School visits to the Qualicum Beach Museum were down last year, but staff hope that will change.
“[Visits] were down a fair amount and we figured that was mostly due to the job action and the fact that there were no funds for extracurricular activities,” said Qualicum Beach Museum Manager Netanja Waddell.
Waddell was part of a delegation at the last school board meeting to showcase the museum’s education opportunities and appeal for more collaboration with the school board and teachers in the district.
Waddell said the museum staff want to make sure their programs focus on children and are kept up to date with the curriculum at the local elementary and high schools.
Museums can complement children’s learning and help keep the past alive, she said, and staff and volunteers at the museum want to make sure history continues to be told.
Waddell said all the elementary schools in the district have used the museum’s services and enjoyed them and they expect to see numbers of visits return to normal this year.
A video was shown at the board meeting highlighting the museum and its programs and touched on their desire to expand.
Waddell said they are in the very early stages of this idea but have run out of space at the museum.
“We have simply outgrown the space that’s available here so we need more space especially when it comes to our paleontology collection.”