Curatorial Context
Young people have always been part of shaping Chilliwack, not simply as students, children or members of families, but as organizers, creators, activists and participants in community life.
“Must Be 18+ to Entry“ looks at what becomes visible when we take the experiences, voices and agency of young people seriously within the historical record.
Drawing from archival records and cultural materials, the exhibition follows generations of young people as they made spaces for themselves, gathered with one another, challenged decisions, experimented with new ideas and found ways to be heard. From dances and drive-ins to youth-run coffee houses, radio broadcasts, newspaper columns and protests, these histories show young people actively participating in the community around them.
Some of these moments are playful and everyday. Others show young people organizing around issues they believed mattered; from war and the environment to the places and opportunities available to youth in their own community. Together, they offer a different way of looking at Chilliwack’s past: one in which young people are not waiting to become part of history. They are already making it.
The exhibition also asks us to think about how history is recorded.
Whose activities were considered important enough to document?
Whose perspectives were preserved?
And what might we understand differently when we look again?
Must Be 18+ to Entry invites visitors of every age to consider the spaces young people have made for themselves, the communities they have built, and the ways youth continue to shape Chilliwack today.
Curated by Natalie Smith, 2026 Young Canada Works student.
