The Oil Museum of Canada has another provincial award of excellence on its shelf.
The county-run museum in Oil Springs, birthplace of North America’s oil industry, received the Ontario Museum Association’s Award of Excellence in Exhibitions earlier this month.
It came after the museum received an Award of Excellence in Programs last year from the provincial museum association.
“The fact we won one and then won one a second year is pretty exciting,” said curator-supervisor Erin Dee-Richard.
The latest award follows a $1-million renovation of the main building at the oil museum. It officially reopened to the public in May.
The museum tells the story of how North America’s oil business got its start in Oil Springs in the 1800s, when the first wells were drilled, and how oil drillers from Lambton took the technology developed in Lambton County’s oil fields around the world in the years that followed.
A 2018 assessment of the main museum building identified the need to upgrade heating and cooling, fix a leak in the foundation, update accessibility, improve the electrical service, and replace walls of windows in the main gallery.
The work was carried out over the space of a year while the museum was closed to the public while the county took the opportunity to also update the exhibition in the building to include an interactive projection timeline, touch screens, an immersive projection room showcasing the impact local drillers had on the international oil industry, a virtual reality set that dives into an oil well and explores the geology behind the formation of oil pools, and a bubbling display showing the different viscosity of oils.
Dee-Richard said museum staff have been hearing positive comments from museum visitors since reopening earlier this year.
“To have it recognized as well in the museum field by your museum peers is kind of nice too,” she said.
The award is selected from nominations from museums across Ontario and focuses on new and innovative exhibitions.