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HomeMy WebLinkAboutJuly 23, 2025 - Museum Advisory CommitteeTHE CORPORATION OF THE MUNICIPALITY OF BAYHAM MUSEUM ADVISORY COMMITTEE AGENDA MARINE MUSEUM 20 Pitt Street Port Burwell, ON Wednesday, July 23, 2025 5:00 p.m. 1. CALL TO ORDER 2. DISCLOSURES OF PECUNIARY INTEREST & THE GENERAL NATURE THEREOF 3. DELEGATIONS A. Jennifer Beauchamp, Curator re Accessioning Artifacts 4. ADOPTION OF MINUTES FROM PREVIOUS MEETING(S) A. Minutes of the Museum Advisory Committee Meeting held April 30, 2025 5. MATTERS OF BUSINESS A. Curator Monthly Reports: April, May, June 2025 B. Student Monthly Reports: May & June 2025 6. ADJOURNMENT THE CORPORATION OF THE MUNICIPALITY OF BAYHAM MUSEUM ADVISORY COMMITTEE MINUTES TRACKLESS LOUNGE 56169 Heritage Line, Straffordville Wednesday, April 30, 2025 5:00 p.m. PRESENT: CHAIR SUSAN CHILCOTT COMMITTEE MEMBERS ROY SULLIVAN RON BRADFIELD ROBERT PONZIO DIANE SOPER STAFF ATTENDANCE: CURATOR JENNIFER BEAUCHAMP CLERK MEAGAN ELLIOTT 1. CALL TO ORDER Chair Chilcott called the meeting to order at 5:02 pm. 2. DISCLOSURES OF PECUNIARY INTEREST & THE GENERAL NATURE THEREOF No disclosures of pecuniary interest were declared. 3. DELEGATIONS 4. ADOPTION OF MINUTES FROM PREVIOUS MEETING(S) A. Minutes of the Museum Advisory Committee Meeting held January 22, 2025 Moved by: Committee Member Bradfield Seconded by: Committee Member Soper THAT the minutes from the Museum Advisory Committee Meeting held January 22, 2025 be approved as presented. CARRIED 5. MATTERS OF BUSINESS A. Curator Monthly Reports: December 2024, January, February, March 2025 Moved by: Committee Member Ponzio Seconded by: Committee Member Sullivan THAT the Curator Monthly Reports be received for information. CARRIED 2 B. Memo MAC-04/25 re Museum Summer Season Plans Moved by: Committee Member Sullivan Seconded by: Committee Member Ponzio THAT Memo MAC-04/25 re Museum Summer Season Plans be received for information. CARRIED C. Memo MAC-05/25 re Marine Museum Operating Budget Moved by: Committee Member Sullivan Seconded by: Committee Member Bradfield THAT Memo MAC-05/25 re 2025 Operating Budget – Museums Bayham be received for information. CARRIED 6. ADJOURNMENT Moved by: Committee Member Sullivan Seconded by: Committee Member Ponzio THAT the Museum Advisory Committee Meeting be adjourned at 5:25 p.m. CARRIED CHAIR CLERK PORT BURWELL MARINE MUSEUM Curator’s Report April 2025 Collections I spoke to a potential donor and we plan to speak again when things are settled at the museum. Moving the artifacts and heavy furniture took place and everything fit as planned. Exhibits and Events Began planning for Canada Day by scouting potential craft activities. I started painting the new walls with the wave theme and finished settling the exhibits into place. Several had some changes: the fishing exhibit; the war exhibit. The Writers’ Festival planner and I corresponded often, with a small “desktop” exhibit planned. I had been asked by the Bayham Historical Society to do a lecture on the Lighthouse for the last in their series. Once I was able to access the files in the curator’s office I began to research and write. Another series of attempts to relocate several large furniture items no longer needed began. Staff I attended a virtual EON meeting on April 3rd. Margaret and I conducted student interviews over two days, resulting in the hiring of two university students and one high school student – all on government grants. There was an assortment of correspondence to manage: an email regarding information on a shipwreck; two surveys from EON and Destination Ontario (regarding accessibility issues). The various dispensers in the new washrooms all had sharp metal edges that could cut skin so I covered them all with scotch tape and devised a way to more easily access the garbage cans inside the containers. The new door was problematic, with three different door lock mechanisms tried before the unit worked properly. PORT BURWELL MARINE MUSEUM Curator’s Report May 2025 Collections Organizing continued at the Museum. Worked with the two students, Courtney and Linus, to design and prepare a protective housing for 2 paper banners. We re-rolled the quilt on a foam tube and stored it. Exhibits and Events The printer wasn’t functioning so the exhibit text was printed at the main office. The man that filmed the documentary on the handcar trip from Eden to Port Burwell dropped in and gave Linus and I a description of the whole adventure as we watched it. He was tickled that it was always on display at the railway exhibit. Staff The three students hired, Linus, Courtney, and Betty, the high school student that will be starting in late June, were all available for the May 12th orientation. After the time at the main office, we all went to the Museum where we undertook a variety of activities: selecting the Welcome Wall impact photo and setting up for it, exhibit planning, learning about the exhibits, tidying, met with By-Law officers about parking, filled the small brochure stand. The next day we worked on the summer exhibit, moved more items to better places, worked on museum lighting, hung pictures in the washrooms, introduced the students to some PBHS members in the wheelhouse, and more brochure work. Margaret came with keys and to help with laptops and discussed the EON orientation with the students. The printer has not been connecting with the laptops so I printed up the few pages of text that had errors at home. On Wednesday we worked on the exhibit. I met with Steve regarding electrical issues on some of