Category: Arts & Artists

Art and artists made in Whistler.

Challenged Books at the Whistler Public Library

Challenged Books at the Whistler Public LibraryChallenged Books at the Whistler Public Library

August 25, 2026 Whistler MuseumWhistler Museum 0 Comments

Written by Anna Donaldson

Photo: Joan Richoz with a collection of challenged and banned books during Freedom To Read Week in 1994. Whistler Question Collection. 

This year marks the 40th birthday of the Whistler Public Library. To celebrate our friends at the library, we at the museum thought we should highlight some of the amazing work the library has done for the community. Known as Whistler’s Living Room, the library provides crucial services, resources, and programs to community members. One of the ways the library does this is by making sure everyone has access to knowledge. Every year around the last week of February, the Whistler Public Library recognizes Freedom to Read Week. Freedom to Read Week, spearheaded by the Canadian Library Association, has been taking place in libraries across Canada since 1984. It sheds light on books, magazines, and other pieces of media that have been challenged or even banned.

As Canadians, our right to intellectual freedom is guaranteed under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Charter was signed in 1982, only two years before Freedom to Read week was established. Freedom to read week encourages us to explore books that were challenged, and learn about why they were challenged, and the action that was actually taken by the organization that housed them. Ignorance can bloom when we don’t learn about these books, despite their controversy. Reading these books is how we can learn about the controversial topics they may contain, and how we can better ourselves from it.

Many books that are deemed as classics have been banned in places all over the world. Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, and Lord of the Flies by William Golding have all been banned in specific libraries across Canada. In the ‘90s, the Whistler Public Library staff would cover the books for Freedom to Read Week in plain paper bags to draw interest. People are always shocked at which books have been banned in Canada, the U.S.A., or other countries. Joan Richoz, one of the founders of the Whistler Public Library, states that it is a “great way to teach the public that not everyone likes all the books in the library”, and that different people will have different opinions on what is acceptable.

Joan Richoz reading to a group of children at the Whistler Public Library in 1991. Whistler Question Collection.

Whistler is a very progressive community, as Richoz states. However, the Whistler Public Library is not immune to challanged books. Since its creation in 1986, the library has had very few books be challenged. The first book to be challenged was Headhunter by Michael Slade. It was challenged under the belief that it did not promote “good Christian values”. In an interview with the museum, Joan remembered that the classic children’s book Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak was issued a complaint by a parent for being too violent. Lots of challenged books are children’s books that have not aged well. Joan herself says that while these books shouldn’t be kept in the kids section, it makes sense to put them in a different section to reflect the socio-cultural ideas of society at their time. These books should be read not with the intent to take their messages to heart, but from a sociological perspective. Challenges are always taken very seriously, but ultimately the Whistler Public Library has not formally removed any books from its shelves.

The Whistler Public Library has been very outspoken about their belief in intellectual freedom. Every February, the staff at the library curate a list of books that have been banned or challenged across the country, and promote them. Freedom to Read week encourages us to expand our knowledge, and learn about why these books were banned so that we can better ourselves and our minds. The next Freedom to Read week is from February 21 to February 27, 2027. The current Freedom to Read list can be found below.

https://whistler.bibliocommons.com/v2/list/display/915621879/2473631239

Anna Donaldson is the Summer Program Coordinator at the Whistler Museum through the Young Canada Works Program.

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“Mr Showbiz” Ivan Ackery 

“Mr Showbiz” Ivan Ackery “Mr Showbiz” Ivan Ackery 

June 24, 2026 Whistler MuseumWhistler Museum 0 Comments

Feature Image: Ivan Ackery (R) and Alex Philip drinking beer. The reverse is annotated “The two bad boys ?”. [1950s]

Some of the earliest photographs donated to the Museum’s archival collection capture the heyday of Rainbow Lodge, Whistler’s first tourist destination, during the 1920s and 1930s. These images have become invaluable tools for understanding both the atmosphere of the resort and the people who helped shape its story. Fortunately, Alex and Myrtle Philip took care to identify many of the individuals who appeared in their photographs.

One name appears time and again: Ivan Ackery.

