NEWS RELEASE: Heritage Week in Ontario helps showcase Grimsby’s local heritage

The Town of Grimsby in partnership with The Grimsby Museum, Grimsby Public Art Gallery, Grimsby Historical Society and Archives, Nelles Manor Heritage House, and Willowbank School of Restoration Arts, are pleased to bring you Heritage Week 2024. From February 19 – 25, we invite you to celebrate Heritage Week to reflect how heritage is conserved, promoted, and commemorated.

The Town of Grimsby will be providing ongoing updates for residents through our social media channels with posts highlighting various aspects of heritage in Grimsby. Each post will focus on the heritage legacy in our historic town.

To celebrate Heritage Week, Town Staff, along with Willowbank students, will once again be restoring notable artifacts from the Grimsby Museum collection at the campus of Willowbank School of Restoration Arts in Niagara on the Lake, which is a national historic site.

In 1985, the Ontario government designated the third week in February as Ontario Heritage Week, with the federal Heritage Day kicking off the week. Every February, the National Heritage Trust invites Ontarians to participate in Heritage Week in Ontario – to celebrate heritage in all its forms (cultural and natural, architectural, archaeological and collections), its diverse traditions and cultural expressions. Heritage Week provides a wonderful opportunity for individuals and communities to reflect on their contributions, how heritage is conserved and how they might shape the future.

For the Town of Grimsby’s heritage updates, follow us on Facebook and Instagram.

For more information on the Grimsby Historical Society and Nelles Manor Heritage House, visit their websites and stay tuned to their social media accounts as we celebrate Heritage Week 2024 together!

Grimsby Historical Society: https://www.grimsbyhistoricalsociety.com/ & https://www.facebook.com/GrimsbyHistoricalSocietyArchives/

Nelles Manor Heritage House: https://nellesmanor.ca/ & https://www.facebook.com/nellesmanor/

Media Contact:

Christina Davidson

Communications Specialist

cdavidson@grimsby.ca | 905-945-9634

Quotes:

“Heritage Week is a great opportunity to thank the people that came before us and helped shape this Town into what it is today”, said Jeff Jordan, Mayor of the Town of Grimsby. “Our Town is proud of our rich and inclusive history, and we strive to be front runners in the preservation of our stories, our traditions, and our buildings”.

“Willowbank School of Restoration Arts and the Town of Grimsby have been successfully collaborating for the past couple of years to celebrate Heritage Week”, said Dr. Faisal Arain, President of Willowbank School of Restoration Arts. “This partnership provides a meaningful platform for our students to learn by restoring artifacts from the Grimsby Museum and community. This joint venture with the Town of Grimsby is a natural fit for Willowbank’s applied education pedagogy that balances theory with hands-on skills, and embraces the interconnections of our built, natural, and cultural heritage resources. By restoring and preserving important pieces of our community’s history, our students embrace innovation, interdisciplinary problem solving, and an integrated study of practice, place, and people. This partnership truly demonstrates the value both parties place on our dedication to preserving heritage and ensuring conservation.”

About Willowbank: 

The Willowbank School of Restoration Arts is an internationally acclaimed, not for profit, private career college in Queenston, Canada. The future of heritage is being shaped by our graduates. With an employment rate of 95%, their impact ripples outwards across a range of careers, from design to skilled trades to community development.  Willowbank has been on the vanguard of heritage conservation and the adaptive reuse of existing buildings since 2006. We are the Canadian headquarters of INTBAU, a global network promoting traditional building, architecture, and urbanism. The patron of Willowbank is HRH King Charles. www.willowbank.ca