Village News

Museum as Economic Catalyst

  • Gary Dyck, Blog Coordinator
  • Executive Director, MHV

A series on the roles of museums…

People often think of museums that provide good social and educational benefit, but did you know that museums also provide good economic benefits? They enrich our lives socially, psychologically, spiritually, physically and economically. This ‘Museum as…’ series will highlight those areas, just like last week’s edition was about ‘Museum as Public Monastery’.

Museums drive value to the economy by generating GDP, stimulating jobs and contributing taxes. In Manitoba, the contribution of the culture and creative sectors to Manitoba’s GDP is larger than it has ever been and is one of the fastest growing industrial sectors. According to Statistics Canada; cultural GDP accounted for $1.6 billion of the total Manitoban economy in 2016. “There were more than 22,500 culture jobs in Manitoba in 2016 (3.4 percent of all Manitoba jobs). This is more than all jobs in agriculture.. and almost five times as many jobs as in Manitoba’s utilities sectors.” These are not small numbers! The Oxford Economics group also found that every full job at a museum supports an additional job in the economy. This is a higher rate than many other industries.

At Mennonite Heritage Village (MHV), we have over 30 heritage buildings and a large welcome centre with offices and meeting rooms. We are on a first name basis with several roofing, restoration and construction companies. They love us, not just because of what we stand for, but because we provide them a fair bit of work. The upkeep of our buildings also ensures that some older trades like traditional masonry and woodworking can continue in the community.

Employment-wise, MHV provides good jobs for the middle-class and for a couple professionals (ie. Curators). During our peak season (May-September) we have up to 35 staff working here. With government grant help we provide great summer jobs for local university students. Their experience at MHV strengthens their roots and connection with the community, which means the community won’t loose as many of their youth and newly minted professionals to other big cities. In our museum restaurant we have several recent Russian/German immigrants who might not have a job otherwise. We also have about 15 permanent employee – mothers and professionals that work here year round.

Tourism is a big industry in Canada on par with some of our natural resource industries and it has been growing and growing. Of the 45,000+ visitors MHV received in 2018 (up from 40,000 in 2017), many of them are international visitors. Local visitors will contribute tens of dollars to the economy during their visit, American tourists on will contribute hundreds of dollars to the economy during their trip, while other International tourists will contribute thousands of dollars. At MHV we attract many international guests who would not otherwise come to our region. They rent cars, eat out more, shop more, and spend more on accommodation.

Museums like MHV contribute to the positive image of the community and serve as a magnet for business investment and new employee recruits. Finally, as you see in our calendar below, we also help authors sell books, quilters sell quilts, and so on. We are thankful for our bustling economy, for our leaders and the role we can play in it all. May you enjoy your freedom to vote this October 21st!