Province’s seven signature museums to share $166,600 in grants

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This article was published 20/09/2021 (1505 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Some of Manitoba’s museums are about to get a little more wind beneath their wings.

On Monday, at a news conference at the Royal Aviation Museum of Western Canada, Manitoba Premier Kelvin Goertzen, along with provincial Heritage Minister Cathy Cox and co-chairs of the Manitoba 150 host committee, announced $166,600 in grants to be spread among the province’s seven signature museums.

The grants, one of the legacy projects of the pandemic-dampened Manitoba 150 sesquicentennial celebrations, will see each museum receive $23,800, money that can be used for things such as improving facilities and exhibits, or upgrading programming for youth.

“It’ll support their efforts as they continue to ensure that our history… is preserved in Manitoba and shared for generations to come,” Goertzen said. “It’s one of many things that Manitoba 150 has been a part of, that people are going to benefit from for many many years… hopefully to Manitoba 300.”

Manitoba 150 host committee co-chair Monique Lacoste said the organization is “thrilled” make the investment.

“When we started planning Manitoba 150 well over two years ago now, we wanted to cultivate a new pride within Manitobans, and give them a new opportunity to celebrate, to build, to learn and to explore all the great things that Manitoba offers,” Lacoste said.

“All of these things are what the Aviation Museum, and all of Manitoba’s signature museums do every single day.”

The seven signature museums are dotted across southern Manitoba, and represent many facets of the province’s natural and human history. They include Gimli’s New Iceland Heritage Museum, the Manitoba Agricultural Museum in Austin, the Mennonite Heritage Village in Steinbach and Morden’s Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre.

In Brandon, the Commonwealth Air Training Plan Museum is one of the signature facilities, and there are two more in Winnipeg: Le Musée de Saint-Boniface Museum and the Royal Aviation Museum of Western Canada. The latter is set to open the doors to its gleaming new $45-million Wellington Avenue facility next March.

The pandemic has challenged these museums, Goertzen noted, as it has many public attractions in the province.

“They haven’t been able to welcome as many people as they would have liked to,” he said. “But they have continued on, and they’ve continued to build their individual museums and institutions, because they know that in days ahead they will be able to share them with more people from around the world.”

The new grant comes a little more than a year after the province launched a $1.4-million endowment fund for each of the signature museums, designed to support them with long-term funding. The signature museum program was launched in 1998.

melissa.martin@freepress.mb.ca