The University of British Columbia campus area has several beautiful and interesting gardens, as well as museums, as AJ describes in this blog post. But first, this very colourful image of a work titled Sursab by Pax Jakupa, which appears in the exhibition "Paradise Lost? Contemporary Works from the Pacific" on till 29th September at the Museum of Anthropology.
Angelika writes: Last year in Asheville, Robert Orndorff told me about another Japanese garden in Vancouver.
The Nitobe Memorial Garden (1895 Lower Mall) is a traditional Japanese “Tea and Stroll” garden constructed on 2½ acres (one hectare) on the grounds of the University of British Columbia. It is one of the most authentic Japanese Gardens in North America. Each tree, stone and shrub has been deliberately placed and is carefully maintained to reflect an idealized conception and symbolic representation of nature.
Read more on their web site: http://www.botanicalgarden.ubc.ca/nitobe
And if you want to see more gardens, nearby is the Botanical Gardens (6804 SW Marine Drive), which consists of an Asian Garden, BC Rain Forest-Garden, Alpine Garden, Food Garden, Physic Garden, Canopy Walkaway and more.
The Greenheart Canopy Walkway has eight tree platforms more than 15 metres above the ground with a ninth, a two-storey platform, on a free-standing tower reaching more than 22 metres in the air. The longest bridge is 50 metres long. The total length of the walkway is 308 meters. http://www.botanicalgarden.ubc.ca/canopy-walkway
The Nitobe and the Botanical Gardens are open daily 9:30am-5pm, admission is $ 6 – $24 , depending on which parts of the gardens you want to visit.
Across the street from the Nitobe Gardens is the Museum of Anthropology (MOA) - spectacular architecture, unique setting, vibrant exhibitions.
Exhibition from July 24 - September 29, 2013: "Paradise Lost? Contemporary Works from the Pacific". Works by artists from Fiji, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu. Working in video, installation, sculpture, painting, and photography, the artists show the Pacific Islands from an insider’s perspective.
Open daily 10 am – 4 pm.
http://moa.ubc.ca/
Vancouver's natural history museum, the Beaty Biodiversity Museum (2212 Main Mall), has 20,000 square feet of collections and exhibits, including the largest blue whale skeleton on display in Canada.
Open daily, 10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Located, south of University Boulevard on the UBC Point Grey campus. http://www.beatymuseum.ubc.caAlso on East Mall (at # 1961) is the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, which houses the Rare Book and Special Collections of the UBC Library and the Music, Art and Architecture Library.
Summer opening hours: Mon-Fri 10 am – 4 pm, closed Sat and Sun.
They have about 65 miniature books (up to 10 cm) in their library. Katherine Kalsbeek, Acting Head for the Rare Books and Special Collections, sent me a list of those books and wrote that the books can be called for during opening hours. Anyone interested in the list please send me an email: angelika@minioffice-aj.de.On Level 1 of the UBC Library's Irving K. Barber Learning Centre is the exhibition “The Chung Collection” which contains material related to early British Columbia history, immigration and settlement and the Canadian Pacific Railway Company. The Chung family came over from China over 100 years ago to settle in Victoria. Image from the slide show on the web site for the exhibition., shown below.
Link to the Library: http://www.library.ubc.ca/spcoll/
Getting to the UBC campus:
From our hotel, the bus # 99 takes you along Broadway Street straight to the main UBC bus loop (last stop) in about 20 minutes. The shuttle bus C 20 goes around the campus with stops at the Museum of Anthropology, the Nitobe Memorial Gardens and the Botanical Gardens.
To get to the Irving K. Barber Learning Center and the Beaty Biodiversity Museum, it is best to walk from the UBS bus loop.
Link to a map of the UBC area: http://www.maps.ubc.ca/PROD/images/pdf/ubcmap.pdf