Craft at Risk: Make a Birch Broom
Date: Oct 15
7:00 pm
- 9:00 pm
Where: Art Gallery Classroom
Craft at Risk
Have you ever been told your hair looks like a birch broom in the fits?
Join father-daughter duo Richard and Michelle Park to make your own mini birch broom! Birch broom making, the process of “running” a broom from one continuous piece of birch, was listed as Endangered in the 2024 Craft at Risk List.
Cost: $40 plus HST. 10% discount for Rooms members. All materials included. Register online!
About the presenters:
Richard Park is a retired teacher who was first exposed to the birch broom in 1957 while teaching in the community of Fox Roost-Margaree. Later, in 1979 in Francois, he learned the skills to make birch brooms from a fisherman in the community. He has been making birch brooms since, including many as gifts.
Michelle Park is a retired history teacher with an interest in local history and folklore. Since the age of 10, she has watched her father make birch brooms as gifts for family and friends, as well as for the family’s own use. Michelle worked with Richard as part of Heritage NL’s Mentor-Apprentice Program. The pair also offered a Build Your Own Birch Broom (BYOBB) program at the Gillams Historical Society Museum on Wednesdays in August 2022.
Presented in partnership with Heritage NL.
Events & Programs
Peoples of Newfoundland and Labrador
Stroll across land and sea, and through time, to meet the peoples who have made Newfoundland and Labrador home for the past 9,000 years.
Each tour is approximately 30 – 40 minutes and is included in the cost of admission. Free for Rooms members.
An advance peek of our new exhibition Erica Rutherford: Her Lives and Works with visiting curator Pan Wendt.
Most recently presented at the National Gallery of Canada, Erica Rutherford: Her Lives and Works surveys the fascinating and multifaceted career of Erica Rutherford (b. Edinburgh, 1923 – d. Charlottetown, 2008), the first Prince Edward Island artist to be featured at the prestigious Venice Biennale.
Rutherford’s work explores themes of persona and gender, home and landscape, and her life was shaped by the search for identity and community. The exhibition includes over 100 works, accompanied by memorabilia and photographs. The exhibition opens to the public on November 21, 2025.
This is a free program but a ticket is required. Please reserve your free ticket online or by calling 709-757-8090.