Museum Opens New Research Center

AVALON, CATALINA ISLAND - The Catalina Island Museum invites the community to a public open house celebrating its new Research Center at 220 Metropole Avenue on Friday, February 18, 2005 from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. The Research Center is the first major expansion of the Museum's facilities since an offsite storage unit for the archaeology collections was built 10 years ago. Thanks to an annual grant from the Ada B. Wrigley Schreiner Charitable Trust Fund, the Museum was able to take over the lease for the office spaces formerly belonging to the City Planning Department. Dozens of individuals then provided funds allowing the Museum to properly outfit the new offices with furniture and special cabinetry for the collections.

Centrally located on the top floor of the Cottonwood Building, the Center provides the Museum with a downtown presence as well as much needed storage and office space. In addition to accommodating the Museum's research collection, the new Center houses the offices of the Museum's Executive Director, Stacey Otte, and Curator, Jeannine Pedersen. The Research Center also has a small meeting room and workspace for researchers interested in utilizing the Museum's varied resource materials which include thousands of photographs, a nearly complete run of local papers, maps, postcards, books and more.

The Research Center is open Monday - Saturday but appointments are requested to obtain access to the collections. For more information, or to make an appointment please call Jeannine Pedersen at (310) 510-4650.