“Pooh” is a hugely popular staple of children’s fiction, a stuffed teddy bear brought to life by the English author A. A. Milne. The character is also a larger-than-life cinematic and pop-culture icon: the honey-loving, red-and-yellow cartoon bear whose image has been adapted for film, television, and mass-production. “Winnie” was also a real, actual bear from Northern Ontario, and the companion of a Winnipeg veterinarian Harry Colebourn (1887-1947) and his Canadian regiment at the outset of WWI.
Learn more about a character rooted in fact and sustained in fiction. By presenting the different portraits of Winnie-the-Pooh together, the exhibition brings into focus the various roles the bear has been made to play. At the centre of a real story about human-animal bonding at the outbreak of war, Winnie-the-Pooh evolved into a literary and cultural industry. Even today, he remains the best-known bear in the world.
WAG@The Park presents a rotating series of exhibitions curated by the WAG at The Pavilion at Assiniboine Park. Art is drawn primarily from the APC collection, as well as from the WAG’s vast holdings. The Many Sides of Winnie-the-Pooh features the collections of the APC, the Colebourn Family Archive, and the Archive of Modern Conflict.
WAG-Qaumajuq is open regular hours, see our tips for visiting here.
