Its's time for others to step up and help the province find a suitable site.
- published by The Guardian Oct. 6, 2006 - Guest Opinion by Edward MacDonald
I once joked that when it came to heritage issues I was an archivist, not an activist. Historians, after all, need a certain distance from their subjects. But as someone who once had the privilege of working for the provincial museum system, and who cares deeply about this Island and its heritage, I find I must speak out about the proposed location for the PEI Museum and Heritage Foundation’s new collections storage facility.
I want to begin by applauding the current government for at last seizing the nettle on this issue. The existing collections facility, a converted bus garage, was never more than a makeshift solution to the pressing problem of where to store and conserve the thousands of objects entrusted to the Museum & Foundation’s care. It is now many years since it became woefully inadequate for that purpose. A new, purpose-built storage facility is desperately needed and it must be built soon.
Having stated that, it makes no sense whatever to locate the new “Artifactory” in Murray River. It pains me to write this. I was born and raised in rural King’s County, I love it still, and I strongly believe that we must find ways to make rural communities sustainable. But to construct a museum storage facility in one corner of the province will not help the PEI Museum function effectively with its small staff and even smaller resources, nor will it make any meaningful contribution to the local economy of southeastern King’s County.
Why shouldn’t the new Artifactory be in Murray River? Doesn’t it have as much right as anyplace else? Well, let’s look at the benefits for Murray River. A collections facility is essentially a high-tech warehouse that maintains the proper environment needed to preserve fragile antiques. This particular one is customarily operated by three permanent employees, and, depending on the funding programs, one to four summer students. Thus, having it in Murray River will not create new jobs, nor will it result in a significant transfer of jobs to the community. The new facility will not be a museum, and as far as I’ve been able to determine, it will not include an exhibition gallery. And so, it seems unlikely that it will attract tourists, schoolchildren or even locals to the storefront businesses that might open in conjunction with its construction. In other words, other than the expense of its actual construction, it will contribute virtually nothing to the economic development of this part of the Island. If it did, an argument might well be made in favour of locating the storage facility in Murray River, in spite of how poorly its location would serve the rest of the PEI museum system.
Indeed, what benefits does the Murray River location offer to the PEI Museum and the larger cause of Island heritage? Obviously, secure and environmentally safe storage for a valuable collection is the answer. But that just means the province desperately needs a new collections facility. It is no argument for any specific location unless the whole project hinges financially on the choice of a particular site. I cannot comment on that, but, clearly, the Murray River location will not make it easier nor more efficient to serve the Island’s heritage needs. The PEI Museum & Heritage Foundation is a de-centralized museum system with seven sites. These are Orwell Corner Historic Village in Orwell, Basin Head Fisheries Museum in Kingsboro, Beaconsfield Historic House in Charlottetown, Eptek National Exhibition Centre in Summerside, the Acadian Museum in Miscouche, and Green Park Shipbuilding Museum and Historic Yeo House near Tyne Valley. There is no central “museum” building where the human and natural heritage of the province is explored in any unified way, but each site captures a valuable fragment of the Island’s past. There are over 80,000 artifacts in the provincial collection, held in trust for the people of PEI, past, present, and future. Various objects from the provincial collection are on permanent display at these museums. But since some of the sites operate only seasonally, even these permanent displays may end up in storage in winter. Several of the sites also have space for temporary exhibits, and so, depending on staffing, scheduling, and finances, other objects from the Provincial Collection are periodically taken from storage and put on display. Of these seven sites, only Orwell Corner could be described as “close” to Murray River. Moving artifacts or staff from a collections facility in Murray River to any other site would require considerably greater travel than if a central location were chosen. Distance adds time and expense to the critical role of serving the PEI Museum’s seven sites. Yes, distance is relative; PEI is not Ontario or Alberta. But neither does PEI have the resources of Ontario or Alberta, especially when it comes to heritage. And when the benefit to Murray River will be so minimal, what good will it serve?
The difficulty of a non-central location is compounded by questions surrounding human resources. The whole concept of a de-centralized museum system is predicated on the existence of a core staff which provides support, expertise, and/or direction to the various sites and to the Island population at large. To put the collections facility in a non-central location will only isolate and divide an already painfully small core staff by putting three of them in Murray River while leaving the rest in Charlottetown, at Beaconsfield Historic House. Yes, there is e-mail and the telephone, but that is a sorry substitute for a cadre of complementary staff working in proximity to one another, pooling resources and ideas to serve the public, the sites, and the many local museums and heritage organizations scattered across the province. A creative pooling of minds and resources is essential in a cash-strapped province with many so many claims on its budget. The PEI Museum & Heritage Foundation, the Community Museums Association, Holland College, the Provincial Archives, and the University of PEI are all institutions that could be doing more together to preserve and interpret our heritage for the benefit of Islanders and visitors. Physically moving key museum staff to Murray River will not help this to happen.
We cannot live in the past, but the future is built on it, whether we realize it or not. The Provincial Government is trying to do the right thing in constructing a proper facility for its provincial museum. At the same time, it is struggling to find ways to sustain rural PEI. But those two laudable objectives do not intersect in Murray River. A more suitable site in a more central location is needed, and it is time for other jurisdictions and other agencies to step up and help the Province to find one.
Dr. Edward MacDonald is ex-curator of history and collections at the PEI Museum and Heritage Foundation and is associate professor of history at the University of Prince Edward Island.
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