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Six of the 12 provincial museums that were slated for closure in the Nova Scotia government’s February budget cuts have been spared from the chopping block.
The Department of Communities, Culture, Tourism and Heritage confirmed Monday in a statement to CBC News that the six museums will reopen as community museums operated by local societies with funding assistance from the province’s Community Museum Assistance Program (CMAP).
The department did not disclose a full list of the museums or the amount of funding they’ll get, but Ross-Thomson House in Shelburne County confirmed to CBC that it had received the offer, and McCulloch House in Pictou posted on its social media page that it is set to open in June.
The Queens County Historical Society, which operates the Perkins House Museum in Liverpool, announced Friday that it was expecting an annual grant of $50,000 from the program.
The department’s statement said museums must be “in good standing” to be eligible for the program, which supports Nova Scotia’s community museums by providing funding to preserve, protect and interpret the province’s heritage.
“This includes having a primary mandate to conserve, research and exhibit material related to Nova Scotia’s human or natural history, and to own — or manage by agreement — a publicly accessible collection.”
The other six museums will remain closed for now while the department considers a range of options, the statement said. That includes trying to identify organizations capable of operating the facilities, at which point program funding would be considered.
In 2025-26, the program provided a total of nearly $1.6 million to 67 museums in the province, according to a document shared by the department.
Devin Casario, executive director of the Association of Nova Scotia Museums, told the CBC’s Maritime Noon that CMAP funding was reduced by $320,000 in the budget cuts, and there are now 70 community museums and the six newly added provincial museums scrambling for a share.
“So we’re asking is the pot going to be replenished, is there going to be more money given to that program,” Casario said. “Those are questions yet to be answered.”
He called the province’s funding cuts “devastating for the museum sector,” noting his association lost $73,000 in funding and other provincial sites have seen a 20 per cent reduction.
“These museums are community hubs often in rural and disparate areas,” he said. “They serve their communities in ways above and beyond just simply coming into a museum and seeing artifacts.”
Casario said the museum sector anticipates further budget cuts on the horizon and they have been seeking opportunities to get back to negotiations with the province.
“We want to ensure that the museum sector is left whole at this point because we can’t sustain any more cuts.”
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