Fanshawe Pioneer Village avoids closure
March 23, 2005
The Ontario Museum Association is pleased to learn that Fanshawe
Pioneer Village has reached an agreement with the City of London
to continue operating. The situation arose when a funding cut was
proposed by city council and museum staff recommended shutting down
the museum.
The OMA wrote to Fanshawe, the Mayor of London and members of the
Board of Controls to underline how important the site's heritage
and collection are to the province, with a reminder about the standards
and recognized practices required to properly address the closure
and the costs involved.
West Parry Sound District Museum remains in crisis and last year
the museums of Ottawa were threatened. OMA members are encouraged
to plan ahead and work with their Council, funding authorities and
especially their communities, to ensure that long-term plans are
in place and a long-term vision is promoted. A key step is to decide
what operating funds are needed for the future and to analyze the
potential costs of closure as backup information.
The OMA encourages members to step up efforts to enhance visibility
in their communities. Build support year-round and use May is Museum
Month and other similar opportunities to raise the public and everyone's
awareness of museums and their important roles. Consider holding
a special Museum Month event and invite all your Council members
and community to celebrate with you, and have the mayor proclaim
May is Museum Month.
The London city council decision to cut Fanshawe Pioneer Village's
budget brought the museum funding issue to a head. The impact of
the $75,000 cut led to an overall reduction of $250,000 from lost
grants and other revenues according to Fanshawe's executive director,
Sheila Johnson. The museum's total operating budget went from $687,000
last year to about $400,000. The decision marked nearly 10 years
of uncertain funding that the village has faced according to Johnson.
Fanshawe's staff made several recommendations, including the option
to shut down the museum and dispose of the 23 to 25,000 artifacts
and 30 buildings. The economic impact of closing the museum was
analyzed in great detail.
The staff concluded that it would take five people three years
to ethically disperse the collection at a cost of $1,743,350.00.
This was based on the work staff had done inventorying the collection
last year and quotes from local contractors. The estimate factored
in the cost of demolishing some buildings, moving 11 historically/architecturally
significant buildings, removing gates, fences, infilling foundations
and dispersing artifacts.
The museum felt that the city should ethically keep 25% of the
collection and this would entail another $67,250.00. The money was
calculated on the cost of leasing storage space and paying for a
staff member to manage the collection at Museum London. Eventually
new storage space would need to be built at a cost of $375,000.00.
The lost revenue to the city was also estimated and came to just
over $1,000,000.00. Closing Fanshawe would result in a tourism economic
impact of $300,000.00 to London. Lost income to the 26 seasonal
and permanent staff would be $395,357.00. Local businesses would
lose $295,267.00 in lost sales of supplies and services to the museum.
The private business operating the cafe at the museum would lose
$45,000.00 in revenue.
The one-time costs of closing the museum were also calculated.
The loss of cultural capital - the artifact and heritage building
collections, furniture, equipment, computers and printed advertising
- was estimated at $1,467,525.00. A report on the intangibles -
impact on students, volunteers, loss of a significant artifact collection,
etc. - was researched but not ultimately used.
Community supporters began rallying around the village when news
of the possible closure came out. Emails, letters and phone calls
came in and the local media began writing articles and creating
editorial cartoons.
Fortunately, the closure was averted when a $12 million surplus
was found by the municipality. On March 2, the Board of Control
for the City of London unanimously decided to continue providing
operating funding to Fanshawe Pioneer Village for the next six years,
as long as certain operating performance measures are met. The museum
must meet these criteria as it implements a Master Development and
Master Plan. The city will provide operating funding but not contribute
to the capital fund.
London and Middlesex Heritage Museum board chair, Don Pearson,
commented, "We are grateful to Board of Control for their willingness
to continue the operation of Fanshawe Pioneer Village. It is a fair
request to ask that performance measures be set and we will be happy
to submit annual reviews of both our operational performance and
success in the capital campaign. The community response to the crisis
at Fanshawe Pioneer Village has been overwhelming. With this level
of support, the Board is confident that the community will step
forward and help us raise the necessary capital."
Executive director Sheila Johnson has noted that the museum is
already four months behind schedule as a result of dealing with
this crisis. Revenue generating events such as weddings and programming
had to be canceled. An impending teacher strike in the spring could
impact school group tour sales. Johnson would ideally like to have
a year to stabilize the situation and then have the performance
standards put in place.
Ontario Museum Association
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Toronto, Ontario
M5T 1L4
416-348-8672 or 1-866-OMA-8672
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