Doors Open Wrap Up - Insurance Tips

Heritage Winnipeg is very pleased to announce the immense success of Doors Open Winnipeg, and 2016 marked the 13th year for this event. We are proud to provide this free community event. We want to connect with all Manitobans about the history of our city of Winnipeg, and our province. We are still tallying up the numbers, but attendance at many of the building sites and walking tours saw a dramatic increase.

The Burton Cummings Theatre Tour on Sunday, May 29.
Photo Courtesy of Carol Ann Vermeer

We would like to thank all the over 500 volunteers who showcased their buildings and the walking tour guides for all their hard work. We would like to thank the Province for once again allowing us to open the doors at the Vaughan Street Jail, and the Lieutenant Governor for opening the doors to Government House, which had 735 guests on Saturday. In addition, the Winnipeg Railway Museum had 1,343 visitors, the newly located Winnipeg Police Museum had over 800 people and over 900 people enjoyed listening to the Manitoba Underground Opera at the Millennium Centre on Sunday. We had a wonderful line up of 76 buildings and 13 events. The popularity of this event continues to grow and this year’s event was the biggest to date since inception in 2004.


The St. Vital Historical Society Photo courtesy of Twitter user @1spiritedmom

Guests at the Vaughan Street Jail had the opportunity to "lock" themselves in the cells.
Photo Courtesy of Twitter User @1spiritedmom

We want to give a big, big thank you to everyone who came out to this event and contributed to these record-breaking numbers. We are so thrilled Winnipeggers are enjoying this event, and that it continues to generate more interest every year as we continue to augment the experiences. Thank you to all for coming out to celebrate and listen to the stories our buildings tell.

A Doors Open Volunteer at Winnipeg Animal Services

A reminder to everybody who came out to the event, you still have time to vote for your favourite building in our online poll. Please take the time to vote for your favourite building!

Vote now!

Casting your vote will help Heritage Winnipeg determine the top participants in this year’s event by the public. It shows participants that you appreciate the work and time their staff and volunteers put into showcasing their building and/or event. It also helps us to see what types of experiences and programming people are most interested in. There are five different categories and you vote once for each award.

All of our winners will be announced at the 6^th Annual Doors Open Awards presentation at the Winnipeg Free press Cafe on Wednesday, June 15 at 10 am with a one of a kind sculpture from artist Jordan van Sewell. This Awards program is the only one of its kind.

Congratulations to Dennis Tully and Matt Jacques, the winners of our 2016 raffle. Dennis and Matt each won a downtown prize package valued at $800, which included prizes from:

Alt Hotel Winnipeg, Canada's Royal Winnipeg Ballet, The Canadian Museum of Human Rights, Chizma Tea, Delta Winnipeg Hotel, Manitoba Opera, The Mitchell Block, The Old Spaghetti Factory, True North Sports and Entertainment (Burton Cummings Theatre,) Prairie Prairie Exchange, Rainbow Stage, WOW Hospitality (Peasant Cookery and 529 Wellington.)

Thank you to everybody who supported us by entering our raffle, and to those who didn't win, we hope you will try your luck again next year.

Heritage Winnipeg is looking forward to our 14^thannual event in 2017, and as part of Canada's 150th anniversary we are hoping to make Doors Open Winnipeg event bigger by planning various events to help celebrate this special year.

We can’t wait to see you all again next year!

And a final thank-you to our sponsors, whose generous support made Doors Open possible.