VBT announces museum to reopen in December

About 40 people attended the Van Buren Township meeting at the Belleville Area District Library on March 16 to hear the township’s plans for the Belleville Area Museum, which has been closed for more than three years.
Elizabeth Renaud, Van Buren Township director of community services, is in charge of the museum, as well as parks, recreation, the senior center, and construction of the expanded community center. Director Renaud said the township plans to reopen the museum the first part of December with the “Festival of Trees.”
[Actually, the Festival of Trees is copyrighted and the Belleville event was changed to “Festival of Holiday Trees” when Diane Wilson was museum director.] Renaud said the township has spent $400,000 on the museum since 2019.
“We’ll give you the best building we can,” said Supervisor Kevin McNamara to the people in the audience, adding the Historical Society has to reform so it can run the museum.
Renaud said they have detected a new leak in the basement in a different spot and that needs to be fixed.
They have no plans to hire a museum director, McNamara said.
“That building was in terrible shape and those repairs had to happen,” said Belleville City Manager/Police Chief Dave Robinson.
“Van Buren Township spent a lot of money on it,” he said, adding now it will be a reburbished facility that is structurally sound. He said the public will have to rebuild its Historical Society and organize among themselves.
Supervisor McNamara said now they are giving the museum back to the experts – the public.
He said the volunteers will have to go through the archives and decide which things are no longer needed. He said, for example, there are ten shovels and they can decide which ones to keep – if one was owned by an historical figure, for example – and which ones to return to their owners.
The meeting began with presentations by Good Design Group consultants, Jennifer Beyer and John Metcalf, who were hired by the township in February 2022 to come up with a museum plan, but not contacted until the township set up a June 2022 public meeting. At that meeting, the public was asked to write what it wants for the museum on yellow sticky notes.
On March 16 the consultants presented drawings showing a redesign of the building interior to show where exhibits could go. The lack of a gift shop was pointed out by Brian Cullin, who said that was an important part of the museum income.
Beyer said in the 2022 survey the public said they had no problem with being charged admission to the museum, but people said the hours had been inconsistent and inconvenient which were barriers to use. The new hours should have evening and weekend times, she said.
She said the collections have a historical value, and need to be collected and preserved, but they are now difficult to access and they should work with curatorial experts to establish a collection plan. Paper should be separated from objects and there should be digitization and public access. There also should be a plan for storage and they need to make sure there is space for people to visit the records.
She spoke of the programming, which the survey showed some liked and some didn’t. The public said they were looking for the opportunity to learn about local history.
Beyer said the consultants recommended a regular programming be established for families, school groups, and history enthusiasts and they should set up access to an expert on local history. She said there should be tours and docents to be present to teach the local history.
She discussed what the survey showed about exhibits and recommended they create dedicated space for certain exhibits, build partnerships with other museums to bring in exhibits, update and organize permanent exhibits, and have the exhibits be reflective of diversity.
Then Metcalf took over to speak about the layout of the museum, which ended at the connecting link built to give access to the old fire hall. He suggested exhibits should show Native American and early history, the river flowing through, the huge development in the 1800s, development of the lake, and Willow Run.
There could be a community corner, where local collections would be exhibited. He said a collection of clocks would have been good for the Daylight Savings Time period.
“Where do we hang our coats?” asked Barbara Miller from the audience and Renaud showed her a big closet near the east door that would work.
John Juriga asked how often the exhibits would be changed and Renaud said it will be part-time staff and no full time director. She said they will be relying on volunteers. She emphasized that everything that was donated was still at the museum. She said they have thrown nothing away.
John Delaney said the community has lost through death so many jewels who knew the local history over the last few years. He urged her not to give anything away or throw anything away.
Renaud said they have a surplus of yearbooks and she has given some away when they had multiple books for those years.
Delaney said there is content on the history of this area in the Henry Ford Museum and they should get it for this museum.
Donald Martin, who said he moved to Florida and then back to Belleville, said he and his son enjoy history. He said the Belleville Museum he remembers felt like you were in an old building and he doesn’t know what they’ve done inside now. He said old buildings are the best like the Ypsilanti museum where you walk into an old building. Do not modernize, he said.
“You don’t want to modernize displays talking about old history,” Martin said.
Mary Ban said her brother-in-law’s Air Force uniform was upstairs in the museum and she asked if it was still on exhibit. Renaud said one man came and picked up his uniforms, but the rest are still there.
Ban said the township should put out a handout to describe what’s going on and Renaud said they will advertise it the way they always do with ads in the Independent and items on the township website.
Ban said she belongs to the Ypsilanti Historical Society and every few months they get a publication, “Gleanings,” that is full of stories about the history of Ypsilanti, which is very informative.
She said the Ypsilanti Museum and other museums have people who are in college doing internships and docents working on their degrees, which Belleville could do. She said this area was part of Willow Run and took part in saving this country and used Rosie the Riveters. She noted the Ypsilanti museum opened in August 2020 after COVID.
When asked about what use the former fire hall behind the museum will have, since it wasn’t on any of the reports from the consultants, Renaud turned the discussion back over to McNamara.
McNamara said it will be a decision of the township board, but the township could retain the fire hall and use it as community space. “That is the plan,” he said.
McNamara said this museum area is in the center of Van Buren Township and the township wished it had a downtown.
“We would like to be part of downtown,” he said, noting the community space could be a place for weddings, showers, concerts, and bar mitzvahs.
“It’s up to the board,” said McNamara. “I’m not sure.”
Cullin asked where the archives will be if the fire hall is turned into a community space.
Renaud said the archives are not stored the way they should be and what way that should be is something to be figured out.
Cullin asked if the fire hall could be used for the archives and Renaud said she wouldn’t say no and they are looking into it.
Cullin said the Ypsilanti Historical Museum has a climate-controlled area for the archives where tables can be pulled up for the public to do research.
“What are you going to do with the Model-T and Horse Carriage?” asked Juriga.
Renaud said they could be switched out in the new display area between the museum and the fire hall. She said there is room for only one because they had to put in ADA and lost some space.
Renaud said this has to be a group effort. There are some items on loan and some were donated and they need to look at this. She said there are 30 lawn tools.
A woman who identified herself as a Chippewa native, who recently moved from Ypsilanti to Van Buren Township, asked what kind of exhibits they would have for the native people who have lived here for 30,000 years and made the forced march to Kansas. Metcalf said there would be a Native American display.
Janine Poole said eight years ago her father donated a lot of military things to the museum and the former museum director told her it was in storage, in the archives, but it has never been displayed. She said she hopes it is still in storage somewhere.
Keith Bruder said they are going to need the fire hall for storage. It’s logical because it’s right next door, he said. He said a community dance hall is cute, but they are adding a big addition to the township hall and, “I don’t think another dance hall is needed.”
Bruder said Native American history is important, “But we don’t have space for a walk across Kansas.”
Martin said there is enough stuff for everyone to do and people should volunteer their time and make this happen as a community. He said they need to teach the entire history and not a segregated history. He suggested making the fire hall a fire museum like in Ypsilanti.
He said he moved to Florida and they don’t preserve history in Florida, they just tear it down and rebuild.
Martin said local people have to be concerned about preserving old buildings and making sure they are well-preserved.
Juriga asked if the museum would be able to have a quilt show and Renaud said there is a flexible exhibit space upstairs.
A man said the last quilt show at the museum had 500 quilts and the show started downstairs and continued upstairs.
Ban said she became interested in the Ypsilanti Museum because of a program on the Underground Railway. She said the Huron River was used as a part of the Underground Railway.
Claudia Roullier asked when the public could tour the museum and Renaud said that wasn’t possible now.