The Delta Cultural Centre has moved a step closer to completion.
Delta council has approved the last two contracts to transform the former courthouse into an interpretive storytelling centre to convey the cultural and natural history of the city.
A pair of contracts worth more than $1 million were awarded for the design, production and installation of the millwork, graphics and interactive elements for the centre as well as digital media technology such as projectors, touch-screen and audio devices.
Parks, recreation and culture director Ken Kuntz said the 6,500-square-foot centre in the civic precinct in Ladner has a soft opening scheduled for late April.
Four years ago, the Delta Museum, which had been housed in the century-old former municipal hall building in Ladner Village, closed its doors and its collection was put in temporary storage. The museum was there since 1969.
The Delta Museum and Archives Society, now called the Delta Heritage Society, continues to own the artifact collection and has a say in what the new museum will offer, but has relinquished day-to-day operational control to the city.
The city is working with the society reviewing which artifacts will be part of the new museum collection.
The city’s Heritage Advisory Commission was told 35,000 artifacts are being reviewed.
The collection is being be trimmed to eliminate items deemed not suitable or redundant.
Items recommended for removal will be offered to like-agencies through a listing on the BC Museum Association’s website. If no other agency is interested in the item, it’s then placed on BC Auction, a website available to all levels of government where the public can bid on assets.
Delta has also been working with the society and Kirkland House Foundation to identify locations for the public display of artifacts or items removed from the museum collection.
