Brown calls for Decision on Provincial Museum

As published on the campaign website of Philip Brown - candidate for mayor of Charlottetown 2010

Charlottetown, August 23, 2010 — Charlottetown mayoral candidate Philip Brown says there is no better time than the present to establish the proposed provincial museum in Charlottetown.

“It is time for governments at all levels to come together and move forward on this initiative,” said Mr. Brown. “The studies have been done, the options have been identified and it is time to make a decision to finally establish a provincial museum in Charlottetown, the provincial capital.”

Mr. Brown said that Prince Edward Island is the only province in Canada without a provincial museum, and its establishment would help to interpret the history, heritage and culture of the province. He said it would also be a major attraction for visitors to the province, citing a recent study by the Tourism Research Centre at the University of Prince Edward Island which found 91 percent of visitors to the province visited a historic site, art gallery or museum.

“A provincial museum would not only fill a void in the province’s cultural landscape, it would also result in significant economic and educational benefits,” said Mr. Brown. “As mayor, I would work closely with the federal and provincial governments to secure an immediate start to this project in Charlottetown which would complement the historic character of the city and become a source of pride for all Islanders.”

Mr Brown said he would like to see the project completed by 2014, the 150th anniversary of the Charlottetown Conference.

Mr. Brown said the recent sale of the Dominion Building offers one interesting possibility as a location, although he would not rule out other sites within the city.

“I am very concerned that the present city administration has been dragging its feet on the project for too long and has failed to secure a commitment,” said Mr. Brown. “As mayor, I would make this an immediate priority during my first 30 days in office.”

Macphail Homestead open for fall, winter bookings

As published by The Guardian on September 24th, 2010

The provincial Department of Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal has stepped in and filled the oil tank at the Macphail homestead in Orwell. Guardian photo

Islanders are encouraged to consider the historic Macphail Homestead when choosing a venue for fall and winter gatherings, says Tourism and Culture Minister Robert Vessey.

“The Macphail Homestead is an outstanding Island historic site and ecological resource. It is spectacular in the fall and winter and I urge Islanders to continue to use it for special dinners at Thanksgiving and Christmas,” said Vessey.

The minister and area MLA Alan MacIsaac were recently given a guided tour of the site by Macphail chair Mike Oulton.

Oulton reported the homestead was busy over the summer months and there are several good fall bookings, such as an agricultural symposium on Oct. 7.

"The symposium will focus on research and support for Island farmers, as well as sustainable energy projects for the site including micro-hydro, solar and wind turbines," said Vessey.

In June, the provincial government announced a new agreement with the property to allow for a site manager. The province agreed to maintain the buildings and develop a plan to address capital needs.

• photo by Submitted photo">
• photo by Guardian photo">
• View the gallery

“Through the work of the board, the homestead has been transformed and can now be used to its fullest potential,” said Vessey.

“We are extremely pleased with the level of upkeep and support the province has provided over the summer months,” said Oulton. “This has allowed the volunteers to spend productive time planning events for the coming year.”

The Macphail Homestead in Orwell is a historic site and ecological resource located in Uigg, not far from the Orwell Historic Village. More information about programs at the Homestead can be found at http://www.macphailhomestead.ca.

Orwell Corner deserves better

As published by The Guardian on September 23rd, 2010
Editor:

We have been summer visitors to the Island for many years, and each year we look forward to visiting Orwell Corner Historic Village. This is one of the big highlights of our visit. It is sheer magic to visit Orwell – the staff are exceptional and very authentic in their roles and help visitors be transported back in the past to see what the Island was like then, and how Islanders and Lucy Maud Montgomery might have lived in that time. Sitting in the schoolhouse you can imagine Anne Shirley in school.

Unfortunately, it is apparent that over the years funding to Orwell has decreased which shows in the neglect of buildings, the cutbacks in staff and the general disrepair of much of the Orwell Corner site. This is an Island heritage treasure and one of the places that Islanders and visitors go to find the real history of the Island. Children visiting Orwell connect to a living past because it offers a hands-on experience. Museums are great, but children need interactive exhibits to bring history alive for them. In New Brunswick there is King’s Landing and in Nova Scotia, Ross Farm – these appear to get adequate funding to maintain the sites.

I read about your future provincial museum, and while this is an admirable idea, I would ask the government of P.E.I. not to neglect its valuable existing heritage sites. Orwell is a place tourists and visitors seek out for an authentic Island agricultural experience of the past – not available anywhere else. With more advertising and adequate funding Orwell Corner can be a much-sought-out attraction.

