Image Credit: FACEBOOK/Greater Vernon Museum and Archives
July 16, 2019 - 4:00 PM
VERNON - Faced with tough financial decisions, and in an effort to modernize, the Greater Vernon Museum and Archives have laid off all six staff members.
Recently appointed executive director Steve Fleck said the five full time and one part-time member of staff were given three months' notice last week.
Fleck said some members of staff had been with the museum for many decades and he understood they may feel betrayed and angry.
The executive director said over the years the museum had hired and added staff for a variety of reasons and some of those positions had stayed in place long periods of time.
"I found we were missing some pieces... we didn't have a strategy," he said.
The museum doesn't currently employ a curator, and four new redesigned positions will be created. The staff members facing layoffs will be encouraged to apply for these new positions.
The museum, which originally started in a back room at W.L. Seaton School and moved into its present location in 1966, doesn't charge admission and only recently started charging school groups $2 per student.
Fleck said operational costs are over $300,000 per year and the museum saw 18,745 visits in 2018. In November, the quietest months of the year, figures show the museum saw an average of around 15 visitors a day. In August, the busiest month of the year, that number jumped to over 200 visitors a day.
Fleck said the museum has to modernize and change its approach.
"We're trying to be more interactive, more directly connected to the community and giving people opportunities when they come inside the museum to share their story and be part of the changing and growing culture here," Fleck said.
Along with curating exhibits that are more interactive Fleck said the museum may create a cafe space or a small acoustic performance space for around 30 to 40 people.
"We want to be open a couple of nights a week so that people in the community can use the space for meetings, open mic, writers conferences and forums all those things of things," he said. Currently, the museum shuts at 4:30 p.m.
"My job has been to come in here in fairly short order and analyze what's going on... and try to get the best museum we can going forward based on modern methodology," Fleck said. "I hope that everybody in the community realizes our intention is to be strong and a real resource to the community."
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News from © iNFOnews, 2019