After a year featuring increases in visits and revenue, Powell River Historical Museum and Archives Society is preparing for another successful 12 months.
At the City of Powell River’s Thursday, January 15, finance committee meeting, Bert Finnamore, the museum’s heritage manager, made a request for the city’s contribution to operating funds.
The museum’s budget for 2015 is $237,000. Finnamore said the museum is asking $103,000 in actual dollars from the city and $34,000 in in-kind support, for a total equivalent of $137,000. The museum is also requesting $38,000 from Powell River Regional District to assist with operations.
In terms of real money, the museum is requesting a 1.5 per cent increase over the previous year, according to Finnamore. He said the museum is asking for a big in-kind increase in rent relief in 2015 and that pertains to the forestry museum building, which was taken over by the museum in 2014. Typically, the museum has requested $26,000 in in-kind donation, but the museum now manages the assets at the seashore forestry museum site.
Mayor Dave Formosa said the museum is “near and dear” to his heart. “I have this vision of getting a facility that is larger,” he said. “There is so much in storage. At one point we looked seriously at the main floor of the mill offices.
“Money is an issue for us here in Powell River. We are in a great location and we have to take advantage of that. I don’t think moving is a good idea. We have the forestry museum down at the beach and the beach trail. What I would like to see is the two buildings connected.”
He said School District 47’s carpentry program is always looking for a project. He said there may be provision for volunteers to do some work.
“I’d love to see a committee started,” he said.
Finnamore agreed that the museum is situated at a great site and he likes the idea of connecting the buildings. He added that he’d like to see it as part of an overall heritage plan.
Formosa said it’s something he’d be willing to work on over the next four years of this council’s mandate. Finnamore said he’d take the matter to the museum board.
During his presentation, Finnamore said the museum preserves the history of the region, its culture and its people.
“We do that in this museum in three ways,” Finnamore said. “We collect objects, we have archives and we have archeology collections.
“We have about 8,000 objects, we have archives with 175,000 photos, with 2,500 on the web and going back 110 years. The photo collection is unbelievably good.”
Finnamore said the museum should reflect all of the cultures in the region. He said museums have something called intangible heritage, which include things like folk songs, medicinal remedies, songs, dances and various celebrations. They can also be involved in historical sites.
“In the Townsite, for instance, we have blueprints of nearly every house in town. We have 600 or 700 blueprints of the mill, circa 1910.”
Finnamore said the museum presents the story of Powell River to visitors.
“Museums have a function for local residents of storing history and they have a function of exhibiting and telling the story of our region.”
Finnamore said when he first appeared before councillors, soon after he was hired a year ago, he said that new for 2014 was a gift shop and free WiFi, that the museum would be open every day and there would be artists in residence.
The first and most significant figure from the past year was admissions, Finnamore added.
“In 2014 our admissions were up over 60 per cent,” he said.
With tourist visits, there were three very strong months way up over the previous year. There was a 51 per cent increase in resident attendance over 2013 and for tourists, there was an “astounding increase” of 72 per cent. Comparing the US dollar to Canadian currency, money was at par in 2013 and the exchange rate dropped to 90 cents last year.
“That means this year could be one of the best years on record,” he said.
In terms of revenue, donations were up significantly in 2014 because those at the museum are getting better at talking to customers and not being shy about telling them what is done with donations.
This past year there was income from the gift shop and sales of pictures. The gift shop made up 20 per cent of revenue and the sale of photos comprised 11 per cent.
“So 30 per cent of our revenue was new this year,” Finnamore said. Museum revenue totalled $6,693 from all sources.
