A group of familiar faces will be helping oversee the operations of the Maple Ridge Museum for the next year, as the entire Maple Ridge Historical Society board of directors was reinstated, with a couple of new additions as well.
Shea Henry, executive director of the Maple Ridge Museum, said that Alex Pope and Kim Reeves joined the board of directors at the March 21 AGM.
“The membership re-elected the previous board, who were all happy to continue to stand for election, because they are happy with how the board is operating,” said Henry.
READ MORE: Maple Ridge Historical Society prepares to vote in new board of directors
As part of the AGM, historical society president Ross Dunning explained that the previous year had brought a lot of donations to help support the museum and the archives.
A total of $4,500 was made at the annual Halloween fundraiser, which Dunning said was a record amount, with another $1,020 coming in from the Music on the Wharf series.
While it wasn’t the biggest year for museum donations, Henry said that museum staff and the board of directors very much appreciate every donation made and continue to rely on the generosity of the community to help them continue their efforts to document and preserve the history of the city.
READ ALSO: Maple Ridge’s Tyler O’Neill breaks MLB opening day homer record
Unfortunately, the museum is facing some significant obstacles in its mission to do so, explained Henry.
“We face many challenges due to lack of space,” she said.
“We no longer take artifact donations unless it is a very special circumstance and we are very particular with archival donations. The limited, and very full, storage space is also not climate-controlled in any of our storage spaces. So we are in a constant fight with temperature and humidity fluctuations, which are what cause degradation and rot to museum artifacts. The natural instinct is for museums to be housed in historic buildings but unfortunately historic buildings do not make good museums because they are so difficult to control temperature and humidity in.”
She said that while the historical society does have a partnership with the City of Maple Ridge, they have also been lobbying the city for a larger museum and archives space for more than 25 years.
“Since then there have been several proposals made, one of which was approved by council in 2005, but they have not come to pass,” said Henry.
While the historical society continues its efforts to obtain a more adequate museum and archive space, the work to preserve local heritage will continue.
“We currently have on staff a professional archivist until the end of this year,” said Henry. “We will be lobbying the city to help fund this position so we can continue to have our archives open to the public.”
“Thanks to our archivist, later this year we will be releasing our brand new collections database on our website which will be accessible and searchable to the public.”