RED DEER MUSEUM AND ART GALLERY

Location: Red Deer, AB
Project budget: n/a
Completion: Mar 2010

The Red Deer Museum and Art Gallery, originally built in 1977, provides a dedicated space to research, collect, preserve and display artefacts that represent Red Deer and District, relocating the museum from the basement of the Recreation Centre. It was expanded in 1982 to accommodate the Archives from the Red Deer Public Library. This expansion included an addition to the galleries as well as the enclosure of the front entry to create an interior atrium space. The Archives required another small addition to their space in 1993. In 2008, the building began a two phase renovation which was completed in early 2010. The first phase involved the upgrade of the public washrooms to barrier free standards; the second phase incorporated a larger scope to meet the growing needs of the Museum and Art Gallery, and the surrounding community. The new design creates open galleries to provide more flexibility for potential exhibitions and transforms the atrium space into a formal entry and administrative work area. Classroom, boardroom and other staff areas are redesigned to better serve the staff and public needs. The archives and storage areas, including museum collections, have been virtually untouched during the renovations; therefore remain intact. Options were also explored to build the existing storage areas to archival standards. The recent renovations create an improved environment for staff and visitors as an appropriate interim solution until a new museum can be funded elsewhere.