Opinion: HAVN's floating spa will help keep Vancouver Maritime Museum afloat | Daily Hive

Concept of HAVN Saunas at Vancouver Maritime Museum's Heritage Harbour in Kitsilano Point. (Vancouver Maritime Museum)

Written for Daily Hive Urbanized by David Jordan, who is the executive director of the Vancouver Maritime Museum.

When I took the job to lead the Vancouver Maritime Museum, I did not imagine that four years later, I would be in the middle of a rezoning project so that a floating hydrotherapy barge could moor in the harbour of the museum!

I came into museum work with decades of experience in the non-profit sector, but no maritime history subject matter expertise. I didn’t even have any maritime puns in my toolkit (or as the sailors say, “ditty bag”), but let’s unpack the project a little and see how I got here.

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First of all, this non-profit organization, like most, receives roughly a third of its funding from government grants. The Vancouver Maritime Museum is a registered charity. Those grants have stagnated now for decades.

Governments have not increased funding, particularly operating funding. So, you can imagine what has happened when you don’t increase funding for a service for at least 20 years. We are behind in what we can and should deliver as a public service.

The project that we have created with HAVN is exactly what government, and specifically the City of Vancouver have been telling cultural organizations to do for decades: find new revenue streams and think outside the box to create sustainable operating models.

In fact, this project is a perfect version of that suggestion. This project exceeds the wildest dreams of those suggestions. This project will allow us not just to survive, but to thrive and improve what we’re able to offer to the public substantially.

havn sauna spa kitsilano point vancouver maritime museum heritage harbour

Concept of HAVN Saunas at Vancouver Maritime Museum’s Heritage Harbour in Kitsilano Point. (Vancouver Maritime Museum)

“Placemaking” is the idea that people are more likely to frequent places where there is a variety of complementary activities for them to do. People come for one thing, and they stay for another. And they come back to the same place time and again because it is still full of possibility.

The area around the Vancouver Maritime Museum is rich with activities for visitors — from beaches to museums, theatre to boat launches, dog parks, seawall, and ferries. Adding hydrotherapy to this mix means that all of these activities will complement one another, and more people will get to enjoy them. The area is changing too, with the addition of thousands of new residents at Senakw.

Will this project change the quaint character of Heritage Harbour? Yes, it will. It will look different.

There will be a barge in the foreground of the view from the dock. However, Vancouver is not a quaint seaside village. It is a major city with a long and deep maritime history that goes all the way back to time immemorial. That history is underrepresented and underfunded, and has been for decades.

havn sauna vancouver maritime museum kitsilano heritage harbour marina

Location of Vancouver Maritime Museum’s Heritage Harbour marina, the future site of HAVN Saunas. (Vancouver Maritime Museum)

Aerial view of Vancouver Maritime Museum at Vanier Park in Kitsilano, with the museum’s Heritage Harbour marina also depicted. (Vancouver Maritime Museum)

The historic St. Roch vessel inside the Vancouver Maritime Museum. (Vancouver Maritime Museum)

The most common comment that I receive from the public is, “I love the Maritime Museum. I went there as a kid.”

We used to have three school groups in the museum every day. Now, we see less than three a week and the majority of those schools are private schools. And the simple reason for this change is funding.

With the revenue we receive from a HAVN partnership, we will be able to reverse course on a whole generation that is losing touch with this history.

So yes, money is the driver of this project. But let’s not forget, in this case, money means vibrancy, access, education, and relevance for future generations.

When I took this job, I knew the work of a non-profit leader would not always be straightforward. Now I know it involves charting new waters, making waves, being an anchor for the community, and knowing when to raise the sails and get the wind at your back!

HAVN Saunas in Victoria Inner Harbour. (HAVN Saunas)

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