NAC@50+ Redefining a National Historic Site

In 2020 CIMS was awarded a two-year Social Sciences Research Council of Canada (SSRHC) Partnership Development Grant for their proposal NAC@50+ – Redefining a National Historic Site – a proposal that has evolved several times over the last 5+ years. Celebrating 50+ years of the National Arts Centre, the NAC@50+ project is bringing the rich history of the NAC to the public through an interactive storytelling experience, titled Chronicles & Conjectures. Experience the NAC from its conception, through its evolution, and into the present, in nine stories.

With three stories in each chapter, we explore these eras from the perspective of a visitor, performer, and staff member of the NAC. Each story has unique objects to discover as you traverse the building-- in-situ art pieces, architectural features, rare archival assets, historical photographs, and recordings, to name a few. The interactive storytelling experience is accompanied by the Virtual Archive, an online library of all the artefacts, archival pieces, photographs, recordings, and documents that make up the stories of Chronicles & Conjectures.