This is one of the home’s bedrooms, specifically the children’s bedroom. The other bedrooms have been converted to exhibit spaces, although this one remains as a display depicting what a bedroom was like during the 1980s.
The 1980s were a revolutionary time for young people. More women were able to attain higher levels of education, as such, many middle class families saw both parents working, this led to more children with free time to themselves after school hours, or during school breaks.
The 1980s saw the first widely available computers and video games in the home. Where previous generations did not. Other forms of entertainment remained popular for youth though, including sports, television, print media, and music.
Other popular hobbies of the 1980s included activities like crochet. Gaining popularity in the 1970s, this new generation of crochet featured vibrant colours and patterns. Trading cards were another popular pastime of the 1980s, featuring sports players most commonly, however many different themes and sets were available.
This room is not intended to represent a single person, but rather to showcase many elements of how people of different races and genders may have decorated their bedrooms.
Centennial Video
The video playing was produced in 1989 by the Centennial High School Media class. This film features their takes on popular advertisements and news footage of the late 1980s.
Homework
Homework has been accepted or rejected by parents, students, and educators at various times throughout the 20th century. Several movements appeared in the early 1900s to ban homework, with the state of California effectively abolishing it. Homework became popular again in the 1950s, as pressure to compete with the Soviet Union ramped up. As well as in the 1980s, following the publication of A Nation at Risk, a report which received widespread attention in 1983, claiming that American schools were failing in significant ways. Part of the reforms that came out of this included an increase in homework for students.
Booklets
These booklets are stories about growing up as a teenager during the 1980s and what it was like to be Black during that time. Feel free to read them.
James Groening’s Art
James Groening, known also as Blue Sky, is a Cree artist from the Kahkewistahaw Band, Turtle Island, based now in Burnaby. James was adopted by his white grandparents, during the Sixties Scoop, a series of large-scale seizure of indigenous children from their families, with them being forced into child welfare and into white foster families, or into Residential Schools. James re-united with his birth mother at age 24, learning the other half of his name, Lost in Time. James was eager to reclaim his lost culture, finding a love for the woodland art style, he briefly apprenticing with Ojibway artist Mark Anthony Jacobson, who taught him to paint.
James’ artwork works to help him learn and teach about his cultural identity. James has had his artwork exhibited at the Arts Council of New Westminster, Skwachays Lodge Aboriginal Hotel and Gallery, and the Massey Arts Society. James has also led several Turtle Legend workshops in New Westminster.
Nostalgia Section
Many beloved pieces of 1980s media are on display here. The 1980s saw many form of media able to flourish in North America. Mixed tapes and the compilation of music became widely available with people able to record their favourite songs onto cassette tapes. The Walkman and other portable cassette players allowed for music on the go. Originally made possible in the 1970s, the 1980s saw an explosion of new mixed tapes.
VHS and camcorders made the recording of home videos possible as well. With home video setups able to playback these tapes. The availability of VHS made other forms of media possible, such as the ubiquitous home workout tapes.
Video games made their way out of the arcade and into the home for the first time. Consoles like the ATARI 2600 pioneered the home console market. Following the video game crash, Nintendo and SEGA came to dominate the market into the 1990s.