BMO Financial Group is donating $650,000 in the Canadian Canoe Museum‘s new facility in Peterborough.
The $65-million facility will be built alongside the Peterborough Lift Lock on the Trent Severn Waterway, replacing the 1960s-era building currently on Monaghan Road.
The museum will be naming its archive workroom the BMO Financial Group Research and Knowledge Centre, according to a Friday morning press release.
“As Canada’s oldest bank serving communities for more than 200 years, BMO is proud to support The Canadian Canoe Museum,” said Sheri Griffiths, regional president of business banking for the greater Ontario division at BMO. “The new BMO Financial Group Research and Knowledge Centre will offer a unique opportunity for visitors to connect with — and gain a deeper understanding of our country’s history.”
The new facility is meant to make space for the museum’s collection of canoes, kayaks and paddled watercraft, which is the largest in the world. The facility will also hold a collection of rare books, maps and archival materials as well as film, video and recorded oral histories.
“The Research and Knowledge Centre is an integral space in the new museums — one that will offer opportunities to learn and collaborate that right now, we can only imagine,” said Carolyn Hyslop, executive director of the Canadian Canoe Museum. “We are grateful for this generous gift from BMO Financial Group — and for the potential that it brings.’
Construction of the facility is expected to start this spring, with a target opening sometime in 2021.