The Comox Valley Community Foundation has awarded a $5000.00 grant to The Cumberland and District Historical Society for their Cumberland Museum Multi-Media Project. This project aims to transfer existing video and audio recordings to digital format (approximately 25 VHS videos and 50 cassette recordings) and update and upgrade basic museum equipment for use in recording and capturing interviews with residents, elders, experts. They will also purchase a projector, screen and lap top for the presentation of videos and images to students, researchers and the wider community.
The Cumberland Museum has a wonderful inventory of images and interviews from elders, many of whom have passes away over the past 20 years. These interviews include amazing stories about the history of our community. However, these cassettes and video are also in a format that has become obsolete and the quality of the tapes is degrading as each year goes by. In order to preserve the incredible content contained in this these interviews the Museum requires the resources to contract a professional to protect these tapes while transferring the data to digital format.
In addition the Cumberland Museum is entering into an important Community Interview Project and is in need of this new equipment to capture images, video and audio interviews with community elders. Is has been almost 20 years since a concerted effort was put on community interviewing in Cumberland. As part of the Community Interview Project staff also aim to develop short videos/audio of interviews and to add them to the in-house research library and to post to them to the new website. In addition, the digital camera will be used to photograph individuals as well as records, archives, documents and items in their collections. The projector, lap top and screen that will be used to show videos and images to students, residents and the general public at educational or cultural events in our community. The projector will also be used by guest film makers to screen their films/documentaries in the Museum and elsewhere in the community.
