Brandon Sun - PRINT EDITION
The fate of the historic B.J. Hales Collection is still up in the air.
Brandon School Division is weighing its options for the vast collection of birds and mammals native to Manitoba.
Both the International Peace Garden and the Brandon General Museum have expressed interest in displaying the collection, which has been sitting in storage boxes in the basement of Earl Oxford School since 2009. Previously, the division-owned collection was on display at Brandon University for the better part of 65 years but was handed back due to space constraints.
The school division is looking into various options, including splitting the collection between the Peace Garden and BGM. Another option is to enter into an agreement with one facility to become the lead organization for the entire collection, allowing that organization to have options to partner with other museums.
Trustees are also looking at the options of establishing a facility in the division to host and display the collection, or lend the collection to the Peace Garden for one year with the intention of bringing it back to Brandon and looking at a partnership agreement with the BGM and Peace Garden.
Trustee Jim Murray said he would like to see the collection go to the Peace Garden, which has more space and more funding.
“I think that there’s a lot more people that visit the Peace Garden annually ... I think they have an incredible budget,” Murray said, adding the Peace Garden is able to display the entire collection at one time. The BGM would have to store a portion of the collection and rotate the display, due to space constraints.
“The more it is moved around, the greater the chance that items get damaged,” Murray said.
Other trustees, including Doug Karnes and Peter Bartlette favoured a 50/50 split between the two parties.
“I think it would be good to keep it in Brandon as much as possible,” Karnes said.
The collection was assembled between the late 1880s and 1932 by Brandon naturalist B.J. Hales. It also includes geological and archeological artifacts.
A division committee plans to meet with representatives from both the Peace Garden and BGM later this month to view artifacts and continue talks. The topic will be back on the agenda at the Aug. 27 board meeting.
» Brandon Sun
Republished from the Brandon Sun print edition July 10, 2012
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The fate of the historic B.J. Hales Collection is still up in the air.
Brandon School Division is weighing its options for the vast collection of birds and mammals native to Manitoba.
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The fate of the historic B.J. Hales Collection is still up in the air.
Brandon School Division is weighing its options for the vast collection of birds and mammals native to Manitoba.
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