Museum finding its feet after losing building

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 31/12/2010 (5385 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The day the Costume Museum of Canada closed the doors of its Pacific Avenue location for the final time, Trudy Hansford felt like she’d lost a child.

It was 2009 and Hansford — who lives in St. Vital — had been volunteering since the 1980s at the museum, which has a collection of more than 35,000 items of vintage fashion.

But the museum began to struggle financially and eventually its board of directors stopped paying rent, Hansford said.

Though Manitoba Culture, Heritage and Tourism stepped in with emergency funding to save the museum from bankruptcy, she recalled, the museum lost its building.

And so — 56 years after the museum got its start in Dugald, Man. and only three years since the collection was moved to its Winnipeg location — the Costume Museum of Canada found itself out of a home.

“It was horrible,” said Hansford, who was there the last day, packing the last of the collection into boxes.
But although the museum doesn’t have a physical presence anymore, it is still very much alive, according to its current board of directors.

In April of 2009, the month after the museum shut its doors, the board of directors was reformed with new members — including Hansford and Jo Ann Greisman, who lives in Osborne Village.

The collection had already been stored in four separate collections across the city, and the new board set out with four goals to keep the museum breathing.

The first was to sort out the museum’s financial affairs, and Hansford said those efforts are already well underway. The debt incurred from unpaid rent was scheduled to be paid off by the end of 2010.

The second goal — to earn back the museum’s federal charitable status after it was lost during its financial troubles — was accomplished in November, Greisman added.

“That was a really big boost because it gives you credibility,” she explained. “Somebody else believes in us as well.”

The third goal was to preserve the museum’s collection so that — when the time was ready — it could be displayed again in a new space.

And the final goal was to maintain three key museum programs: its traveling exhibits; its Museum in a Suitcase program for schools; and its heritage fashion reviews — vintage fashion shows featuring replicas of garments from the museum’s collection.

Greisman said the museum is flourishing in terms of maintaining programming.

“We can keep the museum alive with these three programs,” she said.

The museum has held a number of its fashion reviews in recent months and in January will add a new exhibit for its school program — this one focusing on furs.

As for the traveling exhibits, 45 pieces from the museum’s collection are in the U.S. for an exhibit by the Florida Institute of Technology’s Ruth Funk Centre for Textile Arts.

The exhibit, called Uncommon Threads: Little Black Dress, is set to open in January.

Hansford added these programs are important to maintain awareness that — even though the museum no longer has a physical location — it hasn’t ceased operations.

“You have to find your little niche, and find how to keep in the public eye,” she said.

But Greisman is concerned that without an actual building, people will forget the museum exists.

“There’s always that risk. I think a lot of people already think it’s a done deal,” she said.

Hansford added that with the board making progress on its original four goals, it’s starting to look at new priorities.

While the goal is to eventually have a space to call their own again, a more immediate priority is to find a single storage space for the entire collection.

With the collection spread out amongst four different storage location, Hansford explained, it can be hard to pull the material together for new exhibits.

Greisman added the museum’s finances are still tight and she hopes someone will come forward with a space large enough for the whole collection, and compassion for the museum’s current situation.

“We’re looking for that one angel who is happy to have us and won’t charge us,” she said.

To get in touch with the Canadian Costume Museum, call 989-0072.

arielle.godbout@canstarnews.com