The New Brunswick Museum's exhibition centre in Market Square in Saint John. Image: New Brunswick Museum/submitted
The New Brunswick Museum will use $92,250 from ACOA to improve its digital presence.
The funding was announced by Saint John-Rothesay MP Wayne Long during a visit to the museum November 13.
“We’ve got to be virtual, we have to digitize our collection, so researchers from around the world, and students, and regular people doing genealogy and stuff, can access our collections,” said museum CEO Bill Hicks.
Hicks says in a typical, non-pandemic year, they typically welcome 65,000 visitors, and engage a further 30,000 online. He hopes the funding will allow them to grow that online reach.
“The museum already was touching about 100,000 people,” Hicks said. “That makes the New Brunswick Museum one of the top cultural tourism attractions in the province.”
Preliminary plans include offering live-streamed programs for classes, and digitizing the museum’s public offerings sometime in 2021.
The push to move online includes plans to appeal to different demographics.
“Students can virtually learn about our collections, and our natural history,” said Hicks. “For seniors, we’re working to develop platforms and learning material where they can explore art and music, and revive memories. That all leads to wellness.”
Hicks says the move online isn’t a new goal for the museum, but the ACOA funding will speed up the process.
“We’ve been online, we use social networking,” he said. “This funding will allow us to put it over the top, and that’s really important to us.”
