$34,600 OTF Grant Helps Billy Bishop Museum Keep Soaring

September 23, 2022

OWEN SOUND – Today, local MPP Rick Byers met with the team at the Billy Bishop Museum to hear about the impact of the $34,600 Community Building Fund grant it received in 2021. The grant was awarded by the Government of Ontario and the Ontario Trillium Foundation and has helped the museum take the key step of making its collections more accessible.

“I congratulate the Billy Bishop Museum for all their work in making their amazing exhibits more accessible and interactive through the grant from the Ontario Trillium Foundation. This is a great way to enhance the customer experience of the museum, which is such an important part of our local community” said MPP Rick Byers.

Through the web edition of PastPerfect, the museum’s extensive collection of artifacts will be viewable and searchable by anyone with internet access, on their phones, desktops, laptops and tablets. Funds from the grant were used to help with the costs of PastPerfect licenses, some staffing and critical operational costs.

This has been an incredible journey for the Museum, and an extensive one. It started with a re-homing project that ensured each of its objects had a safe and recorded location, using archival materials. It has been hard at work photographing and cataloguing artifacts this past year and the Community Building Fund grant has make this crucial step possible.

The museum was so pleased with the continued success of its public access site this past spring, that it opened its virtual store of objects to the world. As it works on its online catalogue, the public will be able to search and see updates in real time.

Thank you to the Government of Ontario and the Ontario Trillium Foundation, which delivered the grant program for the government, for helping the Billy Bishop Museum to realize its full potential and make collections as accessible as possible. 

Please see the link here to access the Museum’s online collection and stay tuned for changes and additions; this site represents a living collection that will change, grow and evolve daily! https://billybishopmuseum.catalogaccess.com/

The Ontario Trillium Foundation (OTF) mission is to build healthy and vibrant communities across Ontario. As an agency of the Government of Ontario, and one of Canada’s leading granting foundations, last year, OTF invested nearly $209M into 2,042 community projects and partnerships, which included funding for the Government of Ontario’s Community Building Fund. Since 2020, OTF has supported Ontario’s economic recovery by helping non-profit organizations rebuild and recover from the impacts of COVID-19. Visit otf.ca to learn more.