WINNIPEG -- The Manitoba Museum’s ‘Bringing Our Stories Forward’ renewal project is closer to achieving its fundraising goals thanks to a $250,000 gift from Manitoba’s credit unions.
The project, slated for completion in November 2020, is intended to transform more than 42 per cent of the museum’s galleries.
In a Friday news release from the museum, Credit Union Central Manitoba’s spokesperson Marilyn Brennan said the credit union donation will be earmarked for use in the museum’s popular Nonsuch and Grassland galleries.
“Our award-winning Manitoba Museum has always been a source of pride and inspiration to all Manitobans. Credit unions’ contribution to this renewal project will help enhance the reputation it has earned as one of our most cherished icons, ” said Brennan
Funds from the credit unions also qualify for matching grants from the Manitoba government, providing 50 cents on every dollar raised by private donors.
That provision pushes the actual value of the credit union contribution announced Friday to $375,000.
The Chipman Family Foundation and the Manitoba Museum Foundation have also committed themselves to matching the next $250,000 raised by the private sector between now and March 2020.
Those donations will also qualify for matching by the province.
The Gallery Renewal Project is at its midway point with the renewal of the Nonsuch Gallery that opened in June 2018 and the creation of the new interactive Winnipeg Gallery that opened in November 2019.
In the renewed Grassland Gallery, the museum will feature the Manitoba prairie, an endangered ecosystem on the northeastern edge of the Great Plains where most of the province’s population resides.
It will also include an Indigenous territorial acknowledgment of Treaty land and the Métis homeland.
This space will orient visitors and allow them to know that their museum experience will explore the interconnections between people and nature.
The museum celebrates its 50th anniversary year in 2020.
