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Ahead of Erie Canal Bicentennial, Governor Hochul Announces Plans for New Visitors Experience at Canalside in Buffalo

Interactive, Multimedia Exhibits at the Longshed Building will be the Starting Point for Visitors During 2025 Erie Canal Bicentennial Commemoration

Buffalo to Host World Canals Conference in 2025

See Renderings of the Visitors Experience Here

Governor Kathy Hochul today announced plans for “Waterway of Change: A Complex Legacy of the Erie Canal,” a new Erie Canal bicentennial visitors experience at Canalside in Buffalo. On May 7, after four years of construction in the Longshed, the replica Erie Canal Boat Seneca Chief will move out to make way for interior construction and installation of the new experience in the building. Work will be completed in time for next year’s Erie Canal Bicentennial. Renderings are available here.

“Waterway of Change will share the remarkable story of the Erie Canal and the area now known as Canalside with visitors,” Governor Hochul said. “As the 200th anniversary of the Erie Canal approaches in 2025, this visitors experience will draw more people to Buffalo’s waterfront and help them connect to its history in a new and participative way.”

The concept for the 2,900-square-foot Longshed, located at Canalside on the historic western terminus of the Erie Canal, is to create a visitors experience that acts as a gathering space and starting point for visitors beginning their Bicentennial Commemoration journey. Plans include visitors’ experiences that will explain and detail how Canalside’s timeline, from its beginnings as traditional homeland of the Haudenosaunee to the development of a rural village at the time the Erie Canal opened in 1825, to a thriving port and shipping hub at the end of the 19th century. Waterway of Change will include interactive multimedia exhibits for visitors of all ages and abilities, sharing Buffalo’s Erie Canal story in an inclusive and diverse way through the use of short films, touch screens, audio, historical artifacts and dramatic lighting. A series of outdoor interpretive exhibits will also be created at towpaths along and around the canals.

Local Projects, a multi-disciplinary exhibition and media design firm based in New York City, has been working with the Erie Canal Harbor Development Corporation to create the visitor experiences for the Longshed and Canalside. Other partnerships include exhibit fabrication, with Buffalo’s Hadley Exhibits, and project development with the Buffalo History Museum. The museum is providing interpretive content and historical guidance through all phases of the project. The collaboration includes consulting with a diverse group of community stakeholders and subject matter experts to ensure Buffalo’s Erie Canal story is shared with visitors from multiple perspectives and viewpoints.

Read the full press release here.