Power of Tourism

This week I attended my first TIANS conference and was suitably impressed.
The conference was titled The Power of Tourism and featured some very dynamic sessions
particularly in relation to marketing, partnering and the internet.

Some favourite quotes from some favourite speakers:

Simplify, simplify, simplify - Howard Putnam
Harness collective resources, work smarter, & be more productive - Percy Paris
Experiential products....learn something, by doing something, with someone who lives here - John Somers
Brand is a company's DNA....its reputation - Phil Otto
Is social media a fad? No, its the new base of communication - William Red Dog Martin

John Somers explains Tourism Plan 2011

Tourism Plan 2011 was unveiled by Tourism Division Executive Director, John Somers.
A key goal for 2011, which directly impacts heritage organisations, is the commitment to work to increase percentage of revenues from tourism "Recreation". Currently, tourism revenues see only 5% coming from recreation related expenditures. Activities which comprise recreation also comprise a large portion of people's reasons for travelling in Nova Scotia. Recreation = Museums. Tourism has made the commitment to increase the 5% revenue by 20% over the forthcoming year and this means the potential for new partnerships with heritage organisations. Stay tuned.

Parrsboro Rocks

Congratulations to the staff of the Fundy Geological Museum in Parrsboro for the highly successful reopening of their main exhibit area.  The museum was under wraps for about a year while the old main exhibit was dismantled and a whole new realm of discovery created to explore, involve and educate on the fasinating geology of the Fundy region.

Conservator, Chris Lavergne checks out the exhibits.

I attended the opening day festivities with many colleagues form the museum world on hand plus local dignitaries and residents. There was a great buzz to the event with much exploring and investigating of the gallery. The new exhibits have a family focus featuring many hands on activities to engage young visitors. Congrats to Ken Adams and staff and their Heritage Division colleagues for a job well done. Great to see some exhibit renewal happening in the provincial museums. Next up the Museum of Natural History main exhibit area.

On my way back I stopped at the Glooscap Heritage Centre near Millbrook and visited with staff.  This is a new institution on the provincial heritage scene located just off the highway outside Truro. It is easily found by going towards the giant figure of Glooscap on the grounds. The Centre is continuing to evolve and exapnsion plans include a second building to improve their events hosting capacity. On the heritage front, they are continually developing their programming and aside from workshops teaching Mi'kmaq skills have schools programming available aswell. Current plans include commemorative celebration in honour of Mi'kmaq veterans and the installation of a wall of honour. A project begun this past summer to landscape using plants native to the area will also contribute interpretation opportunities for explaining Mi'kmaq traditional land use.

Busman's Holiday in Wales

Following several seriously busy days at work, I flew off to Wales for two weeks vacation to visit family, friends and, of course, heritage sites. I thought I'd share some photos taken at various sites around Wales I visited and which have personal connections for me.

Saint Elly Church, Llanelly.

Church of Saint Elly, just outside the village of Gilwern is where I was christened and where several members of my family are buried. Its a very atmospheric spot, especially on a cold windy fall day. The church is 12th century and is surrounded by 700 year old yews and extensive grave sites. I met an elderly couple in the churchyard who turned out to be the parents of  a school day friend of mine. Small world.

Inner courtyard at Tretower Court

Restored & refurbished kitchen at Tretower Court. 

Tretower Court and Castle was my favourite site to visit as a child.  I loved visiting the site every opportunity I got - probably explains alot about my choices in career options.... The site is under the care of CADW, and has recently undergone major restoration, both inside and out. The site was the seat of the Vaughan Family, Norman aristocrats, and was partially occupied until the 1920's.

Looking up inside the castle tower.

The castle provides the name for the local community, three towers, and was originally a series of towers built within each other. Very typical fortification for this part of the border country  during the Norman period.

