Many new arrivals to the Lakeland come from larger Canadian centres, and find that life in a smaller community takes some getting used to.
And then there are others—like Christian Keller, the new curator at the Cold Lake Air Force Museum. Although Keller is originally from Ottawa, and his wife from Japan, the couple are thrilled with everything Cold Lake has to offer.
For the past three years the couple has been living in Wells, B.C., where Keller was librarian and archivist at Barkerville Historic Town and Park.
“I was a little tired of the remoteness of the area. It was an hour away from the closest grocery store, healthcare, dentist, just basic amenities,” Keller said. “So I thought it was time to move on in my career, and this opportunity showed up at a perfect time.”
The curator’s job calls for professional qualifications in managing, interpreting, and exhibiting the museum’s collections. It also requires a passion for RCAF history. Keller has both, but he admits his air force roots aren’t particularly deep.
He’s excited to get learning.
“I have a master’s degree in public history from Carleton University, where I specialized in living history and specifically with living history representing the War of 1812 from an Indigenous perspective,” he said. “Which is pretty specific, but a little bit of a military history background there.”
He has also worked at the 30th Field Artillery Museum in Ottawa, and served as an intern and a volunteer in other Ottawa-area museums.
“My background is on the War of 1812, but Barkerville Historic Town and Park was a mining museum, so I had to get up to speed and become quite knowledgeable in gold mining,” Keller said. “I do have quite a bit of knowledge when it comes to military history, especially during the Cold War, but admittedly I would like to get more.”
For all that, Keller is not utterly lacking an aviation background. His father was an electrical engineer at the National Research Council, where one of his projects was testing material fatigue on F-18 Hornet wings.
Now Keller has a CF-18 parked outside his museum office, while others occasionally roar overhead.
He has been on the job for almost a month. He says he was impressed when he first saw the museum. “It’s much bigger than I thought it was. It’s very, very well organized,” he said. He gives full credit to his immediate predecessor Wanda Stacey as well as to the previous curator Jennifer Ross for the museum’s progress over the years and for its history of reaching out to the community.
He’s starting to develop ideas for the future, but he says the first thing is to make sure he’s continuing that legacy.
“There’s a really rich collection here with our artifacts, and a lot of options to change up our exhibits and show them off to the public. I’m quite proud of being able to work here and show off these artifacts and these collections, and work with such a great team,” he said.
“It’s definitely large shoes to fill. Wanda did an excellent job. She was very, very passionate and I hope to carry on that passion, develop new exhibits, and continue the public outreach that she and Jen started.”
