Educators and actors are entertaining and informing visitors at the Canadian Museum of Civilization and the Canadian War Museum for the first time in 12 weeks.

That means full programming is also back on at the popular Canadian Children's Museum within the Museum of Civilization in Gatineau, Que., said Victor Rabinovitch, CEO of the Canadian Museum of Civilization Corp., which runs the museums.

"While it was open [during the strike], now it's going to be wide open," he said Wednesday.

About 420 employees at the Ottawa-area museums started returning to work at 6:45 a.m. Wednesday morning after ratifying a deal to end their strike the day before. They had walked off the job on Sept. 21.

Denis Blais, who works as an actor at the Museum of Civilization, said he was eager to get back into costume.

"This spirit that animates us will be translated in the work place becuase we have this new strength," he said. "And we know many other people that we didn't know prior to the strike."

Drop in visitors

The two museums remained open, but saw a 20 to 25 per cent drop in visitors during the dispute.

"And they did really, really respectably," Rabinovitch said. "But the larger amount of work that's done when you have the employees on site makes a big difference."

Management has been preparing for employees' return for several weeks, he said, but it will take some time for returning staff such as exhibit designers and archivists to have a look at the backlog of work and the museum's planning needs, then set priorities for the new year.

In the meantime, the museum plans to step up advertising to encourage visitors to come back, especially over the Christmas holidays.

Rabinovitch said revenues at the museums were down "somewhat" as a result of the strike, but expenses have been under control.

During the strike, some of the other museums in the Ottawa region, including the Science and Technology museum and the National Gallery of Canada, saw more visitors than usual.