Digitization Case Study:
St. Boniface Museum

Striking the Right Chord at the St. Boniface Museum

The St. Boniface Museum, located just across the Red River from Portage and Main in Winnipeg, has participated in three digitization projects since 1997. Each has culminated in a virtual exhibit now hosted on the Virtual Museum of Canada (VMC) Web site. Pierrette Boily, the Museum's Curator, has worked on each of the three projects. Lise Brémault, the Collections Manager, has had the opportunity to work with Pierrette on the final two. Both agreed to share their experiences on working on these three very different and challenging exhibits.

Background: CHIN Executive Produced Virtual Exhibits
CHIN initiated all three of the "Executive Produced" virtual exhibits undertaken by the Museum and Pierrette was eager to take advantage of the invitation. Since 1995, the Canadian Heritage Information Network (CHIN) and its member museums have worked together to enhance the public's knowledge and appreciation of Canadian heritage via Executive Produced virtual exhibits. Previously available through the CHIN Web site, more than 25 of these exhibits became available through the VMC when CHIN launched this portal in March of 2001. As a result of its successful executive productions, and the support of the Canadian Digital Cultural Content Initiative, CHIN developed a new program in 2001 to respond to the heritage community's desire to present content online: the VMC Investment Program. Executive Produced virtual exhibits now complement the VMC Investment Program by developing exhibits whose topics are not addressed by museums producing projects within that framework.

Executive Produced virtual exhibits are also defined by their collaborative nature. In its role as Executive Producer, CHIN brings together Canadian and International museums, as well as other heritage organizations and government departments, to work collectively on virtual exhibits of mutual interest. Special emphasis is placed on involving smaller institutions with the intent of raising their public profile and of imparting multimedia knowledge and skills. As Executive Producer, CHIN is responsible for managing the multimedia company selected to work with the museum partners and develop the technical aspects of the virtual exhibit. CHIN additionally plays the primary role in defining the topics to be covered by Executive Produced virtual exhibits. It seeks content that will enrich and diversify the VMC exhibit themes and proposes relevant topics to the museum community. As a partner in the Government of Canada's Young Canada Works employment program, CHIN also helps museums participating in Executive Produced virtual exhibits to create internships.

The Exhibits Described
The first, entitled Gestures and Words, was a fine arts exhibit, which profiled the works of French-speaking artists, which are represented in eleven institutions across the country. CHIN took a strong leadership role in this project, hiring a curator to gather the information for the exhibit and providing a project coordinator, whom assisted with both logistical and technical requirements. The Web site design and development was contracted out through CHIN as well.

The entire project took approximately 5 months to complete, with Pierrette serving as the Museum coordinator. With the assistance of a student hired throughYoung Canada Works, over 80 Museum images were collected and documented for the project. In the end, 12 images made it into the main exhibit gallery and the rest were put into the storage area so visitors could still maintain access to them.

Staying In Tune was the second virtual museum exhibit undertaken by the Museum. This exhibit highlighted traditional musical instruments from various contemporary cultures.

A number of Museums located in Canada, Europe and Africa participated in the project. Through funding arranged through CHIN, Lise was hired as the project coordinator for the Museum. CHIN again provided assistance with the logistical and technical aspects of the project. CHIN also hired a musical specialist from Montreal to ensure the content of the contributions from each participating Museum was of high quality.

This project was unique in that it included a community collaborative process. With the participation of local high school students, the exhibit featured 20 musical instruments found in the Museum's collection. Each student studied the artifacts, researched them, played them and then wrote a narrative for each. The process was extremely creative and marked a departure for the way in which the Museum usually worked with its community.

The design for the exhibit allowed for sound bits to be incorporated into the website. Unfortunately, by the time Lise was able to record three of the students playing the instruments, it was too late for the sound bits to be included in this section of the exhibit.

The final virtual exhibit entitled Living Traditions: Museums Honour the North American Indigenous Games will be launched on July 24th, 2002 at the St. Boniface Museum, and Pierrette has completed research for the project. A smaller project than the first two, the Museum contributed 15 images to the exhibit, as well as content for an interactive flash game. This exhibit celebrates the North American Indigenous Games (NAIG), taking place in Winnipeg from the 25th of July to the 4th of August 2002, and features a historical overview of the sports and games of North America's Indigenous peoples. The St. Boniface Museum provided content specifically on Metis sports and games. Much of this work had already been undertaken for an exhibit the Museum organized during the Pan AM Games held in Winnipeg in 1999, so the task was somewhat easier to handle this time around. Pierrette gathered all of the research and artifacts for this project without the assistance of a contract staff person. CHIN continued to provide the project coordinator and to manage the Web site design and development.

Growing With The Technological Advances
Not only has the technology changed from the first virtual exhibit undertaken by the St. Boniface Museum, but also the expertise of the staff has increased ten-fold. The collection had never been photographed properly and this required that a photographer be hired to photograph all the art works used for Gestures and Words. Because the Museum had yet to be connected to the Internet, all 80 slides of the artifacts were sent to CHIN via Canada Post. Communication between the CHIN project coordinator and the other participating members of the project was conducted through telephone conference calls or by Canada Post.

The Staying In Tune exhibit was put together in a similar fashion. Lise had photographs of the artifacts taken and they were sent, along with the cassettes of the sound bits, to CHIN via Canada Post. Communication was aided, however, by the fact that the Museum had been connected to the Internet and messages could be sent back and forth to CHIN and to other participants. Conference calls were conducted but given the many time zones involved, these proved challenging.

