[BCMA] HAMM in Courtenay

[Moderated BCMA subscriber listserv]

Hello everyone.

The HMCS ALBERNI Museum and Memorial  (HAMM) is facing a tremendous challenge.  I am writing for ideas and suggestions for solutions to help resolve this challenge.

HAMM is a part of a larger Remembrance project named The Alberni Project (TAP). TAP is a registered not-for-profit society (TAPS) in BC and holds Charitable Status with CRA.  HAMM is the museum arm of the Project while all traveling/loaning of exhibits and off-site events are the arm of The Alberni Project.

In 2016 HAMM was evicted from our location in Comox and found a much smaller heritage building in downtown Courtenay. We were able to overcome the usual dip in visitors whenever a business moves locations and were almost back to our level of growth when Covid hit. However, prior to Covid, we survived two weather related floods and one arson attack.  But we “stayed afloat” (pardon the pun) through all of that.

However, during Covid, the City dropped its grant we relied upon and instead moved the homeless encampment directly next to the museum. Almost immediately our visitorship and public donations plummeted.  We had locals who were too afraid to support us in person, tourists cancelled their trips to BC with HAMM as their intended destination.  Our attendance last year was below our 6 month closures during one of our floods and during the 6 months we were closed for Covid. 

Our volunteers have been personally paying almost all of our bills that our Provinicial Gaming Grant doesn’t cover. But we have reached the point where we can not continue to fund HAMM past Remembrance Day if we can’t find steady and available funding.  Many of the grants that have been suggested to us would be ideal, except that we don’t qualify as all our staff are volunteers, including the Director and Curator.  Some grants are not available to us because we do not have an aboriginal element to our museum (we are a museum related to the stories of the Canadians in the military from the Boer War up through Afghanistan).

We need to move away from the challenge of the homeless encampment so we can get back on track and continue to represent the veterans and civilians affected by times of war and conflict.  The “temporary” City solution with their camp will be in place for at least the next 3 years.

On the good side of things, we have found the ultimate location to move HAMM/TAP into a building of our own. We see it as our permanent location.  

The Property, recently listed, is a heritage building in the Village of Cumberland.  I won’t go into the details, but it would allow us to use the entire building to hold meetings, host visiting exhibits, and have actual space to set up most of our currently stored artefacts and past summer exhibits.  It also gives us space to expand our programming into audio and visual mediums. The building, as for our needs, would not even need much remodelling.  In other words, we could move in and be back open in a week if the stars aligned.

Here is our challenge.  Because of the obstacles and financial hit we’ve endured since COVID-19 (not naming names here, but…), our bank account has dropped to almost zero.  We do not have the funds to purchase this building (in the $2 million region).  I have started to discuss the matter with the Village, which we know doesn’t have the funds to help us, and we have reached out to a few corporations to help us purchase the building, but so far, no luck.

Has any other museum or organization here on the listserv faced similar challenges to get grant funding for the purchase of property?  We would love to hear from you.  If you have any suggestions, we would love to hear about them as well.  We may have already tried your suggestions, but maybe we should revisit those ideas.

I am sorry to whine to the group like this. Since I founded The Alberni Project in 1999 in Seattle as a simple Geocities website, it has grown to become one of British Columbia’s premier military history museums.  I consider HAMM and TAP to be my child in a strange kind of way.  I am having trouble coming to grips that we will have to fold up in November, with our collections being sold off or transferred to other museums where they might be put into storage away from the public’s eye.

I would appreciate any suggestions you could give us.

at your service,

Lewis Bartholomew
Founder & Executive Director

mrbarth at alberniproject.org



MUSEUM ADDRESS:
HMCS ALBERNI Museum and Memorial
MUSÉE DU NCSM ALBERNI
5-625 Cliffe Avenue
Courtenay BC
250-897-4611


ADMINISTRATION OFFICE:
The Alberni Project Society
TAP Mobile Exhibit Bookings
65 Salsbury Road
Courtenay, BC Canada V9N9L7
250-338-2720
BC Reg Society: S-0062206
Charitable Tax Number: 820205631RR0001

HMCS ALBERNI Memorial
www.alberniproject.org
www.facebook.com/thealberniproject
www.twitter.com/AlberniProject
k103museum at alberniproject.org


Take up our quarrel with the foe: To you from failing hands we throw the torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die we shall not sleep, though poppies grow in Flanders Fields. 

 
Email is a non-secure form of communication and clients should not include any sensitive account information in any email to The Alberni Project. Le courriel n'est pas un mode de transmission securise et les clients doivent s'abstenir d'y inclure tout renseignement sensible sur leur compte dans toute communication electronique destinee a projet de Alberni. 


With gratitude, we live and work within the Coast Salish and Salish Sea region - on the unceded traditional territories of K'omoks, ɬaʔamɩn gɩǰɛ (Tla’amin/ Sliammon), Homalco, We Wai Kai and We Wei Kum, and Hul’qumi’num Treaty Group - traditional keepers of these lands. Avec gratitude, nous vivons et travaillons dans la région des Salish de la côte et de la mer des Salish - sur les territoires traditionnels non cédés des K'omoks, ɬaʔamɩn gɩǰɛ (Tla'amin/ Sliammon), Homalco, We Wai Kai et We Wei Kum, et Hul'qumi. 'num Treaty Group - gardiens traditionnels de ces terres.









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