renovation – Renville Museum

In late summer 2019, we began the process of giving the museum a makeover. The place to start was literally a place to start: a space we could use as a base of operations.

Enter the kitchen.

The kitchen space filled with objects and equipment. — The Kitchen: Before

In the museum’s early years, this space actually was used as a kitchen for events like the ice cream social. Over the years it became a sort of hybrid display and storage space, with kitchen-related collection items mixing in with extra chairs and tables. Since it is also the only closed room within the museum, it made sense to give the space purpose again.

To clear some space, we first moved the tables and chairs out. We then cleared out the two large built-in cupboards before starting on the actual collection items. Some pieces were moved to be displayed elsewhere, some we chose to keep in the space we now called the kitchen/office or “k/office,” and the rest we moved to our storage room (the organization of which is for a different post, but every item we stored is now easily located for future displays).

Then it was time for a deep clean, a fresh coat of (donated) paint, and the return of a few work tables.

The former kitchen, now a more functional space, with cleared shelves and tables and new gray walls. — The “K/Office”: After

Of course, it only looked like this for about two minutes. Currently, it looks something like this:

The kitchen/office space, now filled with boxes and piles of things. — The K/Office: Reality

This is where we have been sorting, cleaning, indexing, storing, and creating new displays for the rest of the museum. The chaos in the K/Office translates to a refreshed and reorganized Renville Museum that we can’t wait to share.

Speaking of sharing, we’re now on Facebook and Instagram!

The Renville Museum is getting an overhaul beginning in 2019!

The Museum was first brought to life and nurtured by a passionate group of volunteers with an interest in preserving and sharing local history. Early events and exhibits were carefully planned and well-attended, and fundraising events (like the “Old Tyme Vaudeville” shows of the early 1980s) were big successes. The volunteers in the Historic Renville Preservation Commission managed some big updates to the Museum, including the restoration of the old City Jail and the addition of a basement under the old schoolhouse.

But that was all more than 30 years ago.

The Museum has now outlived many of those original volunteers. A few dedicated souls have kept it going, but it needs some TLC – and a new generation of volunteers – to really take on a new life.

The improvement process has started, as many great improvement projects do: by making a huge mess! The collection has grown so much over the years, it is literally bursting out of our storage space. The first step is to answer two questions: what do we have? And how can we best preserve it?

As we go through the entire collection (not overwhelming at all), we’re also planning new displays, creating a website (welcome!), painting walls, creating a digital catalog, researching and writing, and much, much more. If you have an interest in helping, whether it’s for a day, a month, a year, or for eternity, we need you. And we have a job for you, no matter your skill or interest.

Currently, the Museum is closed for the winter months. There’s still plenty going on behind the scenes, and work in the building will pick up in the spring. We will re-open for Sugar Beet Days in June 2020.

Interested in volunteering? Please contact historicrenville@gmail.com.

Tag: renovation

Museum Makeover: The Beginning

Renville Museum in 2019: Old and Improving