The P.E.I. government in the last year has signed a three-year contract with Cirque de Soleil at $250,000 a year and they gave $800,000 for Live! With Regis and Kelly. These investments admittedly bring in more tourists, but a long-term vision for maintaining heritage sites will bring in far more visitors in the long run.

Cultural tourism is the culture of the Island – past, present and future. I hope the government supports this, and gives Orwell Corner Heritage site the finding and support this Island treasure deserves.

Gillian Robinson,

Halifax

Payoff worth the price for provincial museum - Local - News - The Guardian

William Thorsell, former director of the Royal Ontario Museum, and Doug Deacon, sustainable economic development coordinator with the Town of Stratford pose in front of a cruise ship parked in front of the Charlottetown skyline. Thorsell gave a presentation in Stratford last evening. - Guardian photo by Al MacLeod

Payoff worth the price for provincial museum

Published by The Guardian on September 25th, 2010
by Al MacLeod

With the 150th anniversary of Confederation on the horizon in 2014, the call for a provincial museum on P.E.I. is gaining even more steam these days.

The current museum presence on P.E.I. is made up of multiple sites throughout the province, with each focusing on specific subjects like fisheries and shipbuilding.

The provincial Liberal government has been promising a centralized provincial museum since November 2008 and has financed a study into the subject, which concluded with the recommendation one be built by 2013.

The report also said the province’s approach to heritage is somewhat erratic and ignores important topics like women’s history and archaeological sites.

With this in mind, the town of Stratford brought in William Thorsell, the departing director of the Royal Ontario Museum, to talk about the challenges and processes he went through while rebuilding the ROM in Toronto and making it a vital part of both the city and the province during a presentation Thursday at Stratford Town Hall.

Thorsell said there are challenges involved with such an institution but the payoff is well worth the price.

“It’s a challenge because museums are complex creatures that are pretty expensive to build and pretty expensive to run,” Thorsell said.

“Museums are pretty important centres of identity, pleasure and culture.”

Thorsell came on board with the ROM about 10 years ago and saw the museum go through a fair amount of projects and changes that required substantial funds.

He said the museum took on the responsibility of the projects without government involvement and eventually the government asked to be included and subsequently, provided some of the funding.
Within a few years the institution was a vital part of the city and people flock to the museum every year to see the wide variety of exhibits and galleries.
The key to this success was to solicit interest from the community, Thorsell said.
“We had to create a landscape of desire.”
This was done in part by holding a contest for the architectural design of the renovation projects, which proved to be huge and drew the community into the process and got the media’s attention, Thorsell said.
“Don’t underestimate the power of architecture. It’s more than just a container.
“That created a firestorm of interest.”
It was also important the building stand out and the ROM has a unique architectural design that stands out in the city, Thorsell said.
“Cultural industries are supposed to be the ones to take the risk. They’re supposed to be pushing the limits and create a new sense of possible.”
Thorsell had some advice for P.E.I. on the potential location of its proposed museum.
“You have wonderful water, you have a wonderful waterfront,” he said.
“Don’t put it in a parking lot somewhere in the middle of the city.”

P.E.I. museum plans moving ahead: Vessey

As published by CBC News Friday, August 20, 2010 | 1:36 PM AT

see the originating site for reader comments

Comments7

Tourism and Culture Minister Robert Vessey, shown here in a file photo, met with Summerside city council last week to discuss the possibility of locating the museum there. (Province of P.E.I.)

P.E.I. Tourism and Culture Minister Robert Vessey hopes to go to cabinet in the next couple of months with concrete plans for a provincial museum.

A central provincial heritage museum has been a promise of the provincial Liberals since November 2008.

Vessey met with Summerside's city council last week regarding the possibility of a central museum being built there. The museum system on P.E.I. currently includes multiple sites throughout the province, and each one has a narrow focus such as fisheries and shipbuilding.

Vessey said the Summerside meeting was informal and no decision has been made about the new facility's location.

"We're not there yet," he said. "We're just trying to come up with something that is cost efficient. And I'd like to be able to build or have a museum that's right the first time and be done very cost efficient for Islanders."

Too expensive

Vessey said a consultant came back with an estimated price tag of $50-million, which is more than than the Liberals want to pay for a museum.

Summerside city councillor Vance Bridges said he's doubtful that his city is in the running for the new facility, but said a central museum could still have satellite locations.

"I can't imagine the kind of facility that would be needed in only one location to house all the artifacts that are available," he said.

A government-commissioned report in 2008 said that P.E.I.'s approach to heritage is unfocused and ignores subjects including women's history and archaeological sites.

