened to display optical illusions * Discovery Park - Outdoor Exhibition - an exhibition on renewable energy and technologies * Engines: Power to Fly - showcases the museums' collection of airplane engines * Food Preservation: The Science You Eat - explores the science of food preservation * From Earth to Us - the exhibition explores how natural resources are transformed * Hidden Worlds - a display of the technologies that help humanity discover our world like microscopes and telescopes * Life in Orbit: The International Space Station - developed with the Canadian Space Agency. Visitors learn about life in space * Main Exhibition Hall - the main hall of the Canada Aviation and Space Museum * Medical Sensations - explores the world of medical innovation and technology in Canada * Sound by Design - showcases the changes in sound technology that have occurred in the last 150 years * Steam: A World in Motion - an exhibition about steam transportation and how it ruled Canada from 1900 to 1960 * Technology in our Lives - explores the relationship between household technologies and Canadians since the Second World War. It also features a tiny house * Wearable Tech - explores technologies that are designed for the human body since the 1800s * ZOOOM - Children's Innovation Zone - a hands on children's exhibition at the Canada Science and Technology Museum * Into the Great Outdoors - discovers the technologies used by Canadians to explore the outdoors * Canada in Space - the newest permanent exhibition at the Canada Aviation and Space Museum about Canada's achievements in space * Health in Space: Daring to Explore - talks about the works Canadians have done to improve understanding of health in space Each museum also hosts temporary exhibitions.

Notes

References

{{authority control Federal departments and agencies of Canada Canadian federal Crown corporations 1990 establishments in Ontario Department of Canadian Heritage Museum associations and consortia Ingenium