Today, Ackery is remembered as one of the most influential figures in British Columbia’s entertainment industry. For more than fifty years, he worked in theatres and film promotion, witnessing the transition from vaudeville to silent films and eventually to talking pictures. Yet long before he became known as “Mr. Showbiz”, a nickname referenced in his 1980 autobiography Fifty Years on Theatre Row, Ackery was a regular visitor to Alta Lake and a close friend of Rainbow Lodge owners Alex and Myrtle Philip.

Ivan Ackry audiobiography “Fifty years if Theatre Room” 1980.

Born in Bristol, England, Ackery immigrated to Canada in 1914. After serving in the First World War, he entered the theatre business, working his way up from usher to theatre manager. By the late 1920s, when he was spending time at Rainbow Lodge, Ackery had established himself as one of western Canada’s leading theatre promoters, known for his creativity and flair for publicity.

Photographs in the museum’s collection show Ackery participating in lodge life and outdoor activities. Like many visitors, he was drawn by the Philips’ hospitality and the area’s natural beauty. Unlike most guests, however, his friendship with Alex Philip would eventually connect him to a small but significant chapter in Canadian film history.

In 1933, filmmaker Kenneth Bishop arrived in Victoria with plans to produce motion pictures in British Columbia. Taking advantage of British Empire film quotas that required a portion of films shown in U.K. theatres to be produced within the Empire, Bishop established Commonwealth Productions. One of its first projects was Crimson Paradise, an adaptation of a novel by Alex Philip that became Canada’s first talking-picture feature film.

The production was ambitious for its time. Financial support came from Kathleen Dunsmuir, daughter of former British Columbia Premier James Dunsmuir, who also appeared in the film. scenes were filmed at the Dunsmuir family residence in Victoria, while a studio was established at the old Willows Exhibition Grounds in Oak Bay. Additional filming took place at Beacon Hill Park and Cowichan Lake.

When the film was completed, Ackery found himself at the center of its historic premiere.

As manager of Victoria’s Capitol Theatre, he was entrusted with presenting the world premiere of Crimson Paradise on December 14, 1933. Looking back decades later, Ackery recalled the event as one of the proudest moments of his career. Floodlights illuminated the theatre, bands played outside, and distinguished guests arrived for the gala screening. Hollywood actors Nick Stuart and Lucille Browne travelled north to attend, bringing a touch of glamour to Depression-era Victoria.

Ackery personally introduced the cast, producers, and special guests from the stage before the film began. The audience included politicians, military officers, business leaders, and prominent members of Victoria society. The premiere generated tremendous local interest, and Ackery later noted that Crimson Paradise earned more money at the Victoria box office that week than any other theatre attraction in Canada.

Although the film was not a lasting commercial success, it demonstrated that motion pictures could be produced in British Columbia and helped pave the way for additional productions in Victoria during the 1930s.

Ackery’s own career continued to flourish. In 1935, he became manager of Vancouver’s Orpheum Theatre, a position he held for more than three decades. Following his retirement, he played a leading role in the campaign to save the Orpheum from demolition in 1973, helping preserve one of Vancouver’s most important historic landmarks.

Pictured here is Ivan Ackery leading a group exercise session with chorus girls at Rainbow Lodge around 1930. Philip Collection

Today, Ackery’s name survives in Vancouver’s Ackery’s Alley. The photographs preserved in the Whistler Museum’s collection reveal a lesser-known side of his life: summers spent at Rainbow Lodge, friendships formed around Alta Lake, and a connection to Alex Philip that linked a small fishing lodge to one of the earliest milestones in Canadian cinema.

Sometimes the names written on the backs of old photographs lead to remarkable stories. Ivan Ackery is one of them.

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Icons Gone — brought back centre-stage!

Icons Gone — brought back centre-stage!Icons Gone — brought back centre-stage!

April 14, 2026 Whistler MuseumWhistler Museum 0 Comments

Featured Image: Keven “Big Kev” Mickelsen presents at last year’s Icon Gone. Whistler Museum Collection.

