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Photo credit: South Peace Regional Archives
By Curtis Galbraith
City Hall

Design for new SPRA part of presentation to city council

Jun 1, 2021 | 5:30 AM

A design for what the new home of the South Peace Regional Archives would look like has been put together.

It was part of a presentation from the Archives to city council at Monday’s meeting. Executive Director Alyssa Currie says it includes four key areas.

There would be a public welcome space with rotating exhibits, a lobby, meeting space, and gift shop.

“We also are going to have a public reading room and that is going to be a comfortable, welcoming research hub for the community. We’ll be able to look out over Muskoseepi Park and make use of our reference library, reference files, microfilm reader, and computer workstations.”

Currie says five windows currently covered by displays will be uncovered again so the public can have that view of Muskoseepi Park.

There would also be staff workspace and a collection storage area. Currie adds the new staff area would provide a big increase in operational capacity, allowing the Archives to use volunteers and staff in ways they can’t at the current location at the Grande Prairie Museum. The collection space would have environmental controls and specialized equipment to protect the records the Archives holds.

Currie says many people come to the Archives to research their own family history.

“We frequently have visitors to the Archives. They can be anyone from somebody who is investigating their own local history. We get quite a lot of requests about land history. They are looking for information, for example, about their family property or a homestead application.”

Currie says the new location in Centre 2000, the same building where the Visitor Information Centre is located, will also make it more convenient for people from other places who are here as tourists to check into their own histories. Currie says they have already had several requests like this.

She adds this design is very likely what the final one will look like.

“There may be some changes as we begin building the facility but, for example, the location of the vault. There really is one location where that space can be made use of and we’ve built this preliminary design to make use of the existing strengths in the facility.”

The plan is for the Archives to take over the Centre 2000 space in early 2023, renovate, and move sometime that same year. The total cost would be $1.15 million. Currie says fundraising and grant writing will be done in the meantime.

The presentation also included a proposed breakdown of who would cover the cost. The Archives would put in $120,000 and fundraise for another $75,000. Four municipalities would also be asked to contribute, with the city being asked to contribute $150,058. That request has already been made and will come up in future city budget discussions.

The County of Grande Prairie will be asked to contribute $100,145, the MD of Greenview $90,312, and the MD of Spirit River $14,484.

There would also be grant requests to the provincial and federal government of $287,500 each with a second grant proposal of $25,000 also going to the federal government.

by Curtis Galbraith