Members of the Sundre & District Historical Society are looking to expand what the museum has to offer, at a cost of roughly $200,000.
This includes another building for travelling exhibits and a common area for educational classes and a meeting room, but also for more storage space.
The society has spent $50,000 to purchase two lots on the west side of the reception centre, where it would like to build.
“We want to build onto the existing building, so we want to stay the same width and go roughly 40 feet west,” explained society president Jack Nichol.
“The reason for that is we are really badly in need of storage. We have other artifacts that are jammed in corners here and there, all over the place, and can't show it, but we need to be able to store it properly.”
He has also been investigating the idea of hosting travelling exhibits, which involve bringing in an exhibit and setting it up for three months. Four different exhibits could be set up each year.
“The common area in there will be used for multiple things. It could be educational classes for kids to be able to hands-on do things,” he said.
“We need a larger meeting room. And that just makes us a little more competitive with other areas and it gives us a revenue base that we need.”
The two lots were purchased with money that was donated by people in the community.
“It was all money donated that I found around in our local area. I was able to get $50,000 and we bought it. We were able to give a tax receipt to cover above the $50,000 to get it,” he explained, adding that the overall cost is going to be around $200,000.
He requested a building permit from Sundre council during the March 17 meeting. He would like to see it built this spring.
Another new initiative the society is working on is having two life-sized wild horses built on the museum grounds. They would be on their hind legs facing each other.
Julian Lee, the ice sculptor who has attended the museum's annual Winterfest celebration for the past few years, is going to build them out of either cement or fibreglass, according to Nichol. He would like to see them built by summer.
The society is also planning on having another 70 feet of fence built on the grounds, like the one that was built earlier this year.
“Everything we do here is for the community.”
