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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