Considering a Museum for North Grenville

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by Michael Whittaker

A museum for North Grenville has been a recurring conversation for some time. Interest has come from the North Grenville Historical Society, Kemptville College alumni, the principals of the former Bishops Mills Natural History Centre, and individuals.

Unless united and focused, the expressions of goodwill and interest will not see a bona fide, properly funded, and accredited museum arise in our community.

I suggest Council consider a taskforce as was done for affordable housing. The community of North Grenville has people with the capacity and expertise to embody a taskforce to investigate all the prerequisites of developing a viable community museum, and reporting to Council.

The International Conference of Museums defines a museum as “a non-profit, permanent institution in the service of society and its development, open to the public, which acquires, conserves, researches, communicates and exhibits the tangible and intangible heritage of humanity and its environment for the purposes of education, study and enjoyment.”

Artifacts on shelves, hung on walls, or arrayed on floors are collections, not a museum. A museum is more than a building housing objects of historical, scientific, artistic, or cultural interest for exhibition and storage.

An official body studying the pros and cons of a North Grenville Museum offers the best chance of seeing a professional institution built in our community.

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