The HMCS Alberni Museum and Memorial in Courtenay, B.C., is marking its final day of public operations on Nov. 11 after years of declining attendance and revenue, but its operators plan to preserve the collection and develop travelling exhibits.

The Vancouver Island museum honours the 59 men who died when the corvette HMCS Alberni was sunk off England during the Second World War. Founder and executive director Lewis Bartholomew told Global News the organization intends to spend at least two years restructuring rather than shutting down completely.

“We just won’t have a physical presence for a while,” he said.

Bartholomew said annual attendance had fallen from between 6,000 and 7,000 visitors to 759 last year. Donations provide most of the museum’s income, and the people working or volunteering there could no longer keep covering expenses themselves.

Two years ago, the board began planning to liquidate the collection. But Bartholomew said the museum’s role as an official Canadian Veterans Memorial, along with its responsibility for personal histories entrusted to it by families, led operators to reconsider.

The collection includes artifacts and remembrances that families wanted shared publicly. Bartholomew said operators did not want to turn those items over to another museum or a private collector.

Instead, they plan to reassess programming, including activities for veterans and children, and convert exhibits into portable displays that could visit museums and festivals around Vancouver Island.

The closure follows a series of earlier disruptions. Bartholomew told Global News the museum had survived three flash floods in its current building, two arson attacks, the COVID-19 pandemic and roughly 18 moves since 2012.

While the community has helped through previous difficulties, he said securing another permanent location would require more funding from a foundation or an individual benefactor.

The museum is scheduled to remain open until sunset on Remembrance Day. Bartholomew said a bells-of-peace ceremony would begin around 5:30 p.m. in the hallway, with 100 bell strikes and the reading of veterans’ names. Members of the public attending would also be invited to ring the bell in remembrance of their own loved ones.

Sources