To honour Remembrance Day, communities across the Niagara Region dress their museums, churches and legions in crocheted poppies as part of the Poppy Project.
Christine Girardi, an assistant curator at the Niagara Falls History Museum, led the initiative in early 2020 as a local community art project.
“Every program that I do here at the museum needs to be rooted in history, finding new ways to engage the community and learning about our past,” said Girardi. “In this case, honouring Remembrance Day, honouring all the sacrifices that have been made… for the various wars that have involved troops from Canada.”
The Poppy Project expanded internationally after the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and the group collected 11,000 knitted poppies from all over Canada, the U.S. and Europe.
“It helped us to have something to be accomplished while we were in the pandemic,” said Yvonne Miller, part of the StickN’ Needles Guild, a crochet and knitting group in Niagara.
Museums, churches and legions in Niagara began reaching out to Girardi, hoping to have their own poppy installation.
“When they’re driving in their cars, they see all these poppies, and hopefully that sparks them to think a little bit more about Remembrance Day and those sacrifices,” said Girardi.
“[The knitted poppy] represents each individual who fought for Canada,” said Joanne Ring, exterior lead artist of the Poppy Project.
The installations will be up until Nov. 12.
