Most of us know the first part of Alexander Graham Bell’s take on opportunity: “When one door closes, another one opens…” What we often don’t recall is the second half of that quote, where he says: “…but we so often look so long and regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us.”
I’m not going to lie; it’s going to be hard not to look long and regretfully at our closed doors. After all, the Currency Museum has been a fixture in the Bank for over 30 years now, and closing up shop has meant having to say goodbye to not just a physical space, not just an era, but to some good friends as well. Nevertheless, when I do tear my gaze from the closed to the open doors, it’s hard not to feel the tingle of anticipation. The entire Museum is poised on the brink of a sea change, and this blog is part of our attempt to bring you, our audience, along for the ride.
So, here’s the deal. We’re looking at being without a permanent home until sometime in 2016. To cope with that reality we developed a strategy on how best to use that time.
We settled on three major priorities:
- Bring the message of the Bank to Canadians with a series of travelling exhibitions
- Enhance our online presence
- Create a newly-imagined, expanded Museum ready for launch upon the reopening of the Bank’s HQ.
So that’s what we’re going to be doing.
For the next few years, the Museum will be producing a series of exhibitions that will travel across Canada - with the goal of launching a new one at least once a year for the next few years. Along with this, we will put together a series of related, smaller exhibits that will travel to non-museum spaces, like shopping malls and libraries, across the country.
We’re also going to get serious about bringing the Museum’s website into the 21st century; we’re looking to launch a new interactive, social-media-savvy, and just plain engaging online presence by the summer of 2014.
And finally, we’re going to be working like crazy to plan for the new, expanded (did I mention we’re getting bigger?) space we will call home before too long - a Bank of Canada Museum reimagined from the ground up, rooted in current best museum practices and design.
Keep your eye on this blog and, along with us, you can watch it open, door by door.
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