Contact(s)
Jenny Martynyshyn
Museum Coordinator
Stephen Leacock Museum
50 Museum Dr.
Orillia, ON, L3V 7T9
T: 705-326-8651
Email: jmartynyshyn@orillia.ca
Google Maps
The Museum is home to a variety of magical programming
For information and questions about programs and events call Brittany McDonald, program and event supervisor at 705-325-2196.
Follow us on social to stay up to date @leacockmuseum
Upcoming Events:
Gatsby Garden Party
Looking for an event to start your summer off right? Join us for a family-friendly Gatsby Garden Party combining the decadence of the 1920s with the simplicity of a picnic style outing. Pack a picnic lunch and join us on the Leacock lawn. There will be live entertainment for adults and children, lawn games, and a silent auction. Guests who attend the event are also welcomed to participate in the awards ceremony and reading for the K. Valerie Connor Memorial Poetry Celebration taking place in the Museum living room from 2 p.m. – 3p.m. Join us in ringing in the beginning of summer!
Offered June 17, 2023, 1p.m. – 4p.m.
History Tours
House and Grounds History Tour
Enjoy a tour of the Leacock house and grounds led by one of our experienced tour-guides. Guests will learn about Leacock, his family and Old Brewery Bay. With the purchase of your History Tour ticket, get special access to the Boathouse to see the newest exhibit: "Boating Old Brewery Bay."
Offered May 23 until August 31, 2023.
Tour times:
Tuesday to Friday – 11a.m. and 2p.m.
Saturday – 11a.m.
Ghost Walks on the Leacock Museum Grounds
Ghost Walks on the Leacock Museum Grounds is back after a successful run in 2022! Join one of our spooky tour guides to learn about the haunted happenings on Old Brewery Bay. Enjoy hot chocolate and cookies after the tour is over.
Offered October 20, 21, 27 and 28, 2023.
Tickets available soon!
Leacock Museum Christmas Tour and Story
Join an experienced tour guide for the Leacock Museum Christmas Tour & Story. The tour will begin with an outdoor stroll on the grounds. See the twinkling lights along the trail, enjoy a special stop at the Boathouse, and end off your tour with a story in Leacock's living room!
Offered November 30 and December 1, 2023.
Tickets available soon!
Mariposa Literary Society
Our Book Club is offered by the Leacock Museum in partnership with Manticore Books.
Join us every six weeks to discuss a new book, available at Manticore Books in beautiful downtown Orillia. With COVID-19 restrictions easing, we are back to in-person. See you at the Museum!
To sign up, contact Jenny Martynyshyn at 705-329-1908.
K. Valerie Connor Memorial Poetry Celebration
The K. Valerie Connor Memorial Poetry Celebration is an annual province-wide literary contest run by the Leacock Museum in honour of one of our museum's cherished volunteers, Valerie Connor. This contest supports original works of poetry from Ontario residents in three age categories and offers $2100 in total cash prizes.
Learn more about the 2023 contest
Listed below are the 2022 winners along with their poems:
ELEMENTARY |
1st: Babysitting By: Maia Embuldeniya-Fernando
Riding on a dragon to a place so far away Where the aroma of bacon drifts up my nose, Where the sound of the ice-cream truck lingers all day, Where the pure-green grass feels softer than moss. I feel the breeze rip around my face I swim in the azure blue ocean. I taste the salty sea air I run through the gritty sand I can see shiny bubbles drifting through the sky When suddenly I can hear crying. What is wrong? I ask myself But at that moment I am brought to the reality of this world. My baby brother needs a diaper change.
2nd: When Life’s More Funny By: Will Ouchterlony
When COVID ends and life’s more funny This is how I’ll spend my money: A Nintendo game, a chocolate bar, Maybe LEGO in a jar. New green shoes for a boy, A big Godzilla action toy. --Two tickets to see him vs. King Kong; I’ve waited really, really long. A trampoline and cotton candy On a beach, someplace sandy. When COVID ends and life’s more funny, This is how I’ll spend my money.
