Historians want halt on museum development

as published by CBC News - Thursday, February 15, 2007

A group of historians and former museum staff are lobbying for a moratorium on any developments with the provincially run museums on Prince Edward Island.

The group was formed in reaction to plans to build a new $4-million facility to store the province's collection of artifacts in the eastern Island community of Murray River. They worry the province is rushing to replace the current facility, known as the artifactory, without proper planning.

"A number of us are calling on the board to have a study and to look at the whole picture of museum development," said Ian Scott, a former executive director of the museum foundation.

"The only way you can do that is to have a moratorium on new developments until that report is in."

There is little argument that the current artifactory on the outskirts of Charlottetown — a leaky, overcrowded warehouse — needs to be replaced. But with talk the new artifactory could be a tourist attraction, though it is unclear exactly how it would work, the group's 10 members are concerned that a lot of money could be spent without clearly thinking through what's best for the museum system as a whole.

Currently, the P.E.I. Museum and Heritage Foundation operates seven museum sites across the Island, but there is no centralized museum that tells the overall story of the province.

Scott said the group has started a blog to encourage discussion of the artifactory and the future of P.E.I.'s museum system. Some people who've left messages on the blog believe the province should build one central museum, in addition to the seven that already exist.

Premier Pat Binns said he likes the way museums are situated in communities across the Island.

"I'm not so sure that means we should jump to putting everything in one centre," said Binns, "which in my view would threaten the future of our community museums and our de-centralized museum approach."

The Institute of Island Studies at UPEI has also set up a committee and plans to hold consultations on the future of the artifactory and the province's museum system.

The current artifactory is overcrowded.