N.B. Museum gets out-of-province help with fundraising

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A Saskatchewan-based firm has been hired to help raise at least $23.7 million toward the revitalization and expansion of the New Brunswick Museum.

DCG Philanthropic Services will coordinate what will be an international fundraising campaign for the almost $132-million project, according to Tracy Clinch, chair of the museum’s board.

DCG has been tasked not only to reach out to potential international donors who fund cultural and heritage projects, but also to support the museum’s foundation and other stakeholders on local fundraising efforts.

“We know that the businesses of New Brunswick are very supportive of the museum, so we anticipate, and are very hopeful, that this support continues throughout this campaign,” said Clinch, a Moncton business owner who was appointed by the province to the museum board as its chair in February.

Clinch couldn’t say how much DCG will be paid for its fundraising services, noting she wasn’t “privy to that information.” However, she confirmed the board hired the firm, but the decision was made “before my time.”

DCG has led several high-profile fundraising campaigns in the Saskatoon region.

More than $40 million was raised by the firm to revitalize Wanuskewin Heritage Park, a sacred gathering space for Indigenous peoples of the Northern Plains. The company was also behind the largest sports project in Saskatoon’s history, raising $63 million to upgrade the Gordie Howe Sports Complex.

DCG recently inked a deal with the City of Miramichi to raise funds for an $84.9-million multiplex project. The firm was awarded a two-year contract worth $278,100, plus taxes.

Last month, the New Brunswick government pledged $58 million toward the revitalization of the museum’s Douglas Avenue building in Saint John. It marked a long-awaited commitment from the Higgs government, which cancelled an earlier $50-million pledge toward a new waterfront museum made by the former Brian Gallant Liberal government in 2017.

The federal government will be contributing $49.9 million to the new Douglas Avenue project – double what it was prepared to do for the waterfront project back in 2018 – but Clinch said “at least” $23.7 million will need to be collected through fundraising efforts.

Clinch has experience in leading transformational community projects. She is the chair of ResearchNB, a funding organization that supports health, energy, forestry, agriculture and ocean projects across the province. She’s also on the board of the Friends of The Moncton Hospital Foundation, which funds additional equipment and services to augment the hospital’s resources.

“I think looking at this museum project like a business is a good way to achieve the goals that are set for the build,” Clinch said.

New marketing strategy in the works

Construction work is expected to start at the Douglas Avenue site this spring as the fundraising campaign gets off the ground.

Ontario-based firm EllisDon was recently selected as construction manager for the project, but the museum is still awaiting the necessary land use planning approvals from the City of Saint John in order to proceed with construction work.

The project requires the rezoning of six properties to allow for a 130,000-square-foot expansion and parking lot to augment the museum’s existing 1934 building on Douglas Avenue. Some of these properties are still being acquired by the province for the project.

Saint John council is expected to vote sometime in May on the museum’s application for rezoning and municipal plan amendments for the project. The city’s planning advisory committee is recommending approval to council.

In the meantime, Clinch said the museum’s board is working on a new marketing and communications strategy to be ready by this fall. She acknowledged the museum needs to reengage the public as it doesn’t have dedicated exhibition space right now.

The New Brunswick Museum permanently closed its exhibition centre at Market Square in the fall of 2022, citing ongoing building issues. The centre had already largely been closed since the start of the pandemic in March 2020.

A 65,000-square-foot research and collections centre opened in west Saint John in December 2023. Museum staff are currently working out of the Lancaster Avenue building, which is now housing the museum’s entire collections under a single roof for the first time in decades.

Efforts are underway to strengthen the sharing of collections with local museums, she said, so the province’s story can be told in “every area” of New Brunswick.

A new modern museum building in Saint John will not only attract New Brunswickers, but it will serve as a tourism destination for international and national tourists.

“I think there’s a big opportunity,” Clinch said. “I think one of the things this building does is it affords us enough space to be able to tell the story of New Brunswick, and I don’t think that has ever happened before.”

– With files from Andrew Bates