Museum aims to build an aviation adventure
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This article was published 07/08/2019 (2301 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
The Royal Aviation Museum of Western Canada is soaring to new heights thanks to an influx of support from the federal government.
The Government of Canada announced on July 23 that it would contribute $8.8 million in funding towards a major project which includes the construction of a new two-storey building to house the museum’s current and future artifacts.
The feds have already contributed $1.2 million towards the project for a total of $10 million, and the provincial government has also put in $10 million. In addition, the community has raised $15 million, for a total of $35 million towards the $45-million project. The existing $35 million will cover the costs to construct the building, which has already been designed. Another $5 million will go towards the exhibits and visitor experience, and the final $5 million will be used to create an endowment fund through the Winnipeg Foundation. This endowment fund is expected to create about $250,000 per year in revenue to help with the long-term sustainability of the museum.
President and chief executive officer Terry Slobodian envisions the creation of an aviation adventure.
“The early pioneers of aviation were adventurers in and of themselves. They were innovators. They were going places that no one had ever been before. They charted routes that we still follow today that connect Canada from coast to coast to coast,” he said.
“So through the aviation adventure, we’re going to inspire people through the stories of the adventurous spirit of those early pioneers.”
Likewise, the founders of the aviation museum were adventurers themselves, Slobodian added.
“They would go to the bottoms of lakes and find historic aircraft and they would go up sides of mountains and drag these things back,” he said. “They would spend years and years restoring those planes, so we also want to tell the story of that in imaginative and inspiring ways.”
Slobodian also anticipates that the experience will be unforgettable for visitors.
“We want to create aviation experiences in our museum that people will remember for the rest of their lives and they’ll want to bring their friends,” he said. “It’s going to be a signature facility similar to the Canadian Museum for Human Rights in the sense that it’s going to bring pride to Manitobans.”
The 86,000-square-foot building will be located minutes away from the James Armstrong Richardson International Airport on the Winnipeg Airports Authority’s campus on Wellington Avenue.
“It’s going to be at the gateway of the airport, so everybody’s going to go by it and say, ‘Wow, that’s a beautiful, inspiring building,’” he said. “Through the glass as they drive by, they’ll be able to see airplanes hanging from the ceiling and they’re going to want to come back. I think it’s going to be a source of pride for Manitobans for decades to come.”
The former location for the museum closed in October 2018, and the new facility is expected to open in 2021.
“The good news is we have our location and all of our funding to get started with the project and to complete it,” Slobodian said. “This museum is going to have much more interactivity and innovations to enjoy.”