Another Norman fortification I visited was Cardiff Castle, site of the Great British Cheese Festival. Marvellous stuff. The keep pictured here was the original part of the much larger fortification built around it over many generations. Very impressive place I have also visited many times over the years. First time for the cheese festival though....

Cardiff castle keep flying the Welsh flag. 

In south west Wales I went to see Arthur's Seat, a neolithic chamber tomb, for the first time. Its situated in a beautiful location to which my photo does not do justice. 2,000 years old and counting.... Numerous summer holidays were spent in this part of Wales, in caravans, with cousins, in the rain.....

Looking through the remains of the door posts at the Church of Saint Micheal the Archangel.

Last, but definitely not least, I climbed the Skirrid Mountain, called the holy mountain for the legend it split at the time of Christ's death. During the middle ages, a church at the summit was dedicated to Saint Micheal, the Archangel and was the site of pilgrimage on Michealmas day. Little remains of the church now but it remains a compelling site with a commanding view of the surrounding countryside. The church was built within the remains of a much earlier iron age fortification site.

Fall Days

The Fall has been a busy time so far at ANSM. We have the new QR code project underway, plans move ahead for the database renewal project, the board has had serious discussion about plans for the future, we have submitted applications for funding which follow through on strategic plans to develop a museological core curriculum and advisory service and much more.

The dining room table arrayed with SDI applications looked rather like an altar!

Between administrative tasks are peppered visits to sites, plus attending and participating in community events. The SDI grant application review is an important task in late August and I prefer to place myself in seclusion for a day of serious concentration.

Harvest table at the Urban Farm Museum

I helped out at the Urban Farm Museum of Spryfield's annual Harvest Fair in mid-September. The event was well attended by local residents and featured delicious seasonal food cooked following the museum's recipe book plus sales of veggies grown at the farm. Katimavik sent a group of enthusiastic volunteers who soon had the children happily busy playing traditional outdoor games.

The Halifax Citadel, National Historic Site played host to this year's Atlantic Film Festival opening gala. I went with Paul Collins of CMAP to see how the site looked all decked out as Hollywood of Atlantic Canada. Red flood lights, pavilion tents, candle lit walkways and regimental highlanders all added to the dramatic setting. Great stuff and an interesting combination of contemporary event matched with historic setting.

Looking up the refurbished staircase from the basement level.

Last night, I went to take a look at the recently refurbished Government House while attending a talk by Clary Croft on folklore of Nova Scotia. Lt. Governor Mayann E. Francis is hosting a series of talks on a variety of subjects at the house over the course of the fall season. The house looks really fabulous and is much better prepared to fill its capacity as a venue for large scale public events. Her Honor referred to the house as the "ceremonial home of all Nova Scotians" in her opening remarks and the building has been refurbished with that role firmly in mind.

Familiar Faces

Richard, Karin, Paul & Anita at one of Richard's favorite  watering holes

Yesterday Karin and I joined Paul Collins to meet with Richard Cloutier and his wife who are visiting Nova Scotia for family celebrations. It is important to me that we maintain the connections and relationships that have formed the organisation over the years and it was grand to see Richard and reminisce about the early years of the Passage Project and catch up on each others news. Thanks to Richard for organising the supper date. We also quizzed his corporate memory but thats a tale for Karen to tell in her blog...

We met with another familiar face from the ANSM/FNSH past recently. Susan Charles is now the Director of the Nova Scotia Centre for Craft & Design (NSCCD) located just across the road from the Cultural Federations offices. Each year the NSCCD sponsors an exhibition of original work for display in the Mary E. Black Gallery complete with curator and catalogue. The proposed concept for next year (2011) is "Inspired", original works inspired by original artifacts from museum collections. An ideal opportunity for collaboration between artisans and museums. Susan wondered if ANSM could help make the connection between the two communities and we are happy participate. Details are not finalised as yet but we will be sure to get notice out when the time is right. Stay tuned.

