The Brome County Historical Society (BCHS) is launching the 27th edition of its “Bring and Bid” auction. This year’s event will raise funds for essential improvements for the Lac-Brome Museum and Archives Centre. 

Denis Piquette, executive director of the BCHS, told CIDI that Bring and Bid has “always been one of our key fundraising events.”

“When we get donations from various events, and even from the government, ..  the money is allocated to a bunch of different areas. One of them is to maintain our ongoing collections management and to make sure that we are very professional in the maintenance of our museum and our artifacts. There is also fundraising that is required to pay for staff and programs, but it’s also important to maintain the health of our buildings,” he said. 

The BCHS’ mission is based on two words - preservation and conversation, noted Piquette. And it’s an “ongoing process” to ensure that its buildings are maintained. 

The BCHS oversees a number of historical buildings, including the old courthouse, the Martin Annex, the old fire hall, the Tibbits Hill school house, the old academy, the Paul Holland Knowlton house, The Marion L. Phelps Memorial Building, and the Centennial Building. Together, these buildings form the Lac-Brome Museum.

“Every year you get blasted by wind, cold, and rain. Anything from paint, to wood, to even entrances and stairways, we always have to make sure that we are maintaining good building health throughout the organization. I could go on and on about the number of different little things we have to do, but overall every year there is a lot of work that we need to do to maintain the health of our museum properties,” Piquette highlighted.

Piquette explained that some BCHS members and local citizens may have seen published information about the BCHS receiving financial support through government grants - it received a $472,320 grant from the Ministry of Culture and Communications earlier this year - but these grants are usually reserved for operational expenses or programs. 

“It’s very rare that we can use these funds for building repairs or renovations. So it’s very important that we have money set aside for that. The other important fact that we have to respect is that most of our governing financing is also dependent on how much of our own income we generate,” he explained. “We even had a meeting with representatives from the Ministry of Culture and Communications and, again, they reinforced that it’s really important for all museums in Quebec to generate as much as their own source of revenue, which would include ticket sales and donations. It’s very important for us, despite having gotten some government funding, to be able to stand on our own two feet.”

Piquette said that Archives Centre, which is housed in the old courthouse, is a priority for the BCHS team this year. He described the courthouse as a “gem” in the town. 

“The roof, when we did an inspection when we changed our chimney earlier this year, we discovered that it is a newer roof and we’d actually like to put a roof in that matches the historical nature of the building. Secondly, we also  want to upgrade our heating and air conditioning system. (...)  We have approximately 50 meters of archives and we want to maintain proper heating and temperature control, this is one area that we want to address,"  Piquette said. "The third thing, you may have noticed those beautiful pillars at the front of the courthouse. Those pillars will need some reparations in the upcoming year to make sure that they are solid for decades to come.”

For those that want to support the BCHS, Piquette said that Bring and Bid involves two things - bringing and bidding. 

“We require donations of items for sale. Whether it’s furniture, jewelry, personal antiques, as well as experiences, like gift certificates for different things. So we ask people to bring, or to send to us, items that we can sell at the auction sale. Part B is bid. So we ask those people in attendance to bid on items and hopefully they will bid for a premium price that way it will maximize the donations that we get at the end of the year,” he explained. 

Bring and Bid will take place on Nov. 4. More information can be found on the Lac-Brome Museum’s website.