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The legend of the flying canoe holds special significance for Jennifer Elchuk, be it her passion for canoeing, her perhaps bigger passion for aerial artistry, or simply the drive she has to take the stories and surroundings that inspire her and realigning them as inspiration for others.
Elchuk, also known as Opal in local artistic circles, says in some ways it was the canoe that brought her to Peterborough. There was no deal with the devil — a reference to flying canoe legend — but she has found success here and she’s eager to share it again when the new Canadian Canoe Museum opens in 2023.
The story behind the legend of the flying canoe is part of historic Canadian lore. It details how, during a New Year’s Eve of heavy drinking, a group of voyageurs make a deal with the devil that would allow their canoe to fly through the skies to their sweethearts, some 500 kilometres away.
Elchuk, whose artistic focus centres on aerial performance, says the story inspired her. When she first came to Peterborough, her first job was with the Canadian Canoe Museum. She soon envisioned a way to link her passions through performance.
“I was just brainstorming and it all came together … it just seemed to fit perfectly,” she recalled.
“Peterborough is the canoe capital and doing this is so much a part of my life. I worked at the museum teaching education program, doing some trip guiding for them and stuff like that, so that was how I was so familiar with the flying canoe story.”
Bringing in other performers, she put together a performance that eventually was showcased inside the current canoe museum. Other recorded performances show how she’s created art from the story.
It’s evolved somewhat through other performances, and she’s been invited to make it a part of the grand opening experience at the new facility, set to open late next summer or early fall.
Located between the shores of Little Lake and Asburnham Drive, the new $40-million museum is being built on a five-acre site in Peterborough’s east end. The two-storey 65,000-square-foot building will house the museum’s canoe collection in an artifact conservation environment, and will offer a 17,000-square-foot exhibition hall, along with an artisan studio, canoe-building studio, a library and research room, café and a lakefront terrace.
Elchuk says given her history with the museum, she’s proud to be a part of the grand opening experience.
“I will be presenting a performance with the aerial canoe during the opening celebrations of the new canoe museum.” She said there will be a lot of celebratory events within the first month of opening, so it is not determined on which dates she will present.
“Definitely for a grand opening event, but not necessarily the very first day it’s open.”
She said it’s also still to be determined whether the performance will take place indoors or outdoors. She has been working on other performances as well, but since learning of the opportunity, there has been a renewed focus on the flying canoe.
She recently learned a grant application to hold the performance was approved.
I’ve been applying for some other funding to get other grants to support it … sometimes when you care so much about a project, you’ll put more hours into it.” With more funding, they can allocate more hours into fine-tuning the performance.