Under wraps

Multitasking is, well,  its pretty much the name of the game. Time is always at a premium so finding ways to include as many activities as possible within a limited time frame and budget is key. When I began as Managing Director, the Board were clear they wanted me to spend as much time as possible at members sites. Knowing whats going on in the museums of province is important for both the Association and myself and the best way to do this is by visiting in person.
So I get creative and combine site visits with meetings and careful figuring of mileage and such. A favourite part of the job for certain.

Christine and the Firefly at Shearwater Aviation Museum

A recent meeting with new ANSM Treasurer, Christine Hines of Shearwater Aviation Museum gave me an opportunity for another sneak peak at the Fairey Firefly they hope to soon return to the air in active flight. Tremendous progress since I last saw it a year ago and I'm looking forward to seeing it in flight.

Christine and I have developed a practice of meeting bi-weekly to make sure she is on top of all things financial and we move forward  in planning for operational policies and proceedures related to finance. There's still lots to do, but we continue to work away and progress is surely being made.

Another recent site visit was to Chester (enroute to a weekend visit with friends) an opportunity to see and hear about recent activities of the Chester Historical Society. Definitely a group on the move, they have several large scale projects in hand or just completed. The Society's base is currently in the old Chester Railway Station which they share with the local area VIC. A CAP site managed by the Society is also housed there as well as the Society's research resources and changing art exhibitions.

A small but mighty crew

Lordly House, a fine Georgian property with a long history with the town, is under going major stabilization and restoration work . The Society is very engaged in fundraising for the restoration of the fabric of the building and is including careful plans for how they will use it as their showcase and exhibition space when the doors reopen. They have strong municipal government support which is key for community participation.

Lordly House "underwraps" 

North East Travels....

Tatamagouche Centre - my photo does not do it justice.

Last week I went to various locations in the North East Region on a variety of missions. First to Tatamagouche and area to check out venues for next spring's conference. Looks like we will be gathering at the Tatamagouche Centre, a comprehensive meeting facility complete with heritage houses just outside the town. I had'nt been there since my Grade 12 art class had a retreat at the Centre(and that was not recent times) so it was good to see the facility and meet staff. The facility is on a beautiful property and has been operated by the United Church since the 1950's. They have been good custodians for the property with parkland dotted with ancient trees and some of the oldest houses in the area as guest accommodations. The houses include living rooms so lots of opportunity for informal gatherings after the day's official events.


I also stopped by to visit a man and his mills, Darrell Burke, site manager for Balmoral Mill and Sutherland Steam Mill. On this occasion we talked "Interactive Interpretation", the conference theme for 2011. Darrell has a background in theatre and has presented very creative programs at a number of the Nova Scotia Museum sites over the years. My thought was if we can come up with new and engaging "grist for the mill" for Darrell in terms of interactive interpretation, we would likely inspire others with venerable experience as well as the newly interactive in terms of interpretation....

A joint meeting in Truro of the Training Advisory and Information Technology & Collections Management Committees was hosted by the Colchester County Museum. There is a series of really interesting exhibits on there for the summer including a focus on Truro's Victoria Park and feature exhibit on Loyalist settlers as warm up for next year's anniversary. Our joint committee meeting was facilitated by Max Chauvin and designed to move us through the process of determining new committee roles and responsibilities as we evolve the Passage project into the new Advisory Service and develop the new core curriculum. Very busy and interesting times ahead of us.

Later in the week, I stopped by Cumberland County Museum to visit Shirley and hear how her summer is going. We talked about new summer opening hours, visitor stats, a summer yard sale fundraiser and Passage DB issues. I've come to the conclusion Cumberland was the "canary in the coal mine" for quirks and jags in the system.She has lots of questions about the potential new system, some of which I did not have answers for and sent me off a number of fact finding missions. Onwards.....

Visiting Mr. Collins

This week Karin and I went to the Museum of Natural History for a meeting and took an opportunity to lure Paul Collins, CMAP Manager out for lunch in the Halifax Public Gardens.

