The Shawnigan Lake Museum will receive more than $1 million in a government grant for its expansion project, which will include an enhanced Kinsol Trestle exhibit. (File photo)

Grant to help Vancouver Island’s Shawnigan Lake Museum triple in size

April 19, 2022 // by Black Press Media Staff

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The Shawnigan Lake Museum will triple in size, thanks in part to a government grant of up to $1,078,000.

The funding for Project Impact expansion is from the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program – Rural and Northern Communities Program. The community-supported capital expansion project will boost the size of the Shawnigan Lake Museum to more than 6,000 sq.ft. from 2,100 sq.ft.

“We have been working on the expansion project for over five years,” said Shawnigan Historical Society executive director Lori Treloar. “We are honoured to be a recipient, and grateful, as we know that this project will greatly impact our community.”

The project will position the museum as the cultural hub of the community; it will grow tourism potential in the area; and it will provide space to invite the community and visitors in for events and workshops led by the storytellers of the community.

The project will bring local spending of more than $2 million on construction materials and labour, create many new jobs during the construction, and generate new staff positions within the museum post-construction, said a press release on the project.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the museum welcomed more than 4,000 visitors a year, and delivered cultural programming and events for youth, families and adults in the region with a team of up to 75 volunteers who helped deliver more than 4,000 hours of volunteer service each year.

The society received $480,000 for its expansion project last year from the Government of Canada Legacy Fund – Building Communities through Arts and Heritage program.

That grant celebrated the 100th anniversary of the Historic Kinsol Trestle in February, 2020.

Supported in part by this federal funding from the Department of Canadian Heritage, an enhanced Kinsol Trestle exhibit will be an important part of the overall project.

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