It could be argued that a signpost or a benchmark of a town’s maturity can be tabulated by how many significant symbols/things/happenings/elements-uniquely-local that have come to be associated with it, can now be referred to in the past tense… measuring a community’s forward trajectory by its ‘icons gone’.

Lamenting the legacy of legends-left-behind is the focus of next week’s ‘ICON GONE’ event put on by the Whistler Museum at the Maury Young Arts Centre/Millenium Place. The event began in 2008 and ran for many years up until 2013. It was resurrected last year with yet another all-star cast.

In a lively evening of friendly competition (tinged with debaucherous debate…it is, after all, 19+), six notable locals will take to the stage and argue for what they think is the largest loss in the landmark of Whistler-specific icons. The audience (through applause-and-yell-o-metre) along with a panel of equally notable judges will crown a champion. Nudity was the winner of last year’s debate. Citta’ (pronounced Cheetah’s, for those who don’t know), the runner up.

This year’s panel promises to deliver on all levels, covering the extremes from the raunchy to the contemplatively serious. Past topics have included everything from Fixed-Grip Chair Lifts to A-Frames, Squatters Cabins to The Boot Pub, the Passenger Train and Toonie Races to the Toad Hall Poster; from the Snow, Water, Earth Race to the Party Barge, Mountain Man Beards to Beavers. Gravity – as a topic, as a subject — even won one year.

The purpose of the evening is two, even three-fold. Undeniably, entertainment and community-fun are a major focus. However, the event also serves as a way to highlight the Museum’s local archive – and remind people of its absolute essential relevance. Through the eyes of the present we are given tools to reflect upon our past. ICON GONE serves to illustrate the value of preserving our stories, our legacies, our legends and some of the many ways which we can keep them alive. Humour is one of them, a method of honour. The archive is not a dusty, musty collection – it is active, vital and alive – infused only by our present perspectives.

In a December 5, 2025 editorial titled ‘Who remembers Whistler?’ Pique Newsmagazine editor Braden Dupuis deftly articulated the value of the Museum. ICON GONE offers the opportunity to showcase Dupuis’ points, worth repeating anew:

“If we don’t invest in institutions that collect, preserve, archive, and explain, we lose more than objects and photographs. We lose context. Identity. A sense of place beyond postcards and ski packages.

Left unchecked, the version of “Whistler history” that remains will be curated by marketing budgets: sleek, sanitized and built for outside consumption. It’s cultural erasure in its most casual, passive form.

[…]

By preserving history, we don’t resist change, we anchor it in respect. We ensure Whistler doesn’t forget it is more than a ski-lift and slopes, a playground for the rich or an ATM for faceless corporations—that it is a real community built by people, labour and continuity.”

In the spirit of continuity – through raucous reverence — let us celebrate the cornerstones of this community…

On Friday, April 17 – at 7:00 pm – join judges Ace MacKay-Smith, Julia Murray and Brandon Barrett as together we applaud debaters Feet Banks, Princess Stephanie, Stinky, Laugh Out Live’s Rebecca Mason, lawyer Tanya Kong — as they set to historically hammer home their iconic topic of choice!

For more information and Tickets, please visit www.whistlermuseum.org

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Boarder Bob: Whistler-based 1990’s Comic Strip

Boarder Bob: Whistler-based 1990’s Comic StripBoarder Bob: Whistler-based 1990’s Comic Strip

February 24, 2026 Whistler MuseumWhistler Museum 0 Comments

Featured image: Boarder Bob comic illustrated by Olivier Roy, published in Snowboard Canada Magazine (starting somewhere in the mid-nineties!)

Olivier (Oli) Roy is “an artist snowboarder” who first came to Whistler “right after high school in 1990” to attend a Craig Kelly Camp. He moved here, three years later, after art college. 

Now, with a career of more than thirty years of ongoing coaching and creating under his belt, he holds a Lifetime Whistler Blackcomb Pass in one hand, a paintbrush in the other and continues to ride the endless canvas offered up by the mountain: artistically and athletically.

The early/mid-nineties has been referred to as the ‘golden age of snowboarding.’ It was fresh, edgy and still relegated to counter-culture status. In Whistler, it was synonymous with a lifestyle and a community. 