Lunch breaks are a rarity at the ANSM office, but a chance to see the gardens in their summer splendor while catching up on museum happenings was not to be missed.
A major topic of our lunchtime conversation was the Passage DB software and the imminent - really imminent need - for its upgrade.

The SDI program - managed by Paul as part of his CMAP program - has always been an important support for the community database project known as the Passage Project.
The 2010 SDI deadline is fast approaching and ANSM staff are working hard towards a working solution for the future of the collections management database. So far things are looking good.... now we need to pull our proposal together.....

Committee on the Road

Last week the Information Technology & Collections Management Advisory Committee (fondly referred to as the Itchy Committee) met up at  Randall House Museum. We were hosted by committee chair, Derek Watts of Wolfville Historical Society in this fine heritage building in downtown Wolfville. We carpooled from various parts of the province and committee members appreciated the opportunity to visit a fellow museum site while undertaking some committee business. As ever, the committee worked through a full agenda with several hot topics for consideration. Check out Karin's blog for regular updates on all things IT and Passage related.

Committee members include (LtoR) Me, Dayle Crouse of  Pictou Heritage Society, Aidan Norton of Colchester County Museum, Derek Watts of Wolfville Historical Society, Valerie Lenethen of NS Heritage Division, Karin Kierstead of ANSM.
Missing from the photo are Gail Magee of Fultz House Museum (joined us via Sykpe), Linda Rafuse of Queen's County Museum & Jim MacLean of Port Hastings Historical Society.

South West Mission

Last week saw the annual CMAP evaluation teams' migration from their training site to CMAP museums around the province. This year, our willing training camp was the Atlantic Canada Aviation Museum www.atlanticcanadaaviationmuseum.com. Following our orientation session, we went on a tour with Mike Garvey, long time supporter of the museum plus former pilot for several of the aircraft on display. A great tour and very much appreciated by the evaluation gang. Thanks Mike.

Sustained with lunch and cookies for the road, we launched ourselves on our various missions.....

My team included Julie Morand of Canadian Heritage and Aidan Norton of Colchester County Museum. We had some time to spare when we arrived in our overnight location, so went to visit some nearby sites.
North Hills Museum http://northhills.museum.gov.ns.ca
is a real little treasure located just outside Granville Ferry. Beautiful early Nova Scotian home in a lovely location. We toured the house with well informed and enthusiastic Interpreter, Wayne Smith. I wanted to move in.

Because it was sunny evening and so close by, we went for a quick look around the grounds of Port Royal National Historic Site http://www.pc.gc.ca/eng/lhn-nhs/ns/portroyal/index.aspx just at closing time.  My last visit was at night in the fog, and so received a completely different impression of the site. It is situated on a headland over looking the Annapolis Basin and offers a fabulous view. Canada's earliest reconstruction of a heritage site, it provides a rich glimpse into early French habitation on the North American continent. Port Royal was a recent participating site in the Membertou 400 celebrations. Check out Ryan Scranton's blog http://annapolisroyalheritage.blogspot.com/2010/06/membertou-400.html. This photo is of the main entryway to the fort - it is my photography that is crooked - not the fort!

The next day we began our evaluations and travelled right around the coastline of South West Nova Scotia. Our adventures included ferry trips, travels in and out of the fog, really great food, and an unfortunate incident during which I left the car key inside one of our evaluation sites at the end of the day and had to be rescued. Slowed us down somewhat, but a great example of rural Nova Scotia in action. I went next door confident the neighbour would know who I needed to contact. She did, with the phone number conveniently located right by her phone and rescue was quickly dispatched. Thanks again to Dorothy's husband and neighbour, Jane, for rescue support.

We enjoyed supper and a visit with Cheryl Stanton of Admiral Digby Museum http://www.admuseum.ns.ca
Lots going on at her site over the summer months with regular farmer's market on the grounds plus tea party events and art openings. Also acted as a donation delivery agent for the museum. Multitasking is the name of the game.

