What role for Island museums?

Heritage - THE FUTURE OF OUR PAST
by MONICA MACDONALD
as published in The Guardian - Feb 18, 2008

This is the second in a series of three articles meant to encourage and inform public participation in the Island Heritage Study commissioned by the provincial government. As part of the study, public meetings conducted by The IRIS Group are currently underway.

In museum circles everywhere there is always some big controversy but the fact is, most museum professionals can only hope for controversy - at least it gets public attention. In Prince Edward Island, that happened last year when the then-government announced that the main collection of provincial museum artifacts kept in the 'artifactory' in West Royalty would be moved to a new building in Murray River. Few expected the outpouring of disbelief, protest and downright vitriol that followed. Some supported the move. Others were surprised to learn that we even have a provincial museum with an artifact collection.

The traditional role of museums in general has been to preserve and protect the heritage resources entrusted to them, to conduct research on those resources or on topics related to them, and to disseminate the results through exhibition, publication and other modes of public education. While for most institutions these basic functions remain valid, museum environments and best practices are changing. In many facilities spaces now exist for school groups and children's activities as well as for community gatherings and special events. Exhibits are increasingly interactive and 'hands-on', involving the visitor in the learning process. Museums display 'visible storage' of artifact collections, which in past years were inaccessible to the public. Museum curators are more consultative with outside scholars and community groups, and their exhibit texts now often question previous assumptions as much as offer explanations.

Museums in Prince Edward Island include community-based sites like the Garden of the Gulf Museum in Montague, the Sir Andrew Macphail Homestead in Orwell Corner and the Lennox Island Mi'kmaq Cultural Centre. Most of these are run by dedicated volunteers and supported in very small part by a provincial government grant program. Island museums also include those seven under the auspices of the provincial government-supported Museum and Heritage Foundation. All, including the Confederation Centre Art Gallery (supported by a mix of federal and provincial funds) but not including the national historic sites run by Parks Canada, hold membership in the Community Museums Association of P.E.I. The primary goal of this non-profit group is to help raise museum standards through training and other support services.

The provincial museum system on the Island began in 1970 with the founding of the Heritage Foundation. In 1973, federal funds connected to the centennial established its headquarters at Beaconsfield, a historic house in downtown Charlottetown, as well as the first of the branch sites at Green Park (shipbuilding), Orwell Corner (historic village) and Basin Head (fisheries). The four together formed the basis of the current decentralized 'family' of seven.

Of these seven, like most of the other 30 or so museums Islandwide, four are seasonal - only Beaconsfield in Charlottetown, the Eptek Centre in Summerside and the Acadian Museum in Miscouche are open year-round. The latter two occasionally produce in-house exhibits or accept travelling exhibits to supplement their permanent displays, but the museum experience at Beaconsfield is limited. In addition to restricted hours during the school year, its period rooms are static. They do not present much opportunity for the diverse educational activities that are key to the mandates of provincial museum sites in off-Island urban centers. In the P.E.I. provincial museum system overall, also limited is the number of professional staff which in turn, affects the research, exhibition and publication output. Given this fact, efforts in public outreach like The Island Magazine are commendable.

Provincial museum systems elsewhere in Atlantic Canada present different models. With 27 sites Nova Scotia also has a decentralized system, but with a strong presence in Halifax of the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic and the Museum of Natural History, as well as substantial operations elsewhere like in Stellarton and Parrsboro. The New Brunswick Museum has one complex, in Saint John: an older building housing the head office, collections and archives/library, and a new set of galleries for exhibits and public programs that opened in a separate location in the city in 1996. In St. John's, there's The Rooms. With an architectural design inspired by the communal fish-processing rooms of Newfoundland fishing families, The Rooms opened to great fanfare in 2005. Its buildings contain the provincial archives, art gallery, and museum, with three regional satellite museums - one in Grand Bank and two in Grand Falls-Windsor.

In all of the above jurisdictions, museums are an important part of heritage policy. In Prince Edward Island we have a good foundation but what emerged at the public meetings held over the artifactory issue last year is that people want more. The devil, however, is in the details.

Dr. Monica MacDonald is an adjunct professor in Canadian Studies at UPEI and an associate of The IRIS Group, an Island company specializing in public policy research. More information on the Island Heritage Study and the public meetings is available at http://islandheritagestudy.wordpress.com

The third article in this series on Monday, Feb. 25 will look at some existing heritage policies.