Children’s museum hiking rates, cutting programs to ease financial turmoil

The Manitoba Children's Museum in Winnipeg, Man. (Manitoba Children's Museum/Facebook)

The Manitoba Children’s Museum is facing an inflection point, its leadership reports, as it rolls out cost-saving measures aimed at steering the organization out of financially stormy waters.

“We find ourselves in a critical but not catastrophic position,” museum executive director Trevor Clearwater told CTV News in an interview.

According to the executive director, the organization has been navigating ‘significant operating financial deficits’ over the past four to six years, owing in part to teetering admission numbers.

“We didn’t recover as well out of COVID as some of the other arts and cultural organizations may have,” he said, noting admission has still not returned to pre-pandemic levels.

In addition to lagging attendance, the historic building that houses the museum’s CN locomotive and passenger coach, splash lab and lasagna-shaped play structure has required urgent maintenance, further compromising the museum’s bottom line.

“An old and historic building like that comes with exceptional expenses,” he said.

In its 40th year, Clearwater said the museum is now taking on a number of ‘belt tightening’ measures in an attempt to ease the financial burden. Among them – hiking admission rates, closing two days a week, and ending a number of subsidized or free admission programs.

This includes a ‘wildly popular’ pilot project giving free admission to Indigenous, First Nations and Inuit attendees.

“When it was created, we were looking at other museums in the neighbourhood and in our markets that offer similar programs, and their uptake was somewhere in the range of two to five per cent,” Clearwater explained.

“In our case, it was considerably higher, yeah, so that program became untenable financially.”

Clearwater noted other programs are staying put, like one granting free admission to people facing socio-economic barriers.

The museum’s next attempt to find solid financial ground is to pursue more sponsorship from outside donors, as well as possible grants and endowment streams.

A fundraising event is also on the books for September.

Clearwater also hopes Manitobans will show their support by reconnecting with the museum.

“Just come and visit again and re-familiarize yourself with why we’re an important place in the community.”