Boissevain-Morton already administers the Goodon International Wildlife Museum, the train museum, and as Swanson stated, they will soon be taking over the Moncur Gallery. All of those are housed in the Wildlife building by Tommy Turtle along Mill Road, while Beckoning Hills is further north on the same street. She said it is important that the community protect its history, but they were not sure the best way to do it. This is why the informal meeting was held.
“Any ideas you have, let’s put them on the table now and go from there.”
There were around 20 people at the meeting, which Swanson said was a surprise. Apart from a hog barn meeting, they do not often see such a response. She said it showed there was an interest in the museum, which would be borne out by what followed.
The budget showed the facility ran a $4,615 operating deficit in a year it did not open, with $9,600 in red ink predicted in 2024. This brought forward concern from some participants, including Councillor Rhonda Coupland, who worried taxpayers would not want to spend a ton of money on every museum. A counter was that some things are services, and are worth the involvement of the taxpayer, like others such as beautification.
Many of the artifacts in Beckoning Hills are from a long time ago, starting with the pioneer era. Although interesting, some at the meeting mentioned it is not necessarily what will grab a younger generation, the people who will keep the facility alive in the future.
Brandt Bessant mentioned he had visited a museum this year in southern Ontario where they had a 1970’s television room where Mr. Dressup was playing. There were other themed rooms from different eras even more recent. It brought forward the idea history is not all ancient, but instead growing continually
“The collection of stuff that is 140 years old should stay there, but there is more to the story,” he said.
One of the big issues is space. As longtime volunteer Don Voodre explained, they have duplicates of some items like typewriters, and the building is full of many donations. A few years ago, they did some serious cleaning up, and discovered some items they did not think they had. There is some room to expand the building, but that will only help to some degree. There is a definite need to do some serious downsizing in the future.
An idea was to move some of the items around the community. Swanson said the old bear den in the Wildlife Museum now has space, as the bears have been moved around. Perhaps some artifacts could be housed as a separate display there, although there is not room for the whole collection. As well, some pieces could be taken to relevant businesses in the community, as “teasers” to make people interested in visiting the museum proper.
Another key is attracting volunteers to keep the building open. There were strong ideas about using technology to help interest people in the collection. For example, Don Engbrecht felt an app would build the attention of younger people, and David M. Neufeld spoke of short films highlighting artifacts. However, if the building were open to the public, someone would need to be there. Although an idea of having a paid person to build the enthusiasm of volunteers was brought forward, again the financial side makes that questionable. Perhaps shorter hours would help, or focusing more on calling volunteers in to do tours for school groups or visitors as needed.
Overall, it was obvious most in attendance wanted the museum to reopen, and remain in the community in some form. As Councillor Eric Reichert stated, it is local history and should be preserved.
When people were asked if they were interested in helping resurrect the museum, many in attendance volunteered on some level. As Swanson said, there was a definite need to cull the collection, picking out the 1,200 salt and pepper shakers as an example. This will be a tough job, but luckily the previous board and volunteers itemized everything. It was one of the uniting principles of the meeting, however, that this needed to be done.
They were able to create a preliminary committee, headed by Ken Dixon and Sandra Pearce. The effort was open to others who did not attend the meeting and they would meet to continue the process into the future. Swanson was happy with the results of the meeting.
“This is a turning point,” the head of council stated. “It is an opportunity to make it into something different. We got some valuable information tonight. I think this is a good start.”
by PAUL RAYNER, Recorder staff