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Museum’s growing inventory moves into new collections building, Phase Two is next!

August 26, 2015 | In the Press

From Cut Bank Pioneer Press (http://www.cutbankpioneerpress.com/cut_bank_pioneer_press/news/article_68ed122c-4b98-11e5-a1e4-e7dc23b06025.html)

Museums are living, breathing and constantly growing places. And the more they grow, the more space they need to tend the items entrusted to their care.

The Glacier County Museum is one of those places that has outgrown its living quarters, its display rooms, its storage spaces and its rooms to sort, catalogue and clean all the artifacts they have in their possession.

It has been a dilemma for museum curator and director Dennis Seglem for a number of years.

“Each year, the Glacier County Museum welcomes new objects into its collections. These objects and their stories give new insights to the history and people who lived and made Glacier County what it is today. However, the growth of the collection over a number of years can present challenges and the lack of space at the museum has been becoming more of an issue as each year passed,” said Seglem.

In order to make room to sort, catalogue, clean and house historical items, Seglem said they have had to, from time to time, temporarily close certain exhibit spaces at the museum so that the new collections had a place to “live.”

A number of possible solutions were considered, but the bottom line was the little museum in Glacier County just did not have the funds or the resources to create additional buildings or space for all the collections they needed to house.

But just when things started to look their bleakest, along came a solution and a very good one.

When the new construction site for Glacier County EMS was finally determined, they needed to find homes for two of the structures on what was the space where Glacier Fun Center once lived.

“The museum was asked if they could reuse the buildings of the former Glacier Fun Center, which was a 20 foot by 24 foot office and a 24 foot by 28 foot garage. We said yes and the end result was a structure the staff at the museum began moving into at the end of May of this year,” Seglem stated.

Last August, the two structures were moved to the museum grounds and then starting in January of this year, work began on the two buildings. Another building was built right between the two buildings and they were all connected, making one large building, housing a processing room, cleaning lab and storage room which holds nearly 9,000 catalogued objects.

“The museum staff began moving into the building at the end of May. And while there are a few small projects yet to be completed, the finished product is near,” Seglem said happily.

He added, “Funding for this project came through a combination of support from the county as well as funds donated to the museum. Among the local contractors that helped make this project a reality were, Karl Krapf Construction, Liberty Electric, Dave Momberg Plumbing, All Seasons Heating and Nygaard Excavation. We would like to offer a special thanks to all the individuals who worked on this project.”

In the front of the building, which used to be the office of the Glacier Fun Center, a processing room now exists. “Here, there will be stations for staff and volunteers to sort, number, photograph and catalogue everything into a computer software program. Objects awaiting processing are kept on shelves in a nearby room. Adjacent is a cleaning lab where objects that need minor cleaning and stabilizing are brought for treatment. Other activities done in the processing room include sewing, making supports to stabilize objects and packing smaller objects in acid free boxes,” he said.

The middle room and back room of the new building acts as the storage room for the 9,000-plus catalogued objects. There is plenty of room for metal shelves to house the smaller objects and enough floor space for the larger items.

“The mission of the museum is to collect, preserve and interpret the history of Glacier County,” Seglem said. “This new collections care center is essential to the long term care of artifacts. This facility has the stable environmental controls and will extend the longevity of collections.”

The new building is drawing a lot of attention and was viewed by many over the Lewis and Clark Festival weekend, including a number of alumni. “One visitor commented, ‘thank you for taking care of my history.’ And another recent visitor said, ‘What you are doing with this building is preserving history for future generations,’” Seglem said. And they were right, on both accounts.

While Phase One is completed, or nearly so, “the collections project is not over yet. Now we run right into Phase Two,” Seglem said. “This facility was planned with expansion in mind. The current building has assisted us in getting caught up and is already nearly full. We would like to put a 34-ft. by 60-ft. addition in the back to provide more space for more collections. In the front, a 24 foot by 40 foot education center is planned to connect the public to collections, featuring changing exhibits and workshops on collections care.”

Right now, Seglem has some good and qualified hands and a number of volunteers helping make all the changes at the museum happen. Betsy, his wife and volunteer, has been overseeing the move of the collections. Jacob McIlvain was hired as the summer groundskeeper and his sister Laura was also hired to help with a number of sewing tasks. Cheryl Crail and summer intern Gillian Mahoney have been busy organizing collections and cataloguing the items.

The museum is open Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Seglem said they can always use volunteers, “and cash donations are absolutely accepted,” he exclaimed. “

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