Doon Heritage Crossroads in Kitchener, Ontario recently completed a

Collecting Plan researched and written by museum staff.  The Plan analyzes

the present collection of 43,000 artifacts and outlines future collecting

guidelines and priorities.  The Plan recommends a range of new collecting

initiatives, with particular emphasis on objects from the latter half of

the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, in order to broaden the

collection to reflect the sweeping changes that have taken place in the

region over the past 50 years.  The Plan will also support the development

of exhibits in a proposed Regional history museum, slated to begin

construction in the fall of 2008.



Doon Heritage Crossroads curatorial staff worked for the past two years to

develop the Collecting Plan, following upon the AAM Guide to Collections

Planning (2004) and an AAM workshop on collecting plans.



The Plan recognizes that the late twentieth century (and up to the present

time) has not been adequately addressed in the museum’s collecting

activities. While continuing to collect nineteenth century artifacts, it

recommends that the museum focus more attention on researching and

collecting artifacts and other information that reveal important aspects of

Waterloo Region’s more recent history. Collecting “centres of excellence”

have been identified in the areas of manufacturing, technology,

agriculture, multiculturalism and objects that celebrate aspects of

community life.



Further detail is provided through two extensive case studies. One surveys

four local cultural communities (Caribbean, Chinese, post World War II

ethnic Germans, and Portuguese), suggesting approaches for collecting,

exhibiting and interpreting the region’s many multicultural groups in a new

museum facility. The other case study is a compilation of information about

the local furniture industry, once Canada’s most important furniture

manufacturing centre.



The Collecting Plan is available on the museum's website at

www.region.waterloo.on.ca/doon ... Go to Behind the Scenes>Artifact

Collection.  Or directly at

http://www.region.waterloo.on.ca/web/region.nsf/0/f54d944be1e035b385256b090053d8ff/$FILE/DOON%20COLLECTING%20PLAN.pdf







Thomas A. Reitz

Manager/Curator

Doon Heritage Crossroads

10 Huron Road

Kitchener, Ontario, Canada  N2P 2R7



519-748-1914 ext. 3270 - telephone

519-748-0009 - fax

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www.region.waterloo.on.ca/doon



For up to date information on the Region of Waterloo museum check out

www.region.waterloo.on.ca/museum



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