That report recommended a central museum be opened by 2013.

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/prince-edward-island/story/2010/08/20/pei-central-museum-vessey-584.html#ixzz12eMRu3yU

PEI Blue Whale - Ready to Go on Display in BC

News item regarding the journey of a blue whale, from its resting place on Prince Edward Island to become the centrepiece of the new Beaty Biodiversity Museum at UBC in Vancouver.

Video of 1987 - Blue Whale on Prince Edward Island Beach

The Prince Edward Island Blue Whale - 1987

Editors Note: This item by email from David Morrow, an interpreter with Parks Canada at Gros Morne, Newfoundland tells of his student days at Holland College, and the efforts by his class to assist whale researchers with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. The skeleton of this same PEI whale is now the centrepiece of the Beaty Biodiversity Museum at UBC, in Vancouver
----------------

There was a news item yesterday about the blue whale that washed up on Nail Pond beach (near Skinners Pond, western PEI) in 1987.

My Renewable Resource Technology class at Holland College helped researchers from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution do a necropsy on that whale in 1987. It was a 73ft female that had been struck & killed accidentally by a ship (probably at night, near the mouth of the St. Lawrence River). Later, the carcass was buried and a map made showing the burial location.

Many years later, a museum in BC wanted a blue whale skeleton for a new display, so they traveled to PEI to unearth the skeleton. Despite the many years, when they dug up the carcass, much of the soft tissues were still intact (and very smelly) because the whale had been buried in wet sand. The bones were stripped and cleaned and shipped out to BC.

The skeleton has been assembled and mounted for display at the museum. It is the 4th largest skeleton ever displayed and as a blue whale skeleton: the largest animal to have lived on earth (even bigger than the largest dinosaurs!). The news item stated that it will take a month for the adhesives used in mounting the skeleton to dry and set. Then the display will open to the public.

The things I remember best about the necropsy are: the size of the animal (all thirteen members of our class were able to stand on her back with room to spare). The Woods Hole crew had whalers flensing knives, which they used to strip off blubber samples (some toxins get concentrated in fatty tissues) and to open the body cavity for organ collection. When they did this, a gush of putrid gasses rushed out and the smell almost knocked people over!!

Her eyes were very large (dinner plate size), the Woods Hole crowd had collected them and many other tissue samples to see if feeding blue whales were picking up toxins at the St. Lawrence River mouth. I was the only person to have brought chest waders that day, so I was asked to go collect some baleen plates. Her head was out in about 3ft. of water. I had to wade out and walk over her tongue to get at the baleen plates.

There were krill (primary food of blue whales) stuck up in the bristles of baleen! This was part of her last meal! Krill are shrimp-like crustaceans ~1cm-5cm long: it's ironic that the main food of the largest animal to have ever lived on earth is small animal plankton!

There is a great article in a recent Canadian Geographic magazine about the blue whale in Canada. It was a special issue on Canadian wildlife published in Dec 2009.

Dave

A Piece of PEI's Natural Heritage . . . going on display in BC

A natural history treasure - the skeleton of a giant blue whale, which was removed from Prince Edward Island for display in a new centre at the University of British Columbia is nearing completion on its great journey from the sands of PEI to become the centrepiece of the new
Beaty Biodiversity Museum.

Updates from the Blue Whale Project keep track of the progress. The continued progress on the West Coast to ensure that natural history education is available to BC residents helps show the value of this form of education to a research and educational institution like UBC. Sadly their progress once again reminds those of us on the East Coast of our own lack of progress. Islanders have been calling for a natural history museum since 1881. More recently we have seen strong public support for the fulfillment of the natural history mandate of the PEI Museum & Heritage Foundation which was granted in 1983 by the Legislature of PEI - and still not a single employee has been hired. And no plan is in place to begin addressing this mandate.

The Robert Ghiz government was elected on a strong platform that included a commitment to a central provincial museum. While solid progress has been made since on many important issues, the natural history mandate is one that remains untouched. The time to keep sending our valuable artifacts to world class museums around the world is over. The time to tell our story - the story of life on earth - and more particularly life on this very special part of our planet is now.

Birds of Prince Edward Island (1891) by Francis Bain

Now available, thanks to the Internet Archives, the historic Birds of Prince Edward Island : their habits and characteristics (1891) by Francis Bain, as a digital reproduction.

P.E.I. children's museum in planning stages

As published in The Guardian - Feb 1, 2010
CASSANDRA BERNARD
The Guardian

A place for children and their families to go and participate in hands on, educational exhibits may be available to Islanders soon.