During this era, the Ontario-based Snowboard Canada Magazine was born. Broadening their output, they enlisted Roy, as he describes,  a “cool artist.” 

Thus, Boarder Bob – the character and comic strip – were born. Border Bob “moves to Whistler to pursue [his] dream of being a pro snowboarder, but he’s very delusional … ​​he thinks he’s a big shot…” But, he’s not. After a season or two,  “he gets a sidekick, Jed Shred.”  

Jed is a devoted fan: “he’s all like, ‘Oh, Boarder Bob, you’re so epic’. But, as is proven – through Bob’s trials, tribulations and failed attempts at ease and epicness – he is anything and everything, but. 

Roy collaborated with local Glenn Rogers – known for his comic panels in The Whistler Question (a former, local publication started in 1976) – to produce the strip. The two worked together for eight years (“if I remember correctly”, states Roy), producing the 8 panel, 2 row, half-page ‘Boarder Bob’ strip. Published four times a year, “we had a lot of fun” poking fun at the “life of snowboarding in Whistler and on the West Coast.” 

The stresses of balancing the desire to shred while staying fed, being able to board while needing to find literal board-ing to trying to be the bawler at the bar were all fodder for the two creative duos: Roy and Rogers, Bob and Jed. Moral quandaries were occasionally tackled through the ink of these stories: “should we risk everything to be in the shot?!” Arguably, Boarder Bob was 90% total fun, 10% tackling that ‘the stakes are real’.

Boarder Bob Comic. Illustrated by Olivier Roy, written by Glenn Rogers: featured in Snowboard Canada Magazine. The comic strip ran between 1995-2002 approximately.

The comic ran from about 1995 to 2002, or thereabouts. The pinpointing of specifics is about as precise as Bob’s technique, working more with the “ish” verb. However, when it comes to the technical hows of developing the strip, the collaborative process between Roy and Rogers was fine tuned. 

Rogers would usually come up with the story. Admittedly, Roy states “I was never good at writing the stories, I was more the artist and inker.” He would receive the script and then sketch it, all by hand, on an 11 x 17 piece of cardboard:

“I would pencil it and then use China ink [for] the black and white and use markers, like alcohol markers and a bit of watercolor.” It was all hand-lettered.  “And then I would send it by FedEx back to Snowboard Canada magazine. And I, I remember a few times where the FedEx guy would ring the bell and I would still be finishing … after an all nighter.” Each strip took between 10-20 hours. “It was a labour of love,” Roy reminisces. “I loved it.”

Boarder Bob eventually got abducted by aliens (I mean, why not?) – or this is insinuated, but never confirmed for the reader. “There’s a UFO and he disappears.”

Boarder Bob carved out a seminal space in the culture and history of snowboarding art, taking its place in the local legacy of slope-inspired comic strips. The Peak Bros ran from 1979-2002 (in The Whistler Answer and Whistler Review), poking fun at 80s ski culture, whereas Boarder Bob tackled the snowboarding shenanigans of the nineties. 

Roy continued, and continues, to flourish on and off the slopes: the line between his art and sport overlapping. 

He has illustrated for Snowboarder Magazine (the prominent US publication), been Whistler Blackcomb’s online illustrator, designed top sheets for such companies as Prior, Luxury and Option Snowboards; been sent to Ottawa as a Whistler Art Ambassador in 2010 for Canada Day and continues to regularly produce art that showcases the mountains and its vibrant culture. 

The born-in-Montréal skateboarding kid who first came out to join Craig Kelly’s summer camps on the glacier, to then gain accolades as a competitive snowboarder in “half pipe contests, some slope styles, some boarder cross” to now working for Whistler Blackcomb’s Alpine Program and holding the title of being Whistler Valley Snowboard Club’s longest-running coach, working with the program since its inception almost 30 years ago – has literally drawn together the lines of on and off-mountain creativity. 


Boarder Bob Comic. Illustrated by Olivier Roy, written by Glenn Rogers: featured in Snowboard Canada Magazine. The comic strip highlighted and poked fun at the Whistler snowboarding scene of the nienties.
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