Callander Bay Heritage Museum & Alex Dufresne Gallery relies on revenue from gift shop sales, admission and membership fees, consignment from art sales and donations. Curator Natasha Wiatr says it expects to rely more on membership renewals and donations this summer.
Wiatr says the museum and gallery is financially stable for the time being.
“We are able to keep our doors open, in a manner of speaking,” she says. “But in order to stay relevant, keep our collection maintained, and continue to offer our guests new experiences, revenue from the public through a variety of sources is important and appreciated.”
The museum and gallery has yet to open since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Wiatr says.
“We do not have a set date at this time,” she says. “The safety of our guests is our No. 1 priority for when we reopen, so we are taking the time to ensure that we have all of the proper protocols and procedures in place before we begin to receive guests.”
Mattawa Museum curator Judy Toupin also has no plans to reopen just yet.
“Whether we can open or not is really dependent on whether there's a new spike in COVID as it (the economy) starts to open,” Toupin explains. “We're in Northern Ontario, so we're in a different position than those places further south. But it doesn’t mean we won’t have a spike…. It's better for us to wait for at least two weeks and see how Phase 2 is doing.”
Toupin says the board will review the provincial guidelines.
And while some, less-interactive, museums elsewhere have opened, Toupin is concerned about guests in Mattawa touching display cabinets and other parts of the facility.
“You're going to have to have staff who go around and clean everything or even have staff follow them around and clean things,” she says. “What about your public washroom? There are so many variables right now that you have to take into consideration.”
Callander Bay has recently gone online to showcase its exhibits, says Wiatr.
“Despite having to close to our visitors, we have been lucky to be able to offer a free virtual tour of our museum and art gallery to our guests in the meantime,” she says. “During our closure, we have been spending a lot of time working on our artifact and archival collection and digitizing photographs and documents to ensure the long-term preservation of these objects.”
Wiatr says Callander received a community museum operating grant, as well as a federal grant from Young Canada Works and Canada Summer jobs for hiring students over the summer.
Mattawa Museum also received a grant to hire summer students.
Wiatr says the summer season is a large boost for the museum, which relies on international travellers, and particularly travellers from the U.S. This year, however, she anticipates more local travellers with the emphasis on ‘staycations’ in Ontario.
Toupin says Mattawa also relies heavily on international travellers, having more than 30 countries represented by visitors last year.
She also hopes local travellers will pick up the slack this season, despite the loss of traffic traditionally generated by Voyageur Days and Canada Day celebrations.
COVID-19's cancellation of recent fundraising events has compounded the museum's financial problems. Toupin says the museum hasn't received a donation since March.
“It's going to take a huge bite out of the museum’s revenue,” she says. “We just have to readjust our bottom line and just find that are we OK with a smaller amount of visitors, but an increased number of memberships. We’re not alone in that.”
She says more grants and funding opportunities should be available to museums to be able to survive.
“We're part of the tourism industry and we didn't even make sub-lists.”
Toupin says the museum needs funds to be able to purchase Plexiglas, hand sanitizer, and other sanitizing solutions to meet provincial guidelines.
She says the museum hopes to join Ontario Live, a website used to promote local tourism by allowing people to search for museums, activities, and sights.
However, Toupin remains confident the community will rally for the museum.
“We had all the flooding here in Mattawa last year. And I'm sure that none of us thought we'd get through that at the time when the water was 15 feet higher than it should have been,” she recalls. “But we did…. I saw the community come together like you would not believe. I mean, it was not just the first-responders and the first of the flooding. It went on for eight weeks.”
- Mackenzie Casalino, Local Journalism Initiative, North Bay Nugget
Local Journalism Initiative reporters are funded by the Government of Ontario.
