Expand your horizons and go behind the scenes: visit Ontario’s most intriguing buildings, places and spaces online through Doors Open Ontario. From exploring one of the world’s leading paleontology exhibit-makers to stargazing tips from the David Dunlap Observatory, this year’s digital Doors Open Ontario features hundreds of stories and activities for you to create new connections, experience a sense of escape, and go behind the scenes – all from the comfort of your own home.
Whether you’d like to dig deeper into Ontario’s past and learn something new, look for online activities to do with the family, or research unique heritage sites to help plan future trips, digital Doors Open Ontario has something for everyone at DoorsOpenOntario.ca.
Here are the Top Twenty ways you can get started:
Staytrips
With so many digital Doors Open Ontario sites to discover, it’s hard to know where to begin. The Trust has curated 13 staytrip itineraries, organized thematically, including:
1. Architectural and engineering marvels
2. Ontario film sets
3. Ontario theatres
4. Going behind the scenes
5. Home sweet home
Learn from home with these activities and games
There are plenty of activities to help keep kids entertained and lots of great resources for adults, too!
6. David Dunlap Observatory (Richmond Hill) offers a lesson on how to use a star finder for stargazing.
7. Diefenbunker: Canada’s Cold War Museum (Ottawa) will challenge problem-solving skills with jigsaw puzzles and an online spy game.
8. Royal Botanical Gardens (Burlington) will help open your eyes to nature with downloadable activities like nature watching checklists and seasonal recipe cards.
9. Art Gallery of Ontario (Toronto) offers art-making resources that will help you develop drawing, photography and painting skills.
10. Stratford Festival (Stratford) presents Shakespeare’s most famous works accompanied with video interviews with cast and creative members, free lesson plans and study guides.
Gain new perspectives or go behind the scenes
11. Mnjikaning Fish Weirs National Historic Site (Simcoe County) contains the largest and best-preserved wooden fish weirs known in eastern North America. Learn about the site’s history, its importance and the Indigenous communities looking after it.
12. Research Casting International (Quinte West) specializes in the fabrication of paleontology displays for some of the world’s biggest museums, including the Royal Ontario Museum, as well as feature films like Jurassic Park.
13. Sleeping Giant Provincial Park (Thunder Bay) is a massive lakeside park with over 100 km (62 miles) of incredible trails and excellent wildlife viewing opportunities – experience the thrill of the climb and aerial views of the park through their videos.
14. Devil’s Monument (Northern Bruce Peninsula) is home to the only complete flowerpot rock formation on land along the east side of the Bruce Peninsula – get a bird’s eye view of the site and take a virtual hike.
15. Chatham-Kent Black Historical Society and Black Mecca Museum (Chatham-Kent) is dediated to the discovery, research and preservation of Chatham-Kent’s Black history and the contributions of Black Ontarians in shaping Southwestern Ontario.
Explore collections and resources
Reconnect with museums, archives and heritage sites online by exploring their collections and available resources. It’ll feel like you’re already there.
16. McMichael Canadian Art Collection (Vaughan) collects the art of Canada, including the Group of Seven and their contemporaries as well as First Nations, Métis and Inuit artists. Their eMuseum has more than 6,500 searchable artworks for you to discover.
17. Uncle Tom’s Cabin Historic Site (Chatham-Kent) commemorates the life and work of Reverend Josiah Henson, one of the persons who inspired the anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin – delve deeper into Ontario’s Black heritage with their resources and recommended reads.
18. Archives of Ontario (Toronto) is the largest provincial archives in Canada with records that date back to the 16th century – browse stories from their online exhibits and search through their digital image database for snippets of Ontario’s past.
19. Canadian War Museum (Ottawa) has approximately 500,000 military-related objects and thousands of photos that tell the stories of Canada’s military in fascinating details – explore through curated exhibitions or use their research guide to get started.
20. Timmins Public Library (Timmins) houses a comprehensive local history collection, including online resources and digitized local newspapers that explore the community’s rich history of mining in Northern Ontario.
Stay tuned for more digital content drops throughout the coming weeks and months.
SOURCE Ontario Heritage Trust