Base31’s new museum, an Exhibition Hall housed in an aircraft hangar, is itself a piece of history. The former WWII hangar has been an integral part of the former Camp Picton throughout its many lives.

It will showcase a series of exhibits including informational displays, immersive VR, and installations from local artists. It will be the first stop for visitors, opening up the history of the grounds. 

”When we acquired the site we knew we had to unlock the many stories that existed here,” said Base31 CEO Tim Jones. “There are a lot of different ways you do that. The Exhibition Hall is a resource.” 

Liz Kohn, the Base’s VP of Marketing, noted, “we chose ‘Exhibition Hall’ instead of ‘Museum’ to name the space because the wider 70-acre site already functions as an open-air museum. The Hall now offers the main focal point to discover its rich history through exhibits.” 

Curator Madeline Smolarz joined the team a year ago. “The history of this site has unfurled before me to be much more dynamic and longer than I could have ever imagined,” she says.

Assembling the museum has “been a mix of research and serendipity.”  The Hall will showcase pieces previously on display onsite from important voices and partners in collaboration and features immersive and interactive exhibits.

“The entrance will offer an Indigenous perspective through the art of Portia Chapman. She’s written a beautiful artist statement on a piece she created for us a couple of years ago,” said Ms. Smolarz.

Interactive artwork installations from the Department of Illumination also feature. The Department partnered with Base31 to produce Night Watch, an immersive art experience, in 2022 and 2023.

For the rest, Ms. Smolarz started by taking a look at the collection already at the Base. It includes  a yellow Jodel D11 plane from the Prince Edward Flying Club, emblazoned with the words “time flies, but you’re the pilot.”

“Often, a collection is your first stop in terms of learning and researching and figuring out the core stories that are going to come forward,” Ms. Smolarz said. 

She also chases sources of local knowledge, records of time that may have circulated in the form of local lore, or sat still in memory.

In an effort to access and preserve local history, Base31 launched a feature on its website called “Share Your Story,” inviting anyone with connections to the Base to come forward.

“It’s only been live for maybe a week or two but we’ve had four stories come through already: people who lived here  as a child because their parents were stationed here, people who remember certain significant happenings here,” Ms. Smolarz said.

“Someone attended a Sergeant’s Mess Hall performance recently and shared that they worked here during the 1960s.” 

Another significant resource are local legends Jacqui Burley and Peter Lockyer. Ms. Burley was the caretaker of the property before it was acquired by PEC Community Partners.

Both Ms. Burley and Mr. Lockyer, the historian behind History Lives Here, worked with Base31 to create the audio component of the grounds tour. 

Though the sole curator of the Exhibition Hall, Ms. Smolarz noted she is a “department of one, but one of a very big team.”

Showstopper

All these efforts are culminating in the Exhibition Hall. Visitors are invited to take self-guided tours inside and outside the Hall or to join scheduled tours conducted by the visitor experience staff.

Once inside, the showstopper, of course, is the Lancaster KB 882 bomber, on loan from the National Air Force Museum of Canada until the end of 2029. 

“It’s 102 feet tip to tip, 69 feet nose to tail. It takes up, figuratively and literally, a lot of space,” said Ms. Smolarz.

As an artifact, the aircraft boasts an impressive provenance. Out of 7,000 of its kind, it’s one of 430 that were made in Canada. And of the 17 that remain in the world, it’s one of only four that saw action in WWII. 

Perhaps most significant for the former No. 31 Bombing and Gunnery school is that the Lancaster KB 882 was a bomber.

“It is extremely symbolic of what the trainees coming here were training to do: to fly and operate aircraft just like that,” said Ms. Smolarz.

“There’s certainly been a heavier focus on the aviation history for our inaugural year,” she added.

Base31 joined the Avro Arrow trail last summer. To further explore aviation, the Hall will feature an exhibit on the regional connection to the Avro Arrow aviation story. 

“The Base, still a military site in the 1950s, served as the place where test models were stored before they were fired off of Point Petre,” notes Ms. Smolarz. 

Against the Odds

While curating the first exhibits, the curator focused on “the stories that will come to mind for people.” That meant addressing the first question that comes to mind when visitors arrive. “Why does the site look the way it does? Because of The British Commonwealth Air Training Plan,” Ms. Smolarz noted.

231 training bases were built across Canada to train troops to join the allied forces. One of them was in Picton.

“We are the last BACTP site standing to this extent — with over 40 of those buildings still standing.” 

The against-all-odds preservation of the BACTP training site, in large part thanks to the stewardship of Jacqui Burley, is central to the Base31 project. 

A question is posed to visitors who enter the Exhibition Hall: What would you do differently if you were able to go back in time?

“The site is weighty,” Ms. Smolarz said. She wants visitors to feel engaged with the space by reflecting on their own experiences. 

“This is not the Base31 story,” she said. “This is about the local community and the impact of global events on this place.”