Community Museum Assistance Program
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History

1960s to 1994
The Province of Nova Scotia has been extending financial support to community museums since the mid-1960s. The Nova Scotia Museum Act authorizes the NSM's Board of Governors "to administer grants to museums and to cooperate with other bodies engaging in museum activities". The Nova Scotia Museum has developed a network of 27 provincially-owned museums. At the same time, the NSM has participated in the growth of autonomous community museums, which receive part of their operating funds from the Province.

By the late 1980s the program supported 51 museums but was closed to any new participants due to budget constraints. Understandably, potential participants were disgruntled with the moratorium. Those already in the program were dissatisfied with the lack of standards within the museum community.

Throughout these years, the Museum Assistance Program remained essential for the financial support of community museums. The program evolved through review and assessment. A simple evaluation system was developed to measure success of participating museums.

1995 to 2000
In 1993, a five person study team (NS Museum staff and a representative of the Finance and Operations Branch of the Department of Education and Culture) developed the parameters of the current program. The Federation of Nova Scotian Heritage (FNSH) was invited to appoint an advisory committee from its museum membership to assist the study team. Through a series of regional meetings, museums from across the province were solicited for input to help determine the direction of the program. Museum representatives were clear that eligibility requirements to remain in the program were necessary, and that evaluation should play a role in dispersing financial assistance. A significant result of community consultation is that participant museums have wholly subscribed to the current policy and program.

Consultation resulted in a revised policy (1994), in which evaluation was an important component. The program built an evaluation tool to be carried out by peers. Peer assessment was seen as a form of museum staff education that allows for firsthand observation and comparison of operations with other institutions. It has played an invaluable role, building ties within the heritage community as evaluation teams travel the province.

In 1995 all 50 museums in the program were evaluated by teams made up of three members: one NSM staff (team leader) and two members (board or staff) from community museums. Museums submitted an Application and evaluation teams used a detailed Onsite Evaluation for assessment. Scores of both these assessment tools were combined to produce an overall score for each museum. The highest score was 76.9% and the lowest 25.5%. The minimum score to remain in the program was set at 26% by the NSM Board of Governors.

This initial assessment was a base mark for each institution. They were then re-evaluated over the next three years, one-third each year. In 1998 the first rotation was completed: the high score was 84.2% and the low 27.4%. The average overall increase from 1995 was 5.1% but some museums actually increased by as much as 20%.

Four museums did not meet eligibility conditions in 1995 and had to be dropped from the program at the end of 1996.

Community museums quickly began to express that Nova Scotia Museum sites should also be included in the evaluation process. In 1996 five larger sites were evaluated with the remainder completed by the end of this first rotation. At the close of the first rotation the total number of museums in the province (community + NSM sites) in the evaluation process was eighty-two.

In 1997 the evaluation documents were reviewed in consultation with the Federation of Nova Scotian Heritage, the Council of Nova Scotia Archives, the community museums, and the Nova Scotia Museum. Changes to the evaluation tools were based on statistical data gleaned from scores of two years of re-evaluation, the needs of provincial museum sites and input from consultation. A significant change was the addition of a distinct section on Governance. The improved evaluation tools were launched in 1999-2000. Limited financial and human resources did not allow for all museums to be evaluated in a single year, as in 1995, so the new base score was built over a 3 year period.

By 1998 ten new museums had been accepted into the program which became known as the Community Museum Assistance Program or CMAP to distinguish it from the federal Museum Assistance Program. This new name also better reflected the program's important involvement in community development.

In 1999, Board of Governors approved an incremental increase in the minimum score for museums in the program. In 2003 museums must achieve a mark of 50%. The minimum score will be reviewed on a regular basis.