The Canmore Museum will begin offering a variety of services online beginning September 4. Hastened by the COVID-19 pandemic, Museum staff have been working diligently since early July to bring a number of services online as part of its re-opening strategy.
Museum Shop | The Canmore Museum will be offering a a curated selection of gifts, jewelry and books through its new online Museum Shop. This collection of merchandise reflects the breadth of the shop’s new merchandise lines which highlight the culture, history and landscapes of our mountain community.
Membership Services | Members will soon be able to renew their membership, make a donation, and update their membership profile through the Museum’s new membership online portal.
Online Collections | The Museum will provide access to its photograph and artifact collections. Each week, additional images and artifacts will be added to the online catalogue. Visit this link for a sample of how artifacts from our collection will be viewed online, this from the collections of Historic Richmond Town.
Augmented Reality Experiences | The Canmore Museum has been collaborating with local high school student Colin Fearing to render some of our artifacts as intricate 3-D models to help make the museum’s collection accessible to the public when in-person interaction is more difficult than ever. These experiences will be available through an app which Colin has also created and available to download through the new museum website. >> learn more
The COVID-19 crisis is rapidly transforming the cultural landscape and the way audiences experience museums and the accelerated move towards digital engagement sparked by the COVID-19 quarantine will not be a short-term fad — this will be one of the lasting ways that the pandemic will shaped how we engage with our community and audiences. As museums bolster their digital strategies faster than anyone could have ever planned for, creating digital experiences, content, and channels will become even more vital for the Canmore Museum. A number of these projects have been in the works, others on the back burner. The pandemic has brought them to the forefront of our new operations model as we look to re-open on September 4.
-Ron Ulrich, Executive Director
To understand the work the Museum team has put into accelerating the work of putting the museum’s collections, shop and members services online, read this article by the Globe and Mail, Going Digital Is Not Easy for Cultural Institutions.