Made our weary way back to Halifax arriving in the city late Friday evening with our mission accomplished. General agreement amoungst Team 3 and everyone I have spoken to that participating in the evaluation process is as much a valuable experience for those evaluating as for those being evaluated. Definitely lots of food for thought. Thanks to Julie and Aidan for being great travelling companions as well as professional and diligent team members and to all at the participating museums for their welcome and cooperation - you know who you are....

Cape Breton Travels

I recently traveled to the Sydney area and participated in a special one day workshop lead by Dr. Candace Matelic and hosted by a partnership of Heritage Cape Breton, Louisbourg Institute, CBU Shannon School of Business & Fortress of Louisbourg NHS.

The workshop was titled "From the Heart: Engaging Community & Interpreting What Matters" and was focused on building relationships between museums and their communities. Candace's position that developing healthy community engagement through a vital interpretation program as part of a strong strategic plan was presented in a compelling and well informed workshop. Definitely food for thought for those in attendance and I know Candace and the presentation partners are interested in providing a more in depth opportunity to explore the subject for museum workers next spring.

Click here  to view her full resume. Candace has recently developed a new Template for Strategic Interpretation and Program Planning and a new planning tool, Cardinal Rules for Visitor-Centered Historic Site Development.

Next day I meet up with ANSM President, Pauline Thomson, and we went for a visit around several museum sites in Sydney's historic north end. Its a treasure trove of heritage buildings in a special part of the city.

Peyton Chisholm of the Old Sydney Society, meet us at the Cape Breton Centre for Heritage & Science in the old Lyceum Theatre building. Several recent upgrades have been made to the centre, in particular in the provision of disabled access to the building and its facilities. Looking really good.

We also went with Peyton to see Saint Patrick's Church, which is also operated by the Old Sydney Society. This venerable stone structure was built in 1828 and is something of a hybrid of church architectural styles. Currently, it is home to furnishings and fittings from churches related to a variety of denominations in the Sydney area as well as a series of well presented interpretaion panels. During summer opening months, local theatre productions will use the church as a venue.

Jost House was next on our list. We received a warm welcome and while I toured the house with volunteer Ray, Pauline caught up on the news with Eileen and then we had tea. Jost House is a treasure and clearly well loved by the Jost House Society members who operate it. The house is interpreted on two floors to represent its early use with the top floor used for local history displays and Jost family history. Architecturally, the house is very similar to Cossit House across the road and Quaker House in Dartmouth.

We finished our tour at Cossit House. This site is part the Nova Scotia Museum family and is operated on behalf of the province by the Old Sydney Society. The house features a fine selection of period furnishings and includes material, most notably a journal, owned by original occupants of the house. Another link to Quaker House in Dartmouth, aside from strong architectural familiarities, is the presence of concealed foot ware in the house walls. This tradition originally came from England and has been found practiced throughout the Maritimes and New England States. Families would conceal a single, well worn shoe in the walls of a new home as a charm towards health, wealth and happiness. The back yard features traditional raised beds which staff tend with heirloom veg & flowers over the growing season. In true museum worker fashion and in the standing tradition of dedication which typifies those who work in the province's museums, the seedlings are started and tended at home well prior to site opening for the year.

Back to the Blog

Its been ages since I last "blogged" and lots has been going on at ANSM. Here's a sampling of meetings and events attended during the late winter & spring.

We (Karin & I) went to the national meetings in Ottawa hosted by CHIN & CCI. Great to meet staff from the other provincial museum associations and hear whats going on around the country. The staff at CHIN and CCI are genuinely interested in helping museums in Canada and I think there's lots of potential for partnerships in the future. Visit Karin's blog (accessible from our website) to read her Ottawa report.

