WOONSOCKET – The Museum of Work & Culture will be closed for repairs and reconstruction until likely through March after a sprinkler was unexpectedly triggered and caused significant water damage to the building’s interior more than a week ago.
Museum Director Anne Conway told Providence Business News the sprinkler inside the museum’s second-floor classroom exhibit went off at approximately 6 a.m. on Jan. 15, and the city’s fire department immediately investigated if there was a fire inside the museum building on South Main Street. No fire was found, but Conway said it took firefighters approximately 20 minutes to shut the water off.
The water, Conway said, ran down onto the main exhibit floor and into the basement. As a result of water infiltration, multiple floors, ceilings and walls were heavily damaged and extensive repairs are needed. Such repairs are expected to start Jan. 27.
“They all will have to be completely stripped down to the original floor of the mill [building],” Conway said. “It is too bad [this happened] and to see how much damage the water that was generated from one sprinkler head.”
Conway did say that no physical museum exhibits were damaged by the sprinkler. She said the museum has added more exhibits over the years, costing large amounts of money in the process. To replace and reprogram those exhibits, Conway said, would have been “really difficult.”
An estimated repair cost for the museum is currently unclear. Conway said insurance companies for both the city, which owns the building, and the Rhode Island Historical Society – the museum’s operator – are both handling the cost matter at the present time.
While Conway is confident everything involving the repairs will go well, she said it will take time for everything to get fixed. Historical society spokesperson Connor Mathis told PBN in an email that all museum staff will continue to work during the closure, continuing their duties or working on temporary assignments.
Conway said the museum’s upcoming annual “Salute to Spring” fundraising event on March 30 will move forward but it will be at a new location to be determined. While the museum’s closure will impact income coming in, Conway did say the museum is currently holding its normal fundraising raffle drive that will bring in some funding for the time being.
The museum also had to reschedule multiple school field trips, with more than 600 students in total who were expected to see the facility, due to the closure, Conway said. But the museum’s upcoming programs such as the Valley Talk series, will now take place on Zoom.
Additionally, the historical society says it is offering in lieu of field trips an option where museum educators can visit classrooms in person with the “Museum on the Road” program, featuring hands-on activities and presentations.
“We turned on everything we learned during the [COVID-19] pandemic,” Conway said. “All of these remote programs and virtual programs. It’s been a lot of rearranging and everyone has been cooperating with the museum and received a lot of support.”
(UPDATED 7th paragraph to include comment from Rhode Island Historical Society spokesperson Connor Mathis.)
James Bessette is the PBN special projects editor, and also covers the nonprofit and education sectors. You may reach him at Bessette@PBN.com. You may also follow him on X at @James_Bessette.