3rd: Seasons By: Zara Croft
Autumn, when leaves dance and twirl, As the wind blows and whirls. Many leaves of colour falling, Dog tongues are no longer lolling, Since now the summer is gone. Winter sky, grey and dreary. Sit by the fire, calm and weary. In the evening, lay in bed. On your pillow rests your head, As spring approaches soon. Spring mist and sun, rainy showers Bring delicate, colourful springtime flowers. Up in the trees, birds are chirping, Awaiting upcoming summer. Summer sun, hot and bright, Damp and misty in the night. Buzzing black and yellow bees, Many people do agree That summer is amazing.
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STUDENT |
1st: Across the Water By: Grace Maidment
you are dragging yourself to the lake peeling your knees like carrots on the rocks & fighting the water with your body & in the winter, standing on the ice like it might not matter if it was even there anymore except for the fact that you’re supposed to be there looking for someone & you, i am looking for you
ii. you said the last time you went to the ER was supposed to be the last time but you can walk now & they might not let you go but it doesn’t matter because you can make it to the hallway where no one can touch you & when you open the door we will say look, it’s dawn & i will say you are so strong but you shouldn’t have had to be in the first place
iii. let me tell you how there is more space in this world than you have ever been allowed to consume how, on the porch at midnight, there have been clothes left for you here is a field, come in shower & scrub your body can forget the lake
iv. listen, you do not have to read their letters & there is no rule for when to laugh or cry sometimes things that shouldn’t touch love do but there is more than this & there is enough light to submerge yourself in meaning that i have found you & still i will keep looking meaning that there is a safe place to love & you will come to know more than ghosts
2nd: Dear Scarf By: Bridget Barton
Dear scarf, Or more importantly Half scarf. I wish I could help you see how beautiful you’d look when you were complete. The way I was trying to make you. But unfortunately, It’s best if we unwind. We must undo all the rows and stitches that made you into what I wanted. I’m sure you’re hoping this is my way of saying, let’s start over, but I am a-frayed-knot. It almost feels like the right scarf, wrong yarn. We’ve spent endless evenings together, just me and you, working on how to make you fit me. You came without instructions. You were hard to figure out. Some told me you are not equipped for the weather I would soon experience. Others told me to hang onto your last thread. And without warning, we are here. You, noticing you may not have enough in you to protect me from the disastrous seasons. Me, realizing that if you tried, you’d stretch yourself too thin or essentially wear yourself out. With that said, half-scarf, it’s time to make you whole again. You can return to being a big old ball of yarn waiting for the right knitter. And me, I think it is time to repair my own loose ends. Love always, Bridget
3rd: Into the Forest Alone By: Samuel Cooper
Out the back door--no shoes necessary-- I took off into the forest committing To my mind, committing to solitude. The organic cathedral corridors of Medium sized conifers enveloping me in their quiet solid embrace. My face was hidden from all eyes.
My feet thumped down, cushioned By the soft bed of dead orange needles The occasional one pricking the calloused Under belly of my young feet. I keep going, hopping on one foot to remove the organic spike. The rhythm of my run interrupted.
I was nine.
My hair was long and wildly blowing It got caught on the bare spines of the Green and brown pine branches. Reaching out in front of me in expansive Rows of fourteen cent trees planted for profit. I thwack and smack with sticks, My chest heaving, muscles breathing hard, I make pathways: With each present strike I focus on now I add to new worlds in mind’s eye. Worlds of warm easy passion and green peace.
I imagined Star Wars and Luke’s lightsaber. I imagined Indiana Jones and his whip. I imagined secret maps. I imagined surviving in a primitive time. I imagined peace. I imagined nothing at all.
