Building toward the future

COEUR d’ALENE — Britt Thurman has been executive director of the Museum of North Idaho for 18 months.

While she’s enjoying it, there are days when she’s not sure how well she’s doing her job.

She can erase any doubts. As of May 5, she can be confident she’s doing it right.

The Museum of North Idaho was presented with the Sister Alfreda Elsensohn Award for its outstanding work. Given annually by the Idaho Humanities Council and Idaho State Historical Society, the recognition includes $10,000.

Thurman was beaming with pride during the program fittingly held in the historic Fort Sherman Chapel.

“We're on the right track,” she said. “We're doing great work with preserving history, sharing it with the community. We have much bigger plans to do even more of that. And so to receive $10,000 on top of receiving an award goes a long way to helping us build that new museum and making sure that all of those plans we have for the future can come about.”

The award is named for Sister Alfreda Elsensohn, who founded the Historical Museum at St. Gertrude in the 1930s. Sister Alfreda collected, preserved, and interpreted artifacts from Idaho County and the surrounding area to educate the public.

ISHS Executive Director Janet Gallimore said the award was established in 2008 to invest in museums and similar organizations across the state and build strong history and humanities efforts.

“And to give that sense of place, so important to our community development, economic development and just expanding people's ability to think about why these places in our communities across the state are important, from the past to the present,” she said.

Prior award winners include the Bonner County Historical Museum, Sandpoint in 2008; Wallace District Mining Museum, Wallace in 2013 and Latah County Historical Society, Moscow, in 2015.

The Museum of North Idaho gets about 6,000 visitors each year between April and October.

Currently, The Museum of North Idaho occupies a 4,371-square-foot building by City Park. After 40 years there, officials say the museum collection has outgrown the space.

It is planning an 11,500-square-foot facility to house exhibits, art and educational resources, with a goal to be a premier regional museum.

The $5.5 million project includes renovations to the J.C. White House, site design and development, an expanded lower level wing, climate-controlled spaces and a rooftop terrace for its new future home at McEuen Park.

To date, $2.6 million has been raised through grants, foundations, and private donations.

The goal is to open by spring 2023.

David Pettyjohn, IHC executive director, said it’s a rigorous review process, with nominations solicited from both boards.

He said the Museum of North Idaho was selected “for its strong experience in collecting and preserving the history of the area, as well as its efforts to move forward with the new museum, as well as just remarkable programming.”

He said one of the things that both the Historical Society and the Humanities Council believe is that museums are critical to Idahoans for a variety of reasons.

“We have to understand one another, we have to understand our history, we have to understand where we came from so we can move forward together,” Pettyjohn said.

Gallimore said another reason why the award is prestigious is that it is not a competitive award or something you apply for.

“We look for what we think is the best talent and the best vision and the most vibrant organization for that year,” she said.