We also attended the CMA national conference in Saint John's, Newfoundland in May. Excellently organised with great sessions and with the backdrop of Saint John's to add colour and a dash of snow. Intangible Culture was the theme this year. Newfoundland has been particularly active in the preservation and interpretation of its intangible culture and so a very apt venue for the conference. Nova Scotia was well represented with career accolades going to Robert Frame and Susan Gibson Garvey for their contributions to the museum field. Creamery Square of Tatamagouche received an award of excellence for their community project. Bill Greenlaw, Stephanie Smith, Rodney Chaisson, Maggie MacIntyre and Dorothy Outhouse were Nova Scotian presenters for a variety of sessions.

We have also been busy attending the regional meetings taking place over the past several weeks. During April & May, we attended the South West Curator's Group meeting in Liverpool, the Central Region

meeting in Dartmouth, Heritage Cape Breton (formerly Iona Connection) in Saint Peter's and Cumberland County Heritage Network in Amherst. Its good to get out and see whats going on around the province and there's always lots going on....

I've participated in a number of singular events as well. The variety is completely illustrative of the range of theme and activity represented by museums in the province. Some examples include a workshop with the Black Loyalist Heritage Society to explore interpretation for their Birchtown site, an evening reception complete with dress uniforms to launch the Army Museum's summer season, a stem to stern tour of Maritime Command Museum with Industrial Heritage of Nova Scotia, a reopening celebration at Nova Scotia Museum of Natural History accompanied (far too closely) by really large insects, site visit to Shubenacadie Tinsmith Museum to tell them about ANSM and tour their site. Plus more....

I have also visited the Tatamagouche area with President, Pauline Thomson and NE representative, Enid Copper. Its the North East region's turn to host next year's spring conference and Tatamagouche area is stepping up to form the local arrangements committee and plan a grand event. They have lots of good ideas and a wonderful area brimming with sites and dedicated individuals from which to draw. Conference 2011 stands to be a grand event.

Its a busy time and always will be. Now starts the summer season and travels about the province to visit museums and learn about their tribulations and trials. I resolve to check in and blog more often. I also resolve to remember to use the camera I travel with....

Onwards & upwards

Beneath the still surface....

.....is a hive of activity.

There's lots of action behind the scenes at ANSM this winter. Staff, board and committees are diligently working away on a number of fronts.

Here's a sampling of whats on the go....

The new website is under construction. We are in the process of building the various sections and adding content, fine tuning design and figuring out the kinks of links, on line forms and payments, staff blogs, member profiles and more. Visit the site often and please give us feed back - we are interested in what you think of the changes and your suggestions for other additions.

The new ANSM Training Plan is in the concluding stage of its development. The board will receive a presention from A.L Aarbic Consultants at their meeting on February 5th and following their approval, we will make the plan available to members via the website and hard copy as requested.

Spring Conference plans are being fine tuned and we will shortly be putting conference information and registration up on the website. This year the conference is in Port Hawkesbury and is on the theme of "Building Sustainable Museums". Lots of good grist for the mill is planned plus some serious Cape Breton hospitality - stay tuned.

Karin Kierstead is back at home in the ANSM office and has this year's project support services well under way. Check out Karin's blog to catch up on her latest activities. A reminder for project partners - the contracts have gone out - please remember to return them with payment.

The CHIN Data Enrichment project is coming to a conclusion. Jen is just finishing up the last downloads from project participants and is pleased to report that our goals were achieved. Congrats to all and thanks for participating in this National initiative.

We are looking into a couple of new services for members. Possibilities for 2010 are an IT bulk buy service to help members significantly reduce equipment costs. We are looking into developing a provincial insurance program for museums. These initiatives are in the exploratory stages - we'll keep you posted as things progress.

The Board is hard at work tightening up policy and getting ready for the AGM. The Nominations Committee is active and don't forget, if you have a hankering to serve, do contact Enid Cooper, committee chair. We are also reviewing our financial structure and reporting process and will have a new, improved and easy to understand system in place for the next fiscal year.