[BCMA] Britannia Mine Museum Wins Two Prestigious Awards of Excellence

Thu Jan 26 15:30:47 PST 2012

For immediate release

January 26, 2012

Britannia Mine Museum Wins Two Prestigious Awards of Excellence
Receives BC Museum Association Award of Merit and AME BC Award for Social
and Environmental Responsibility

2012 Kirstin Clausen and board BCMA Award sm.jpg
Photo caption (high res version available): Britannia Mine Museum executive
director Kirstin Clausen and her Board of Directors with BCMA Award of Merit

Britannia Beach, BC - The Britannia Mine Museum's ongoing success and
accolades continue to roll in as they receive two more prestigious awards
for their recent $14.7 million restoration of the museum's heritage site.
The first award is the coveted Award for Social and Environmental
Responsibility from the Association for Mineral Exploration British Columbia
(AME BC), and the second is the Award of Merit from the British Columbia
Museum Association (BCMA). 

"It is a huge honour to have the Museum recognized by our museum and mining
peers with these two awards," says Kirstin Clausen, Executive Director of
the Britannia Mine Museum. "I remember thinking our original vision of
redeveloping our enormous site might have seemed impossible in the
beginning. But the words of Walt Disney 'It's kind of fun to do the
impossible' really captures the spirit and drive of our team in the past ten
years. We couldn't have achieved so much without the help and support of our
Board, and our industry, government and community partners."

AME BC Award for Excellence in Social and Environmental Responsibility

The Britannia Mine Museum was honoured with the AME BC Award for Excellence
in Social and Environmental Responsibility. As the site of a former mine
with a challenging operating legacy, the Association acknowledged the
Museum's recent renovation and its commitment to tell the story of
Britannia's modern environmental stewardship story.  Also being recognized
was the Museum reinventing itself by considering sustainable building
designs while preserving the museum's historic site and artifacts. The
Museum's goal was to keep as much of the heritage sites and salvage and
reuse as much of the existing buildings and materials as possible while
creating an enhanced visitor experience. 

Designers embraced the eclectic nature of existing materials while utilizing
modern design structures to give the Museum's facilities a sense of
modernistic architecture while retaining its historic culture. Connections
with the environment and nature can be seen in the creative use of water,
wood, stone and copper elements throughout the site. The new Visitor Centre
is clad in a combination of dark-stained local Douglas Fir siding and
pre-patinated blue-green copper panels made of recycled content pay homage
to the Britannia Mine's copper mining days, when it was once the British
Empire's largest copper mine.

BCMA Award of Merit

Executive Director Kirstin Clausen was the recipient of the coveted BCMA
Award of Merit which is given to an individual or institution for a recent
outstanding, innovative, or creative achievement in the museum, art gallery,
archives or heritage field in British Columbia.  The award recognizes her
role with leadership in the outstanding achievements in fundraising,
historic restoration, museum interpretation and education associated with
the recent restoration and refurbishment of Britannia Mine's site. 

The 2010 $14.7 million revitalization of the Museum turned a mining legacy
site into a vibrant internationally recognized education and tourist
destination that can proudly claim its National Historic Site status. The
enhanced site features new venues for local arts and culture, restored
heritage buildings, historical research and preservation, education exhibits
and services, fun family entertainment and engagement.  

Kirstin Clausen has been instrumental in guiding the Museum and its Board
through many milestone projects, including the $5 million revitalization of
the historic Mill Building in 2007, and the recent restoration of the
overall Museum. Clausen has been with the Britannia Mine Museum since 2000.
With nearly 30 years of experience as a museum curator, educator and
administrator, Clausen's interest and background has taught her the
importance of keeping museums vibrant and relevant to visitors.  

"Our success focuses on a balance between entertaining and educating
visitors" continues Clausen. "I'm proud that the success of the Britannia
Mine Museum is something that other Museums are looking to for leadership
and inspiration."  

These awards follow another accolade the Museum received in 2011 from the
Canadian Museum Association when they won the Award for Outstanding
Achievement. 

Located on Britannia Beach, 10 minutes south of Squamish, the Britannia Mine
Museum is open seven days a week from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. with guided tours
several times a day. For ticket and visitation information, please visit
<http://www.britanniaminemuseum.ca> www.britanniaminemuseum.ca. 

About the Britannia Mine Museum:
The Britannia Mine Museum, which is both a National Historic Site and a BC
Historic Landmark, was established in 1971 to celebrate the contributions of
mining and minerals to society, the history of the storied Britannia Beach
community and the ideas and practices of environmental renewal and
sustainability. It is a premier, non-profit organization that promotes
mining awareness through entertaining, experiential education programs,
important historic collection preservation and insightful public engagement.
Governed by the Britannia Beach Historical Society, the museum provides
visitors with a unique blend of experience, serving as a tourist
destination, an adventure attraction and education venue that allows guests
to leave with a better understanding of mining in BC; past, present and
future.
 <http://www.britanniaminemuseum.ca> www.britanniaminemuseum.ca  

-30-
Media contact:

BMM Logo Black+White-01.jpg

Yvonne Chiang, Publicist
Britannia Mine Museum
604-880-5090
E: yvonne at blueskycommunications.ca
W: www.britanniaminemuseum.ca

T: www.twitter.com/BritanniaMine  
F: www.facebook.com/BritanniaMineMuseum 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.vvv.com/pipermail/bcma/attachments/20120126/d8231d6e/attachment-0001.htm 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 32392 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.vvv.com/pipermail/bcma/attachments/20120126/d8231d6e/attachment-0002.jpeg 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 4597 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.vvv.com/pipermail/bcma/attachments/20120126/d8231d6e/attachment-0003.jpeg 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: BMM BCMA AMEBC Awards FINAL.pdf
Type: application/pdf
Size: 38964 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.vvv.com/pipermail/bcma/attachments/20120126/d8231d6e/attachment-0001.pdf 