Resident Query About The Museum

Lost and Forgotten has left a new comment on your post "The Agenda Is In":

when is the museum opening Ev, this was one of the most important functions of the building , there are an awful lot of members of this community who need to know what happened here, How is it possible that there is no Museum operating in that building ,I can’t imagine how some of the old timers and donators to that collection must be feeling , Are there any answers you can share .We need the Museum up and running NOW!!!


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 I have to think back to the sequence

The Mayor's non-answer to my question about when the museum was going to be up and running in its rightful place is what prompted me to call the new curator hired by the Historical Society to replace Cathie Malloy who replaced Jackie Stewart.

The  $50ks.grant from the  town allowed the first curator to be appointed. That was Jackie.

The museum had to be dismantled when Church Street School  was gutted for renewal.

Jackie was re-located to the Hillary House.

The museum collection was packed into boxes and stored at the Hillary House.

I won't go into all the details again of how funds  were  made available to get on with  the building's renovations.

Except for one key piece.

When Cathie Malloy was still with us, a grant application was successfully processed.

Three-quarters of a million  dollars were received from the Federal Heritage Foundation specifically for museum purposes.

We could have used it for a thermal heating system for the building. It would have eliminated  fossil fuels.  But we didn't. So much for our much ballyhooed reputation as stewards of the planet and her environment.

Our then Treasurer, John Gutteridge ,with experience in his previous job with Heritage buildings, recommended the facility be managed by an arms length board.

While the building was being renovated  an Arts and Culture committee was appointed by Council with Councilors Gaertner and Granger, Ken Whitehurst and Helen Roberts, President of the Historical Society as members. Cathie Malloy was the committee's resource person. Cathie was the one with expertise.

Then Cathie, fairly new on the job, left. Maybe she got an idea there wasn't going to be a museum.

Ken Whitehurst, the Mayor's friend and campaign manager took  her place as resource person in a paid capacity.He was reporting to a committee of which he was a member.

That's the same gentleman who helped Councillor Mac Eachern to re-write the Consultants. $53,000 Master Recreation Plan in non-recorded  "workshops "

The same person on the Steering Committee of the Aurora Promenade Study with the Mayor as Chair

A question was asked. Helen Roberts wrote a letter to the editor vouchsafing  Mr. Whitehurst's excellent qualifications for the task.

Subsequently,Helen Roberts, President of the Historical Society appeared at a Council committee meeting and withdrew the Society's commitment to manage the museum when the building was completed. Ms Roberts said the Society only had fifty-nine members and wouldn't be able to handle the responsibility. 

The Historical Society had previously sought an agreement with the town  for management of the building because they had so much invested.They raised funds in the community for the purpose. They retained  architects and paid for  plans for the state of the art museum. The Town adopted the plans. It's what the building was renovated for.

A board was appointed. next thing we knew, the name of the building was changed from Heritage and Culture to just Culture.

There was little  sign of  activity in the building.  Then town staff meetings were held  there. Town Staff were invited to attend a Christmas  party there.  They played Musical Chairs.

Planning meetings for the Promenade Study were held  there.

I called   staff to  ask if the town was paying fees. Seeing as how the Board was operating at arms length from the town . A second question was why we needed to use that facility.

The Historical Society  presented a budget for 2010 to justify  continuance of the $50ks grant.The speaker informed Council, no curator was being provided  in the new staff complement at the Heritage and Culture Centre.That should have been a hint.

The Gala Opening was held. The building was nearly empty.  Most conspicuous  was a grand piano. The person playing it was from Toronto.

No sign of the museum.

I called the new curator and learned the  museum collection is being stored in the basement and Society members are  allowed space and time to catalogue artifacts .The Society  are expected to mount several historical displays a year.

The museum isn't getting  space because it doesn't make money.

The curator had been trying to follow and understand the Historical Society's rights in  the agreement the board has with the town

I asked at Council when the museum would be up and running in its rightful place. The Mayor responded the Culture Centre Board would be making a presentation to Council soon.

They never did.

The Historical Society has launched a fund raising project for repairs and restoration to the Hillary House which is not the Aurora Historical Museum. It is neither owned nor operated by the Town. Not representative of the one hundred and sixty-odd- year  history of  Town of Aurora and the Village of Machell's Corners . 

The town's museum. it seems, has been stolen right out from under us by the machinations of the Mayor and Friends  of  Clotheslines and  Culture. 

I think it will take nothing less then a Change in The Chair to get the museum back in its rightful place.