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Museum move underway in Williams Lake

Physically moving contents of the Museum of the Cariboo Chilcotin to the Tourism Discovery Centre (TDC) got underway Wednesday morning under the direction of a conservation company from Surrey.
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Physically moving contents of the Museum of the Cariboo Chilcotin to the Tourism Discovery Centre (TDC) got underway Wednesday morning under the direction of a conservation company from Surrey.

In May the city sold the land the museum sits on to make way for a new 72-bed residential care centre and the building needs to be vacant for demolition by July 4.

“We are starting with museum event related materials that will go into a 20-foot storage container and some of the larger shelving that will go to the TDC,” said Tara Fraser, conservator with Fraser/Spafford Ricci Art and Archival Conservation Inc., the company hired by the city to facilitate the move.

Fraser was in the lakecity earlier in May to meet with the museum and the city so she could develop a plan for storage design.

She was back by Monday, May 29 to start developing the move and her three-member team arrived two days later.

“The building has to be vacant and empty by July 4 so it’s a huge job,” Fraser said. “It all boils down to the timeline in the sense we did not have time for a pre-move.”

Normally when a museum or a cultural institution is being moved, three to five years is spent determining storage requirements, planning the inventory, and a year for packing alone.

In this case it’s being done in three to five weeks.

“Most museums have 80 per cent of their artifacts in storage and 20 per cent on display,” she said. “It’s the other way around here.”

Crediting the City and the TDC for being very helpful, Fraser said everyone is co-operating to ensure the safety of the objects is foremost.

The TDC has made alterations on the main floor so the museum can have an exhibit space. In the unfinished basement, interior walls, shelving and security and motion detectors have been installed for artifact storage.

“It’s dry and it’s a great enclosed environment down there for us,” Fraser said of the basement area. “They are really trying to accommodate our specifications as best they can.”

Time and space are the enemies, she said, noting the challenge is to determine what order things should go in, how they should be packed and where they should go.

“I see my job as the ensuring the safety of the collection during the packing, the move, and the unpacking, and during the temporary storage and exhibit it will enjoy at the TDC,” Fraser said. “I am having to decide that some things might be OK packed a certain way to go into storage for three to five years, but I am laying awake at night thinking about it. I know the alternative is unacceptable because the building will be vacated and would be treated like a house move, not a museum move if they had not brought somebody in like us.”

Sarah Spafford Ricci and Fraser grew up in Saskatchewan, working with small museums, and have soft place in their hearts for community museums like Williams Lake’s.

“Whenever we get the chance, it’s something we want to do,” Fraser said. “A lot of conservators aren’t in a position to be able to bring this many people up with them to work. It’s a good experience for my staff.”

Jerry Prosofsky who owns Blakes Moving, the company hired to move the artifacts, said it is the first time his company has moved a museum.

“We’ve got four guys here this morning,” Prosofsky said.

At Tuesday evening’s regular meeting, city council received a letter from the Museum of the Cariboo Chilcotin Society asking city council to pass a resolution noting the move to the TDC is a temporary situation and that a new museum will be built as soon as possible within the next five years.

Mayor Walt Cobb, Councillors Craig Smith, Laurie Walters, Scott Nelson and Ivan Bonnell approved receipt of the letter, while Jason Ryll and Sue Zacharias were absent.

In response to the letter, council also unanimously approved a report prepared by chief administrative officer Milo MacDonald.

The report notes council is committed to support a referendum process led by the museum society for a new museum, that the society be reminded of its vital role in public relations that a referendum would entail and a reminder that all community needs are weighted against one another, and against available funds.

“In the absence of any information about what such a facility might cost it is impossible to make a commitment to undertake a capital project,” MacDonald’s report noted, adding that in the event of a failed referendum for the construction of a new museum, the TDC could become a much longer term accommodation for the museum.



Monica Lamb-Yorski

About the Author: Monica Lamb-Yorski

A B.C. gal, I was born in Alert Bay, raised in Nelson, graduated from the University of Winnipeg, and wrote my first-ever article for the Prince Rupert Daily News.
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