City of Waterloo Museum Survey

Waterloo is in a special league of innovation-driven cities around the world, and is admired and followed by many other municipalities in Canada and beyond. However, while a leading community in so many areas, the City’s present museum, has not been embraced as a strategic civic asset, and as a result has been unable to achieve its full potential and value. Yet much economic development research shows that great museums – civic and otherwise – are the hallmark of a great city, and among the aspects that are so important to demonstrate a high quality of life. And increasingly, it is quality of life that is attracting the much-discussed ‘creative class’: those individuals who drive innovation, investment and job creation. The creation of a Museum and Collections strategy that leverages Waterloo’s distinctive identity as well as its heritage collections assets is referenced in the recently approved Waterloo Culture Plan. The Museum and Collections strategy is intended to complement and build on the Culture Plan. During development of the culture plan residents were clear that they value the City’s museum and want to see it grow.

At present, the public face of the City’s museum is a 4,000 square foot space in the largest shopping mall in the city (Conestoga) with two entrances from the interior food court and the exterior parking lot. This arrangement is the result of a generous arrangement on the part of the Mall owners, and the City is certainly grateful for their contribution in this regard. While this location has definite advantages in terms of accessibility, parking, visibility, etc., there are some drawbacks when considering storage, preservation and conservation activities, total display space available and programming opportunities. These locational and logistical issues need to be addressed in the strategy. The City also owns and manages under its museum program the Elam Martin Farmstead in RIM Park, and future options regarding this property need to be considered as well.

While the mall location is expedient and convenient in the short and medium timeframe, this arrangement may not be suitable in the longer term as representing what citizens truly expect of their envied city. On the other hand, perhaps a mall location is the ‘wave of the future’ and should be seriously considered as a preferred location. Part of the right answer to this question will involve the future collecting mandate of the Museum, and how much space may be required to house and manage the collection.

To address these complex and interrelated issues, the City has retained (through a tender process) the services of TCI Management Consultants, who specialize in strategic planning for museums and other cultural institutions. TCI has teamed with Reich + Petch, museum architects, and Maltby & Associates Inc., experts in museums collections, to undertake the project. Their mandate is to come up with a longer-term strategy for the effective management of the collection and the museum.