What's next for the New West Museum and Archives' COVID collection?

It’s a collection museum curator Oana Capota never thought she would work on – and it’s one for the history books.

Capota, who is away on educational leave in Vienna, had the monumental task of putting together a collection of COVID-related items for the New West Museum and Archives (NWMA). Capota says the experience made her feel all kinds of things.

“Well, I had to face some phobias,” she says, recounting the time she had to walk over the Queensborough Bridge to take photos in Queensborough. “I already hate driving over that bridge! I’m afraid of heights. And when cars drive over it, I can’t get over the way the bridge swings!”

A good chunk of her collection is from walking; in fact, she managed to walk every single block of New West. This method of collecting began out of a desire to be active, as Capota says she prefers not to sit around at her desk. “I started walking from where I lived, around Edmonds in Burnaby, all the way to the Anvil Centre.” Capota says the walk was about five kilometres each way, and she tried her best to take a different route each time.

Then, she had a thought: why not bring the camera and take photos? This idea was supported by her manager, who also suggested putting together a photo show about COVID.

“I donated [the photos] to the archives as a kind of, year, year-and-a-half in the life of this pandemic.” Photos included street signs, signs in the windows of homes, animals she spotted on her walks, and sometimes masks on the ground. Capota estimates donating about 8,000 photos to NWMA.

In addition to her thousands of steps around New Westminster, Capota was also able to collect things from other people. In some cases, her colleagues made suggestions of what she should collect.

“One of my co-workers, he wanted us to collect an empty bottle of hand sanitizer.” Capota recounts with a laugh, noting she also collected bread recipes. There were also some painted rocks with Dr. Bonnie Henry’s mantra of “be kind, be calm, be safe” donated to the NWMA.

Some of her favourite parts of the collection, however, were the oral histories.

“One of the people who contacted me was from this group of seven who lived in a condo building [in New Westminster]. When they couldn’t see each other, and a lot of them lived alone, they decided to do their own novel.” Capota says each day, the group of seven would email each other to keep writing the novel. “Every person had to write one sentence. They did that from March 2020 until July 2020.” Capota calls them some of the most joyful people she’s ever spoken to.

Another one of her favourite stories involved a group of people in one neighbourhood who would order Steel and Oak beer for one another. The orders would be dropped off at their respective homes and they’d enjoy the beer from a distance.

“They’d open their doors and look at each other from across the hallways, because it was the right amount of distance. They seemed to have a lot of fun,” she says.

Putting together these experiences prompted Captoa to look into the experiences of those who endured Spanish Flu in B.C. Capota discovered that the Lower Mainland had its first lockdown in November of 1918.

“[The people] could only stand that lockdown for a month, and then they finished. Meanwhile here we are in 2022, and the pandemic is still going.” Capota says the shortage of local information during the Spanish Flu inspired her to do more.

“I wanted to know how someone who had, perhaps, started a photography business felt. What about a teacher and the kids, who might be going back [to school]? We don’t have that from 1918, so I wanted to make sure for 2020, we had that information recorded for the items.”

So what’s next for the collection? Capota says when she returns from Vienna, she’s going to pick up right where she left off.

“I think some of the items can go on display – you know, the ‘be calm, be kind, be safe’ [rock]. It fits into the messages of friendship and loneliness we saw during the pandemic.” Capota still wants to interview more people, and she has a feeling collecting will continue in the years to come.

“This happens with a lot of stuff at the museum. People hang onto things, and eventually they’re ready to donate them.”

If you have something you’d like to pass on to the museum that is COVID-related, Capota encourages you to reach out to them.