The P.E.I. government is funding a study to see if a children’s museum should be considered.
David Keenlyside, executive director of the P.E.I. Museum and Heritage Foundation, is a supporter of the idea. He said anything that provides learning for children is a great idea.

“Research is being done to see if we have the resources to create the centre and to sustain it,” he said.

Keenlyside said meetings are coming up soon to start planning for a provincial museum for Prince Edward Island and a children’s museum is something Islanders should have the opportunity to partake in.

“There has been no proposal yet indicating any direction they want to go in, but I will provide whatever resources I can,” he said.

Keenlyside helped set up the Canadian Children’s Museum in Ottawa in the mid 1980s. The museum includes exhibits about how people live in other countries, a house-building exhibit and a playground based on a international port.

“Anything benefiting children and their families should be supported, but can we afford it is the question. It’s in the works we just need to wait to see what they are asking for. Most children centres are educational centres and were not sure what scale they are going for yet.”
Keenlyside said he doesn’t think the Island is in a position to deny the idea; it should have the best learning environments for the children in whatever form that may take.

“Wherever there is a need, that’s where the focus will be. These centres are extensions to schools and provides things kids get excited about and that’s great,” he said.

“Kids coming with their families makes it more positive. A lot of the visitation is from family members such as parents and grandparents; sometimes they feel intimidated to learn but here they have the opportunity. We want to make it better for Islanders.”

However, Keenlyside cautioned that there are no specific details in the planning of a children’s museum yet.

P.E.I. Museum Collection Running Out of Room

Jason MacNeil, collections manager for the P.E.I. Museum, stands among a tiny portion of the treasures stored at the artifactory. MacNeil says the facility and seven heritage sites across the province are full. Photo special to The Guardian by Charlotte MacAulay

CHARLOTTE MACAULAY Special to The Guardian
as published by The Guardian Dec 30, 2009

The P.E.I. Museum collection is almost full to capacity and soon there will be no room to store more Island treasures, says the museum’s collections manager.

Jason MacNeil said some donations of larger pieces that require a controlled environment will have to be turned away because the artifactory and the seven heritage sites across the Island are full.

“We will survive and do the best we can until we get something better, but the need is getting more and more urgent.”

MacNeil said donations to the P.E.I. collection have increased significantly since the plans to build a new artifactory in Murray River were shut down.

“It keeps us in the minds of people when they are going through Aunt Martha’s attic.”
MacNeil said since renovations in 2007 there are no environmental issues with the facility, but they would do better with more staff.

“That’s just caring for it (the collection); exhibition is a whole different issue.”

A report outlining the costs of a provincial museum commissioned by government was tabled in the provincial legislature Dec. 1. Communities and Cultural Affairs Minister Carolyn Bertram said the report looked at 11 different options.

Bertram said one that brings the P.E.I. Museum all under one roof is the most desirable, yet the most costly at $41 million.

“Our next step is to review all the options and then secure the funding,” she said.

Bertram said if the province were to go with the $41-million option, funding from the other provinces could be a possibility since the Island is the birthplace of Confederation. She said tying the opening to the 150th anniversary of Confederation in 2014 would give the federal government a reason to contribute.

MacNeil said a centrally located museum and storage facility is ideal.

He said an exhibition of the artifacts last year at the Confederation Centre Art Gallery to celebrate 40 years as the P.E.I. Museum and Heritage Foundation displayed a very small fraction of the collection, which houses over 80,000 items.

One option the province is looking at is similar to The Rooms, the provincial museum in Newfoundland, Marketing and development director for the Rooms, Chrysta Collins, said their museum cost $51 million to build.

She said the structure houses public archives, provincial art gallery, exhibit space and environmentally controlled artifact storage. She said people knew something had to be done to preserve the province’s collection.

“There was not a lot of kickback to the cost.”

Construction began in 2002 and with a one-year delay, due to financial constraints, was completed in 2005.

The Rooms has a yearly operating budget of $6 million and with revenues from admission fees and event rentals they break even. Admission fees run from $5-$7.50 with a family rate of $20. The museum operates under the Department of Tourism, Culture and Recreation and is a non-profit Crown corporation.

The Rooms houses an art gallery. P.E.I. would not need an art gallery included in its plans as the Confederation Centre of the Arts is the main gallery for the Island.

Autumn Tremere from the Department of Communities and Cultural Affairs said financial terms regarding the day-to-day operations of a P.E.I. provincial museum can’t be decided on until the museum becomes a reality.

See comments about this article posted by readers on The Guardian site - Dec 30, 2009