14 May 2008
Controversy over Vancouver museum plans
BY Caroline Wilkinson
A major row has broken out between the City Council of Vancouver in Canada and the Vancouver Maritime Museum Society (VMMS) over the planned closure of the Vancouver Maritime Museum by the city in 2009.
The museum could potentially be replaced by a larger, $80m (£40m) National Maritime Centre (NMC) on North Vancouver’s waterfront if funding can be agreed, but the new museum is not likely to be open in time for the closure of the old, meaning Vancouver could be without a museum during the 2010 winter Olympics.
The existing museum houses more than $14m (£7m) worth of marine artefacts, including the Royal Canadian Mounted Police’s Arctic schooner St Roch, the first ship to circumnavigate North America and journey through the Northwest Passage.
The VMMS has voiced serious concerns about the relocation, saying the transition between locations will endanger the St Roch and that the timing of the closure – being so near to the Winter Olympics – makes little sense, because staying open would boost profits.
Consultants Commonwealth Historic Resource Management will carry out an appraisal of the museum’s 35,000 artefacts, 20,000-book library and 114,000-document archive to filter out anything that isn’t considered historically significant in advance of a closure or relocation.
The old museum will close to the public at the end of 2009 with complete closure by 2010, regardless of the status of the new facility.
Close Window