the displays. Thursday we continued to work on the exhibit and cleared off the counters to be ready for opening. I drove to Ingersoll to pick up the photo for the Welcome Wall and checked Dollarama for exhibit support items, then checked Coyles. We met with Ryan about the e-bike storage and took that opportunity to check out the Compressor Shed. Still no solution to the printer so continued to print elsewhere. Opening day! Got the museum ready. The outside stuff went out and we stored the ladder and cart in storage area. Until it is removed, we place the unusable brochure cart outside. We hung the impact photo and installed final text bits. I drove to Aylmer to return some items borrowed for last year’s exhibit and picked up a photo of ours accidentally included and went to the Elgin Heritage Centre to borrow some First Nations artifacts for the exhibit, installed them and the exhibit was complete. We met with Writers’ Festival organizer and some participants. The two students are doing a lot of reading to learn the local history and prepare themselves for tours and questions on the collection and local history. I attended an EON meeting at home to prepare for the student orientation workshop on June 2nd. After numerous enquiries about the sub, I finally spoke to Ian Raven and got up to date on their activities. The students will be getting a tour in June. After much research, I presented the history of the Lighthouse at an advertised public event hosted by the Bayham Historical Society (BHS) at The Edison, Vienna & Area Museum on May 31, 2025 and hopefully found a few facts that were new to those well-versed in the Lighthouse history. Port Burwell Marine Museum Curator’s Report June 2025 Collections I was contacted last year by Robin Hurley about donating her memorabilia and information about Ralph Hurley and his shipbuilding business. Over the last few months we exchanged information and set dates to transfer it to the Museum. She came in twice with items, including a vast collection of newspaper clippings, photographs, and objects. It was an exciting acquisition and we continue to go through it to determine what will be kept. It will be accessioned once the database is up and running. Exhibits and Events The three students and I redid the shipbuilding exhibit to add some of the new material recently acquired. We discussed aspects of exhibit design and installation as we worked. Staff Linus and Courtney worked with me to quickly organize our Children’s Program so we could get some advertising out. They also attended the EON Summer Student Workshop, a day long learning opportunity put on by EON members at Annanndale House. I was involved as an instructor and the Museum was closed for the day. A sub tour was arranged for them as well. We also prepared for Canada Day with a great craft, a fish skeleton for the children to decorate, and we partnered with Martin’s Fish Market. Like last year’s bee theme, the fish theme kept the focus on our local business. Betty, our high school student, started on June 24th. We had our first staff meeting that day as well. We continue to experience challenges with technology issues, namely the printer and the County database. Currently we have 2 of the 3 laptops able to link with the printer and the database. However, the database itself is not working properly and I have been in touch with the organizers, who hope it will soon be working. Port Burwell Marine Museum May 2025 Student Monthly Report Projects Completed: • “Sentinels of the Waterways” Exhibit o Hung up the rope on the entrance wall, strung up laminated letters. o Set up the interactive lighthouse quiz. o Sectioned off artifacts and information into the two cabinets. • Collections management work o Moved the Burwell quilt out of storage and re-wrapped it o Built a storage container for the masonic posters to be safely stored Future/Current Projects: Move the tv across from the general store as a place for visitors to sit down, rest, and watch something Working on Canada day crafts (fish bones) Reading/researching and writing notes May Visitors + Admissions Date Visitors Admissions ($) May 16th 6 18 May 17th 43 107 May 18th 27 82 May 19th 11 23 May 20th 1 3 May 21st 7 21 May 22nd 1 0 May 23rd 0 0 May 24th 7 12 May 25th 8 17 May 26th 3 9 May 27th 1 0 May 28th 0 0 May 29th 2 6 May 30th 4 12 May 31st 22 50 Total 144 360 Port Burwell Marine Museum June 2025 Student Monthly Report Projects completed: Finished making the kids crafts for Canada day (fish bones) Added new artifacts to the shipbuilding case, reordered everything, and added a new ‘ships built’ informational sign Current/Future Projects Working on extracting the newspaper clippings from the boards donated by Robin Hurley Sorting and organizing all the Ralph Hurley related artifacts Brainstorming/making crafts and activities for the children’s program Putting the TV on the other side of the bench so people can sit and rest; It would be great for people to read and watch TV on the last stretch of the museum June Visitors + Admissions Date Visitors Admissions ($) June 1st 15 36 June 2nd 0 (CLOSED) 0 (CLOSED) June 3rd 10 30 June 4th 3 9 June 5th 4 15 June 6th 12 26 June 7th 27 72 June 8th 0 0 June 9th 8 18 June 10th 5 12 June 11th 3 6 June 12th 6 18 June 13th 8 24 June 14th 37 61 June 15th 22 49 June 16th 2 6 June 17th 5 15 June 18th 0 0 June 19th 2 6 June 20st 6 15 June 21nd 19 45 June 22rd 4 9 June 2025 Student Monthly Report 2 June 23th 4 12 June 24th 4 12 June 25th 5 11 June 26th 0 0 June 27th 11 22 June 28th 31 78 June 29th 11 56 June 30th 17 36 Total 281 $699