.Prince George, B.C. -CEO of  Exploration Place,  Tracy Calogheros was bursting with  excitement at the news  the museum’s application for  funding had been  approved.Northern Development Initiative Trust has approved $202 thousand dollars  for the “Condensed Collection: Just Add Wheels” project.  May not sound too exciting to the average person, but the project will allow the museum to by  mobile racking and reconfigure its  collection spaces  and that means  the museums storage capacity  for artifacts and documents will increase by more than 70%.

So what?

Well it means that with the  extra storage space, the museum won’t be forced to turn away donations, or cull the current collection.

“This new project will essentially be an internal expansion, buying the museum many years of breathing room before bricks and mortar considerations are necessary,” said Calogheros “all while maximizing the use of our existing space.  It’s a vastly more efficient use of the same square footage.”

The project has a total budget of over $400,000 once staff time is factored in.  “This will involve packing and moving out our entire collection,” said Calogheros, “a monumental task in and of itself; then the removal of a few internal walls, the installation of the mobile racking and finally the reinstallation of our holdings.”

The project is slated to start in October, and be  complete by next spring.

Calogheros has applied for additional funding through the British Columbia Arts Council – Capacity and Sustainability Fund, and intends to find the remaining dollars in the Museum’s existing operating budget.

The  existing racking  has been offered to the  Prince George railway and Forestry Museum, and any other  equipment that  becomes availabe as the collection is moved, will be offered to other partner organizations in the Region.