Fashion History Museum co-founders look outside Waterloo Region to extend future

The Fashion History Museum is closing its doors in Cambridge, but there’s hope it could find a new home. CTV’s Spencer Turcotte explains.

The days are numbered for Cambridge, Ont.’s Fashion History Museum.

That’s because while fashion often involves thinking outside the box, everything at the museum is going inside a box.

“We’re sad to be leaving Cambridge, but the situation was just not really fixable,” said curatorial director Jonathan Walford.

The city ended the museum’s lease in March, but the final blow came last week when the majority of Region of Waterloo councillors voted against helping the museum find a new home.

“Just asking for staff to look at this and see if we can keep a very valuable arts community within the Region of Waterloo and not lose it,” said regional councillor Doug Craig, who put forward the motion to explore options for the museum.

The motion was defeated 6-8, with councillors saying it’s up to museum staff to find a new home.

“I really don’t think it’s in the wheelhouse of the region to take this responsibility on,” said regional councillor Jim Erb.

The men behind the museum, Walford and executive director Kenn Norman, say rent became an issue with the City of Cambridge.

The city says around $140,000 in unpaid rent has piled up since June 2023.

“We can’t really figure out why we’re even paying rent to begin with. Museums in the region that are a charitable non-profit and live in a government building don’t pay rent. They pay a dollar a year. That’s what THEMUSEUM pays. That’s what Homer Watson pays. That’s what Clay & Glass pays,” said Walford.

He says the problems started when council changed and a grant they received, which went toward rent, was cut off. That made the building unaffordable, he says.

“And it should have been obvious because they had all our books for years and years,” said Walford.

The other sticking point with the city has to do with the living situation of the co-founders.

“One of the things that got out was that we actually live upstairs, which is true. But it was suggested that we live there for free. We pay about $30,000 a year to live there for free,” said Walford.

With all of it reaching a boiling point, and solution in sight, it looks like the Fashion History Museum will be moving on from Waterloo Region.

“We’re really hoping that we can be somewhere that’s commutable. I just want to thank all those people who came out during the last two decades,” said Norman.

So while fashions fade, museum staff say they’re doing everything they can to ensure the museum doesn’t fade too.