It’s been a challenging year for The Exploration Place and the Fraser-Fort George Museum Society.
Recent reports offer potential optimism about the museum’s financial future, but they also highlight the consequences of disastrous decisions. Under its previous administration choices were made that moved the museum away from where it thrived: Engaging, child-oriented programming that brought local families back again and again.
Under its former leadership by Tracy Calogheros, The Exploration Place diverged from its successful foundation and undertook a costly, poorly considered renovation in 2022. Instead of revitalizing the museum’s child-friendly identity, the shift in direction alienated its core audience — families and school groups — leaving admissions and memberships to steadily decline.
Although the new upgrades may be visually impressive, they came at a steep financial cost and failed to bring with it renewed programming and the community focus that once made the museum a bustling hub for education and entertainment.
Now, the financial toll of that shift is fully visible.
A year after the Regional District of Fraser-Fort George extended a $500,000 loan to keep the museum afloat, the organization is still working its way out of the financial hole Calogheros dug before her retirement last year.
The society’s 2024 budget projected a surplus of $270,906, but instead it ended the year with a $325,510 deficit. Its liabilities outweighed its assets by nearly $400,000.
These numbers reflect more than just the difficulty of recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic. They underscore mismanagement, unrealistic budgeting, and a vision that strayed too far from the museum’s successful roots.
City council has twice rejected requests for a $10,000 grant to assist Exploration Place — a telling signal of how far its standing had fallen.
The January 2024 loan agreement with the regional district laid out strict financial targets, and by Dec. 31, 2024, the museum had already failed to meet one of them, with its line of credit exceeding the limit by $25,000.
Yet, despite that miss, the regional district board accepted the year-end report, bolstered by promising signs for 2025: a projected surplus of $19,211, a reduced line of credit, increased memberships, and better-than-expected revenues for the first quarter of the year.
Executive director Alyssa Leier, who took the job last June, deserves credit for starting to turn the ship around.
By trimming staffing levels by 44 per cent, she has brought monthly expenses down significantly while preserving essential operations and even increasing programming levels.
But it’s worth noting that Leier inherited a troubled organization — and has had to spend her brief tenure correcting a course set before her.
Encouragingly, Leier’s team has reinstated some preschool programming which has led to growth in both admissions and memberships, all a clear indication that returning to a more family-focused model is the right move.
The gradual reinstallation of STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) exhibits also signals an overdue shift back to interactive, educational fun — the very foundation upon which The Exploration Place built its reputation.
Still, challenges remain. The museum must continue making debt payments, stay within tight borrowing limits, and secure external funding.
But today, there is reason for hope. The regional district has chosen to stand by the museum, and its leadership now appears focused on sustainable growth, clear financial targets, and rebuilding community trust. However, that trust will only return if the museum society fully embraces what once made The Exploration Place special: a warm, accessible, and imaginative environment for children and families.
The path ahead is narrow, but not impassable. Let this moment be a turning point — not just financially, but philosophically.
The Exploration Place doesn’t need to reinvent itself; it needs to review its history and remember what made it successful.
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