Cultivating a Cultural Community; The Exploration Place & Argus

The Exploration Place in Prince George, British Columbia is both a museum and a science centre, with a wide variety of collections and materials, including archives, oral histories, digital materials, artefacts, and paleontology, and archaeology collections—all made visible and accessible via the Argus CMS.  

In 2006, The Regional District of Fraser-Fort George brought a number of cultural institutions together—including The Exploration Place—for planning, support, and programming. With Argus, The Exploration Place Museum and Science Centre has implemented a collections management system flexible enough to address its own needs and requirements, as well as the varying requirements of seven cultural partners: The Central BC Railway and Forestry Museum, Huble Homestead, Mackenzie Museum, Valley Museum and Archives, Valemount Museum, Lheidli T’enneh First Nation, and Two Rivers Gallery. 

These partner organizations benefit from having their cultural collections safely stored and properly managed by EP’s subject matter experts. Argus makes it easier to transfer and track materials between organizations, and because their collections show results in seamless searches, the CMS provides an increase in visibility for smaller, seasonal operations—those who perhaps lack internet access and would otherwise be unable to Web-mount their collections. Per Ms. Tracy Calogheros, Chief Executive Officer of the Exploration Place, “Ease of access, expanded visibility, and proper care and management of our cultural heritage is better for users, residents, and collections.”

We sat down with Ms. Calogheros and Curator Alyssa Leier for a fascinating conversation about the rich variety of collections they are documenting with Argus. We invite you to learn more about how they leverage Argus on behalf of their growing community of cultural partners. To read their full success story, please click here.