Brandon General Museum and Archives’ funding slashed, faces an uncertain future

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This article was published 31/01/2018 (2964 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The city will provide Brandon General Museum and Archives $40,000 in operational funding this year — half of what it was previously funded.

The money is conditional on a task force being created to determine the best options for the future of the museum.

“This is a transition year for the Brandon museum,” Coun. John LoRegio (Meadows-Waverly) and BGMA board member, said at a recent budget meeting. “We are at the point where we have to decide as a city, where are we going to go?”

The museum, located at 19 Ninth St. in the former Manitoba Telecom Service building, is nearly seven years old. It has struggled to attract support from the community, and has consistently recorded low visitor numbers. A total of 1,092 came through in 2017. The city has provided $80,000 annually for the past several years.

Attendance was going well last year, but then the museum hit a setback when the street was closed due to safety concerns with the historic McKenzie Seeds building across the street.

“Access was cut — we virtually had nobody coming in the building,” LoRegio said. “It’s a creature of the city. It was created by the city. But it’s at the point where (we need to question whether) it is becoming a fiscal monster?”

The museum is home to the original city council chamber furniture, as well as a permanent MTS exhibit, which showcases a number of vintage phones dating back to the early 1900s. The B.J. Hales Collection of Natural History is also on display. It was once housed at Brandon University, but had been boxed up and put in storage for many years. Brandon Hills Model Railway Club is also located at the museum.

Dedicated volunteers make up the BGMA board, including Roberta Baskier, who helps create many of the exhibits.

“I would like to see the support be not under discussion every year,” she said. “And unfortunately because of our location and the age of this building, it costs a fortune to heat it. We pay rent and other museums don’t, so our whole grant is going to go towards those things.”

Board chair Barb Andrew said many local groups take advantage of the museum, such as school tours, service clubs, summer camps, youth activity centre and seniors groups.

“I don’t think there’s another community in Western Canada, that doesn’t have some sort of a museum, telling folks what the history is of the area, and of the city, or community,” she said.

Over the years, there has been talk about changing locations or amalgamating with other museums in Brandon — both issues likely to be tackled by the new task force.

“Our location is not ideal,” Andrew said. “Parking is a big concern and the fact that in order to access with wheelchairs etc., one would have to go through the back alley.”

The museum is in the process of putting up a new exhibit about Dr. Bigelow, a heart surgeon born in Brandon, known for his role in developing the artificial pacemaker and the use of hypothermia in open heart surgery.

The board is looking at an exhibit on the history of community centres in Brandon, as well as the Eaton’s store which was located in Brandon for many years.

Council decided on $40,000 in this year’s budget to keep it going, rather than the typical $80,000 due to the fact that there were some surplus funds built up.

“I’m being brutally honest here … as a board member I’m totally frustrated, and I’m willing to shut the doors down at the end of this calendar year,” LoRegio said during budget deliberations. “This will be the kick in the pants that the museum needs to decide … do we continue with it, do we continue being funded as a city entity, or do we shut the doors?”

The task force will be made up of councillors, board members and citizens. The expectation is that recommendations will come back to council by the fall.

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