The third exhibit, Living Traditions, has been somewhat a technological triumph for the St. Boniface Museum. Pierrette enlisted the aid of the archivist at the Grey Nuns Archives to take photographs of the artifacts with a digital camera, which meant that the images were digitized in-house, saving both time and money. Lise had just attended the CHIN workshop on digitization held in Winnipeg in the fall of 2001 so she understood "pixels" and the process involved. Although some of the photographs used had already been reproduced for the Pan Am exhibit, they had to be converted from duatone, to black and white, and then digitized. This was also accomplished in-house without additional contract staff needing to be hired. Finally, all the images were sent via the Internet using a file transfer protocol to upload the photos to a site that the multimedia company and project coordinator could then access. Like the other two exhibits in which the Museum participated, Living Traditions will also be available through the Virtual Museum of Canada Web site.

The biggest difference between the first exhibit and the third is that the participants in the last project have had more input into the design and development of the exhibit site. Gestures and Words was designed with very little input from the curators about the look of the site, as the technology was so new, and opportunities to change it limited. With the Living Traditions site, the site designer provided examples and everyone participating could make suggestions as to the final design. As a result, Pierrette feels that this exhibit has a better "feel" to it and reflects her own ideas on how the exhibit should look.

Of course none of the technology would matter if the artifacts used in the exhibit were not accessible. Both Pierrette and Lise found that they spent a great deal of their time updating their catalogue cards for the artifacts used in all three exhibits. For example, the artifacts selected for Staying In Tune needed far more information than what was found in the collections management records. The Internet proved to be an invaluable tool as Lise used it to discover new and exciting bits of information about the artifacts. This discovery of new information, coupled with working with the school students on the project, made this exhibit Lise's favourite.

The Museum had never before dealt with copyright issues as they pertain to digitization of images for use on the Internet. Luckily, CHIN's project coordinator was invaluable in assisting in this regard. The Museum acquired the appropriate copyrights for all the images used for the exhibits. CHIN would like the images used for Living Traditions to be included in Artifacts Canada. Pierrette feels that she will have to review the copyright issues before that occurs, but is confident that it will not be a problem.

The Museum has retained masters of the images. The slides taken of the artifacts for the first two exhibits have been returned and the digitalized images taken for the third have been kept on the Museum's computer and copied onto a CD-ROM. Pierrette is somewhat concerned about the conservation of the images on the CD-ROM and she plans on keeping current on the latest conservation practices for digitized images.

Reaping the Rewards of the Virtual Exhibit
Interestingly enough, both Pierrette and Lise claim the greatest benefits of participating in these projects were not, as one would expect, the greater visibility their Museum experienced by having an exhibit on the web. Rather, they cite the opportunity the projects afforded them in documenting at least part of their collection and in developing closer ties to the community. The artifacts chosen for the exhibits are now better catalogued and each now has their own digitized image that can be used and manipulated for other Museum projects. The Staying In Tune exhibit forced the Museum to work outside their institution and to develop a strong collaboration with the local high school. This, they hope, will continue for future projects.

That is not to say that the visibility their Museum has enjoyed as a direct result of participating in these projects is not important. The hits on each of the exhibit sites has been high and for at least a year after Staying In Tune was launched, the St. Boniface Museum received many requests for more information about the musical instruments in their collection. CHIN anticipates that the Museum will continue to benefit from high visibility, as it has been selected as the location for launching the Living Traditions exhibit.

The on-going relationships they have established with CHIN and with the partner museums is another positive benefit. Lise, along with two students from the high school, were invited to Moncton for the launch of Staying In Tune. This was an opportunity to meet colleagues from home and abroad. One of the partner museums for Gestures and Words, Maison St-Gabriel, has shared their travelling exhibit with the St. Boniface Museum, something that Pierrette doubts would have happened if their paths had not crossed while working on the exhibit together.

All three exhibits were initiated and guided by CHIN. Without their direct involvement, Pierrette doubts that she would have been able to participate in the projects. The same person coordinated all three exhibits on behalf of CHIN and Pierrette has established a strong working relationship with her. Pierrette credits her with solving many technical glitches that occurred along the way.

Funding for each project was either obtained directly through CHIN or arranged through other sources such as Young Canada Works. Having the funds to hire photographers and additional staff to assist with artifact documentation determined whether or not the Museum would be able to participate.

As with any exhibit, the timeline was very tight. Because the exhibits were initiated through CHIN, the Museum was not afforded the luxury of advance planning for the projects. Pierrette felt that the short notice of each project given to them, coupled with the tight timelines, put a great deal of pressure on a Museum with few resources to begin with. She would have preferred to have had at least a year's advance notice for each project. This would have allowed her time to incorporate the exhibit into her general Museum exhibit plan. As it was, Pierrette found she was often working on two exhibits at the same time, in addition to her other duties as the Museum's Curator. On the other hand, because resources are often stretched, the Museum might never had embarked on developing their own virtual exhibit if left to their own timeline.

Participating in these virtual exhibits have resulted in a very steep learning curve for the St. Boniface Museum and its staff. They feel honored that CHIN allowed them to participated in the projects and greatly appreciate the support given to them. They now feel confident in their use of the technology and know that they would be able to produce their own exhibit without the direct involvement from CHIN if they so desired. However, the time commitment involved makes them very reluctant to jump into another project in the near future. Pierrette claims that the next project "will have to really grab me" and be directly relevant to the Museum's permanent exhibits. It sounds like she's starting to plan the next one already.

Written by:	Wendy Molnar, Cultural Visions Consulting
Edited by:	CHIN