Sherbrooke museums host Federal Culture Minister
The new Federal Minister of Canadian Heritage and Multiculturalism, Pablo Rodriguez, was in Sherbrooke on Monday for a visit to the Sherbrooke Nature and Science Museum, the Sherbrooke Museum of Fine Arts, and Actions interculturelles de développement et d'éducation (AIDE), a local group that works to support immigrant integration in the workplace.
Just under one month into his role, Rodriguez said that the goal of his visit was to meet with museum workers in their own environments and better get a sense of their needs and lived realities.
“I have a lot to learn,” the Minister said, adding, “It’s extremely important to go out and learn from people who do this on a daily basis. They know best
what we should have in terms of programs.”
Michelle Bélanger, Executive Director of the Nature and Science Museum and President of the société des musées du Québec, Quebec’s museum association, said that she found the informal meeting a good opportunity to highlight challenges being faced by institutions across the country, particularly when it comes to funding for digital archiving.
According to Bélanger, only 17 per cent of the collections of Canadian museums have been digitized, leaving the vast majority of artifacts out of the reach of the general public. Although a program currently exists through Heritage Canada to support funding for digitization projects, the formula requires the museum pay half the cost of the work and that, according to the society president, is often still too expensive for some institutions to manage.
“We need to find ways to make better use of the resources available,” Bélanger said.
Although Rodriguez said his impression of the conversation to date is that people in the industry are generally satisfied with the Federal Government’s level of involvement in the world of culture, he underlined the fact that his ears are open to issues and concerns as he continues to make visits across the country.
In the meantime, the Minister said that he found it very interesting to return to Sherbrooke, having been raised here and graduated from the Seminaire de Sherbrooke, which stands directly across the street from the science museum.
“It was a very interesting experience,” He said adding, on a more general note, “I love museums; they reflect who we are and host exhibitions that allow us to see where we are going.”