Heritage Blues Back on Agenda

Letters to the Editor (The Guardian) as Published on December 02, 2013

Editor: As a former board member and chair of the Museum and Heritage Foundation I was saddened but not surprised by the frustration expressed by current chair Harry Kielly over the total lack of progress in the continuing saga of a possible provincial museum for the Island.

P.E.I. remains the only province without such a provincial resource, which is massively ironic coming on the heels of the burst of heritage projects under the 2014 celebration boondoggle. Surely in a province where our natural and human history is billed a core value and attraction for visitors, this makes little sense. We will be left after 2014 with a bad taste in our mouths and a stack of receipts for less than memorable events with no lasting legacy. How sad.

It did not have to be this way. Back before 2001 when Founders Hall was being funded with $4 million in public money, many of us argued that “Flounders Hall” would have a short shelf life and become a cultural white elephant in a few years. Of course this proved to be the case.

Fewer than 8,000 visitors paid the $9.50 admission fee and the place lost $50,000 for the Harbour Authority which inherited the faded attraction. It’s a cheap but irresistible shot to say “We told you so.”

We were left with a beautifully restored and refurbished building, the 1906 CN rail car shop in what is probably the premier location in the province. At least that legacy was lasting. It is now up for grabs, looking for a new owner and purpose. It is not a perfect building for a provincial museum, but it is very, very good one. With some careful and creative thought, it could be a wonderful and real legacy post 2014.

Of course money is tight and one can’t argue really with updating hospitals and computer software to at least get into this century technologically, but could we not commit in 2014 to seeing this beautiful building as part of the solution in the future? It was a plank in the government’s platform, if anyone has a memory. Let’s see if we can get it back on the agenda.

Andy Robb,

Mermaid

Point of View -- Thursday Feb 22, 2007

Point of View hosted by Terry Allen will be a replay of the Tuesday show on the Provincial Museum system. Terry's guests are Ian Scott, former Executive Director of the PEI Museum & Heritage Foundation and Andy Robb, former Chair of the Board of Governors.

Broadcast on Cable 10 the show airs between 8 and 9 pm.

"The directors and professional staff of the Museum and Heritage Foundation are being placed in a troubling position at a crucial moment"

by - Andy Robb

Professor Emeritus of History and former Chair of the PEI MHF.

to Island Morning -- Good morning:

As a friend and former Board Chair of the PEI Museum and Heritage Foundation, I must express my dismay after hearing the Premier's thoughts on locating the Provincial Collection in a new store-front artifactory in Murray River. I'm afraid that the longer-term need to develop a coherent vision on the place of heritage and cultural tourism on the Island is falling victim to very short-sighted opportunism.

The directors and professional staff of the Museum and Heritage Foundation are being placed in a troubling position at a crucial moment. They have an overriding responsibilty to safeguard the Provincial Collection of 80,000 plus artifacts, but are being told that the only way to get new and safer housing for the collection is to move it all to Murray River from the admitedly inadequate building where it is now located. This can only stretch very limited human and financial resources even tighter, and very likely provide less fire protection for the collection. The decision also gives the new and distinguished Executive Director of the Museum and Heritage Foundation much less room to manouevre in terms of planning for the next few decades. The deal is "take it or leave it"--a classic lose-lose position if ever there was one. Murray River gets little or no meaningful development, the Museum is weakened, and a coherent cultural tourism and heritage policy doesn't seem to be on the government's agenda.

Vision seems to in short supply these days.