Portage museum staff resigns to support ousted curator

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This article was published 24/05/2018 (2162 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A curator credited with turning around the fortunes of a Portage la Prairie museum, taking it from 2,500 visitors per year to more than 15,000, has been let go, triggering local outcry and staff resignations.

Tracey Turner was told just days before she was to resume her eighth season as the curator-executive director at Fort la Reine Museum that her contract would not be renewed. The museum board has given few details about the decision except to say it wants to go “in a different direction.”

Five of the museum’s six staff members have resigned in support of Turner. The museum, which was supposed to open May 10, remains shut.

The Friends of Fort la Reine Museum recently met and are demanding the board offer a proper explanation.

“It doesn’t seem logical given her accomplishments,” said Mitchell Omichinski, a Portage resident who hosted the Friends meeting. “She was a great promoter. Attendance increased five fold.”

The museum includes a replica of the La Verendrye fort that existed near Portage in the mid-1700s, as well as a pioneer village with 30 or so buildings, including the former home of Manitoba premier Douglas Campbell.

Turner was credited with new programs like Metis cooking classes and ghost walks at Halloween with lights and ghouls inhabiting pioneer buildings. She also made the museum wheelchair accessible, and was active in building relationships with indigenous and Metis communities.

Omichinski said there had been cost overruns at times but nothing egregious or out of the ordinary for a not-for-profit museum.

Dale Wood, chairman of the museum board and a councillor for the RM of Portage, was seeding and did not return messages over a three-day period. Neither did the board vice-chair, Larry Gibb, also an RM councillor, or Melissa Draycott, a councillor with the City of Portage.

The board released a statement May 15 saying it could not give details regarding its decision “due to in part the personal and confidential nature of such a decision.”

Neither could Turner be reached for comment. However, she issued a statement to the recent Friends meeting, which was read out loud by her daughter.

“I am incredibly proud of the cultural work that I and my museum team accomplished creating and delivering a unique heritage experience,” she said.

The board revised the constitution over the winter without input from Turner or public consultation. One of the changes makes the curator-executive director liable for cost overruns. However, Turner was still prepared to sign the contract when she met the board in late April.

Turner, who commuted daily from her Winnipeg home, was responsible for innovative programs like a Dickens Christmas, re-enactments of local murder mysteries, and an examination of the life of Anne Frank. She was recently nominated for a marketing excellence award from Central Manitoba Tourism.

The museum is now scheduled to reopen June 1. Barry Loewen, who did the bookkeeping for the museum, and Alison Loewen have been named interim museum directors until a new curator-executive director is found.

bill.redekop@freepress.mb.ca