His grandparents, Diane and Bruce Dale, still live here and donated most of the artifacts.
His mother, who maintains roots despite moving to Atlanta, dropped by the other day and spent 45 minutes strolling down memory lane.
Even Bieber himself, who moved to the U.S. long ago, is a not uncommon sight, occasionally spotted at a local Tim Hortons, by Kastner himself shortly before Christmas.
"I was standing behind him in line," he reports as if it was the most natural thing in the world.
"We talked for a minute or so. He just said thanks a lot for doing it (the exhibit) and then he ordered. He was literally right in front of me."
It's not surprising.
Bieber, who grew up in this riverside city of 31,000 under the loving tutelage of his financially-strapped single mom, is the embodiment of a global expression: "It takes a village to raise a child."
And make no mistake, his entry to the upper echelons of showbiz was far from assured.
As we see in this low-key, but charming exhibit — which highlights pivotal moments in the 23-year-old's pre- and post-fame life — he got his start not onstage at the Stratford Festival's famed Avon theatre, but busking for quarters on its steps.
There's a physical re-creation of these steps, although for reasons that seem endearingly quaint, their shape has been changed from the Avon's expansive semicircle to a constrained rectangle more suited to the museum's limited display area.
On the top step, guitar in hand, is a smiling cardboard cut-out of Bieber — millionaire pop star, King of Twitter — primed for selfies the museum intends to encourage.
"We want people to take photos and share them on social media," notes Kastner. "We wanted an exhibit that would appeal to Millennials."
To place the setting in historical context, a TV screen loops videos of the real Bieber singing his heart out on those famed steps in 2007, when the a 13-year-old's fledgling career needed all the help it could get, and again five years later when — after a slew of hit records made him a global superstar — he recreated the experience in the exact same spot.
"You can't tell the Justin Bieber story without talking about the steps of the Avon Theatre," insists Kastner, equating them with the famous recording studio that kick-started the careers of Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis in the rock and roll '50s.
"The steps of the Avon Theatre are Justin's Sun Studio."
There's a homey affection to this exhibit, which includes everything from fan art and framed awards to his beat-up old laptop, the drum kit presented to the preteen warbler after a community fundraiser, and judges notes from the 2007 Stratford talent contest in which the star-struck 12 year old sang Ne-Yo's "So Sick" and came in second (which means that, at this moment, there is a vocalist from Stratford with even more career potential than Bieber).
Of interest to future historians: The library card on which the youthful owner printed his name in an intriguing mix of upper and lower case letters: "JuSTin BieBer."
"His grandparents are the curators of his life," says Kastner, noting the museum culled about 50 items from a collection of more than 100 pieces.
"From his library card to cross-country ribbons, they kept everything. And they're the most normal, everyday people."
The Bieber exhibit, needless to say, is a bold departure for a modest museum that, until now, has specialized in scholarly displays of Inuit art, Perth county settlements and historical surveys of Stratford's railway line.
"The third weekend of February last year we had about 20 people," laughs Kastner, who says the idea for a Bieber exhibit was suggested by a visiting MP.
"There are no tourists in Stratford before the festival opens in May."
This year will be different, with 1,000 people expected on opening weekend and thousands more expected before the exhibit closes on Dec. 31.
"I was driving along Sunday morning two weeks ago and I heard Ryan Seacrest on American Top 40 talking about it," confides Kastner, taken aback by all the attention.
"I've had calls from People magazine and Billboard, from Italy and Spain. I had a woman tell me 'I'm bringing my daughter down — please tell me this is worth the seven-hour drive from Montreal.'"
He pauses, marvelling at the magnitude: "4,400 news outlets got a digest item and spread the word to 114 million people."
If even half show up for this exhibit, the Stratford Perth Museum — following the path of its fabled favourite son — may find its stature among regional museums rivals Bieber's among pop stars.
If prized artifacts are left poking out of boxes and slumped over tables to maintain its small town charm, even better.
jrubinoff@therecord.com
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