To lead the Canmore Museum Collections Re-Imagined initiative, the Canmore Museum welcomes Mercedes Cormier from the Royal Alberta Museum.
The Board and staff at the Canmore Museum are pleased to announce that Mercedes Cormier will join our team as our new Collections Officer. Mercedes will begin her journey with us on May 17, 2021.
As Collections Officer, Mercedes will be leading the Canmore Museum Collections Re-Imagined Project. This initiative will be completed in four phases between 2021 and 2024, over which the museum will inventory, assess and evaluate, research and move what is accepted into the museum’s Core Collection to our offsite storage facility organized with the guidance and input of a community-based advisory committee and guided by the community’s heritage values.
To this role, Mercedes brings 8 years of progressive experience at the Royal Alberta Museum, starting, as many of us do in the cultural sector, as a volunteer, then to Collections Technician, to her recent role as Collections Management Assistant. In this role, she was responsible for helping lead the recent move of the Royal Alberta Museum’s collection from the museum’s old Glenora location to their new museum building and current offsite storage facility. In that intense three-year project, she has handled and helped re-house nearly every object in the RAM’s vast collection. Mercedes is currently working with various collections at the RAM to finish up post move tasks. She has experience in working with human history objects, natural history specimens, and collections representing Alberta’s Indigenous communities.
“Being part of the Move the Museum project at the Royal Alberta Museum was a once in a lifetime opportunity. Moving a museum is a unique experience and I really did get to work on a little bit of everything. There is never a dull day when you are relocating enough textiles to clothe a small nation, mitigating mould and other hazards, or finding the best path into a new building for a full-size adult elephant mount,” stated Cormier.
In coming to the Canmore Museum, Mercedes says, “I can honestly say that I am a little bit obsessed with collections management. There is no task too big or too small that I shy away from. Sorting, organizing, and making objects accessible in a safe and useful manner are key to my practice. In collections work everyday is different and every object is different, so I pride myself on using creativity and practicality to solve complex object related mysteries. The detective work is one of my favorite aspects of collections work, the more curious and unconventional the better. There is nothing more rewarding than solving something that might seem impossible.
I look forward to bringing my creative and practical problem-solving skills to the Canmore Museum to meet the challenge of revitalizing what it means to be a museum and most of all getting to share the joy I find in collections with the community.”
Mercedes has a degree in a Bachelor of Science degree in Human Ecology from the University of Alberta and is working towards a Graduate Diploma in Heritage Resource Management with Athabasca University.
“As we build the Museum of the future, we wanted someone in the role with a deep understanding of managing community collections. We also needed someone with the ability to develop the museum’s collections to reflect the diversity of communities and lived experiences resulting from 10,000 years of interconnected stories of human history in the Canmore region more fully. We are now well positioned to move the Museum’s collections into the future with the breadth of experience and education that Mercedes and the rest of the collections team brings to the Canmore Museum,’ stated Ron Ulrich, Executive Officer with the Canmore Museum.
Working with Mercedes in an advisory role will be Gail Niinimaa. Gail is a well-respected conservator and collections manager in the museum sector, with over 25 years experience with the Glenbow Museum and 7 years with YouthLink Calgary Police Interpretive Centre.. Today, Gail assists museums such as Fort Calgary, the Museum of the Highwood and others with similar RE-ORG initiatives and museums such as the neighbouring Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies with conservation projects. Her work as a contract member of the Canmore Museum collections team is funded by a grant by the Alberta Museums Association. Gail is well known in the Canmore community, in part because of her other passion, cross-country skiing and Biathlon at the Canmore Nordic Centre.
Mercedes joins Sarah Knowles (Visitor + Membership Services Officer), Anna Rebus (interim Program Officer), and Ron Ulrich (Executive Officer) at the Canmore Museum as part of the Core Team.
Please join us in welcoming Mercedes to the Canmore Museum and to our community.
