Animas Museum expands its space

by Chuck Slothower
Herald Staff Writer

Article Last Updated; Monday, September 29, 2008 8:47AM

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YODIT GIDEY/Herald photos

Jan Postler places a tricycle in the new storage space, the top floor, of the Animas Museum on Friday. Reconstruction of the building's historic roof gave the museum a fourth floor, and staff members have moved the permanent collection into the new space.

YODIT GIDEY/Herald photos

A Boudoir doll is protected with "seat belts," acid-free tissue paper and other items to keep it safe during the move.

The Animas Museum is undergoing a major moving operation that will significantly expand its exhibition space.

Reconstruction of the building's historic roof, a $700,000 project completed in 2007, gave the museum a fourth floor. Museum staff and volunteers are moving the museum's permanent collection to the new floor, leaving two rooms on the ground floor available for exhibitions.

"Our current collections spaces have become overcrowded, really overflowing with things," said Robert McDaniel, museum director. "Moving the collections up into this new place will give it much better environmental controls (and) more square footage."
The museum, at 3065 West Second Ave., is a nonprofit effort owned and operated by the La Plata County Historical Society. Its 35,000-item permanent collection includes maps, pictures, various documents, mining and railroad artifacts, pueblo pots and buttons from 19th-century clothing.

The two ground-floor rooms are "ideal for public programming," and feature wheelchair access, McDaniel said. One will become a research library, while the other will be a multi-use space for exhibits and programs.

Home for History, as the project is called, will be complemented by additional laptops and wireless Internet access for the museum's staff. Now, the museum has only one computer connected to the Web.

Volunteers and workers were moving the collection Friday and continued the work Saturday and Sunday. Another "moving episode" is planned for the spring, McDaniel said.