The Canmore Museum and Geoscience Centre has reached its fundraising goal for a brand new permanent exhibit thanks to the Calgary Foundation.
CMAG society chair Andrew Holder was in front of council in May to request a $50,000 loan to reach the $150,000 goal needed to complete the exhibit.
However, Holder informed council that thanks to a Calgary Foundation grant, that $50,000 has been raised.
“This means we have reached our funding target and will not require a loan from the town,” Holder wrote to council.
The need for a totally new exhibit, he added, was the result of the January 2014 flood inside the Civic Centre that affected the museum.
“We had to recover from that and go forward … it gave us the opportunity to think about what we were doing,” Holder said. “Our first step was the development of a temporary exhibit about flooding in Canmore to keep the museum open.”
That temporary exhibit has been in place at the museum for a year and Holder said it’s time to move on and see a permanent exhibit installed.
While fundraising to see the exhibit come to life, the concept was developed with the help of public input from the community. From coal mining, the railway, the 1988 Olympics and its legacy to climbing, flooding and tourism, the exhibit concept spans the complex history and context of Canmore as a community.
