Maritime Museum fishing for $30m national centre John Bermingham
The Province
Sunday, October 26, 2003
The Vancouver Maritime Museum is setting sail to a new home in the city, but where it drops anchor depends on the winds of politics.
Jim Delgado, the museum's executive director, hopes that either Coal Harbour or False Creek will eventually house a $30-million national maritime centre, in time for the 2010 Olympics.
The museum's current berth at Vanier Park in Kitsilano is so cramped that the museum can only show three per cent of its collection at any one time.
A mere 30,000 adult visitors attended it last year, because it's so off the beaten track, says Delgado.
He says government only throws in 46 per cent of its $1-million operating budget. And all but a handful of its 30 staff are part-timers.
"It has made its way through the years and it has survived," Delgado said Friday. "But it can't be said to have thrived."
The current museum, which opened in 1958 to house the
St. Roch, is overcrowded and doesn't meet the standards for lucrative travelling exhibits. "It's out of the way. It's not linked by public transit or tour buses," he said.
The museum houses a collection worth $10 million, which could have been lost when the building caught fire in 1999 if it wasn't for a quick-thinking volunteer.
The collection includes priceless items like Captain Cook's hand-drawn charts of his last voyage, and pieces of the Titanic.
Delgado's vision is for a national maritime museum, which would display themes on First Nations, maritime and Canadian navy.
He needs $30 million to build the new centre, which would be a mix of public and private money.
Delgado is hoping for a site in Coal Harbour, west of Canada Place. Another site is at False Creek, near the Plaza of Nations. Both sites are owned by the B.C. government.
With prime waterfront property sites getting scarce, and with the City of Vancouver making no formal commitment, lining up the site and the funding quickly may be a challenge.
"The maritime museum would be a very important thing to do," said Vancouver Coun. Jim Green, a maritime historian and ex-longshoreman. "The difficulty is where can you put it."
Green favours the False Creek location. But he said there are other groups contesting for use of that site, including dragon boaters and boat owners who want a marina there.
A KPMG feasibility study has said the centre would pay for itself in a few years.
Ian Rokeby, president of the Vancouver Maritime Museum Society, would like a location that makes financial sense.
"My suspicion is that False Creek would yield a good location," said Rokeby, an engineer who volunteers on the society.
The first critical step is to get a business model, the second is the site and then the money.
"People around town realize a location must be found," he said. "We're past the dreaming point."
[email protected] Looks like they're aiming for the False Creek location by the Plaza of Nations. That could have an effect on dragon boating in the area if they do set up there..
I'm not quite sure which area by Plaza of Nations they're looking at, but it would make more sense to setup on the west of Plaza of Nations where the Racer's Village is usually set up during Alcan. I don't really see it being set up to the east of Plaza of Nations since it's one big parking lot for GM Place. Anyways, that's still "contaminated" land from what I still hear.