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ADULT |
1st: The Divinity of the Common Gull
By: Caitlin McKenzie
Seagulls are what we thought Jesus would be Standing on the water and screaming Following the masses from city to city They raise up voices to rip the seams from The coat of perceived confidence The yellow thread of whatever we aren’t They women I know wear the sky as a pattern They fly into their own chests and it must feel good To soar there, alone and beautiful Maybe I am beautiful too with My science fiction novels and cocktails alone I’m always in my tiny performance Separating the pen ink form the envelopes Mail I’ve tried to send to The people I think of more than I should And the fear in it fouls the sky and the water Turns my feathers grey and highlights my scowl lines
2nd: A Man Throws Cake at the Mona Lisa on May 29th By: Lucy Bacon
Lisa smiles, glad she cannot smell the Windex On the glass. But she's been enclosed so long, for goodness sake, Who'd notice if she dared extend an index Finger, and taste a little of the cake? It's not the first attack, there was a rock, red paint, a coffee mug, The acid was the worst; price of a life of fame. But no-one's ever seen her flinch, nor yet a tiny shrug, Smart, strong Renaissance wife, six children, no mere pretty dame. Cake-man, he took some trouble in his effort to get close, He felt his cause was just, his protests loud, But La Gioconda smiled, like he'd offered her a rose, Her unschooled bastard artist had done his subject proud. For countless years the crowds have come; these days they take a pic Smartphones held high, the Mona Lisa done. Another group awaits; her glass surround is thick, They get to see her smile, but then they gotta run. She cannot choose but smile, she gets the gist, She's not their type, no-one will try to make a tryst, They love her, though tomorrow she'll have faded into mist, A checkmark on their bucket list. Lisa smiles, but sometimes thinks about her ex, And endless days and nights, sans smell, or taste, or touch, Or sex.
3rd: Tales of an Organic Gardener By: Angie Rose-Carnegie
I’ve become an organic gardener. I watch my neighbours in woe. Chemically fertilizing their soil, Polluting the environment so.
The mulch I placed ‘round my seedlings With the dampness started to rot. The weeds continued to flourish And the slugs just loved the spot!
The slugs were devouring my garden! They showed no preference at all. At the rate that they were eating There’d be nothing to harvest come fall.
Armed with organic deterrents--- “The Best” ----the articles said. I sprinkled the ashes and egg shells Certain soon that the slugs would be dead.
It didn’t deter their munching— Except from eating the weeds. Instead of bodies bloated from hunger They were bloated from vegetable feeds!
Still determined I wouldn’t use poisons I put out dishes with beer. With intentions of drowning the culprits Hoping to end doubting “friends” jeers.
When early next morn’ I inspected Not a drop of beer did I see. Drunken slugs were all over the garden. My “friends” are still laughing at me! |
Past Events:
Boating Old Brewery Bay Launch |
Location: Leacock Museum Grounds, House & Boathouse Date: May 20, 2023 (Victoria Day Weekend), 1p.m. – 4p.m. To welcome a new boathouse exhibit, two associations – the Orillia Heritage Centre, and the Wooden Canoe Heritage Association – joined us to showcase historic boats, canoes and model ships. There were crafts and activities for children, as well as paddling, seat-weaving, and other demonstrations! Guests were welcomed to tour the boathouse and the museum. The day was ended by listening to Leacock's famous "Sinking of the Mariposa Belle" told by storyteller, Tim Greenwood. |
Ghost Walks on the Leacock Museum Grounds |
Location: Leacock Museum Grounds, 50 Museum Drive For those who love a good haunting, what better place to host a Ghost Tour than an old historic building such as the historic Leacock Home. Tours featured tales of haunted happenings on the property. See photos from the 2022 event below: |
Mary Pickford Exhibit Closing & Silent Film Screening |
Date: October 20, 2022 Time: 6:00pm It was time to say goodbye to the first installment of the Leacock Museum’s new exhibit series “Entertaining Entertainers: Mary Pickford, Queen of the Silver Screen.” To do so, the Museum planned a closing event where guests could tour the exhibit one last time. Guests were invited to screen “Fanchon the Cricket” an autumn-themed silent film starring Mary Pickford herself. The film had been re-mastered and re-released by the Pickford Foundation and was shown in the living room space of the Leacock home. Light refreshments were served. |