Re: Deferred donations and museum renovations



We faced the same situation a few years ago with a similar time line. From the time it was announced that we were getting a new building to the time it opened was only three years.



In 2005 we opened our new, purpose built, facility to house and exhibit our collections and staff. We’d previously occupied two buildings – the museum, originally built as the national archive in 1909, and our warehouse, built as a streetcar barn in 1927.



In order to open in the new building we had to deal with the closure and dismantling of the old museum, packing/preparing the collections in our warehouse for the move to the new building, prepping artifacts for the new exhibitions and finally moving all the staff and collections in before opening to the public. At the same time ensuring that the exhibitions (ie the thing most people see) were only closed for 6 months! There was no way we could deal with acquisitions at the same time as everything else.



What we did was a year prior to the move announce a one year moratorium on donations, and suggested to the donors when they contacted us that they hold on to items until after the new museum opened, and if they wished we would put their names on a list, and when we were ready to resume acquisitions we would contacted them and outline our process at the same time. And yes it was not a complete moratorium - we did acquire collections (but it was a fraction of what would normally be dealt with) and we also took the time to finish the paper work on some donations – and some of the items that slipped through the moratorium actually wound up on exhibition. We also took advantage of the moratorium to revamp our acquisition process and forms. Most people (ie donors) were accepting of the situation.



But be prepared! After the moratorium lifted we did have to deal with about 400 offers of donation.



Good luck with the renovations.



Carol Reid 

Collections Manager, Archives 

Canadian War Museum 

Gestionnaire de collection, Archives 

Musée Canadien de la guerre 

1 Vimy Place, Ottawa, ON, Canada, K1A OM8 

www.warmuseum.ca 

tel: (819) 776-8661 

fax: (819)776-8623 

e-mail: [log in to unmask] 







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