According to Communications Manager Jennifer Webb, since launching the $55.5 million project in June of 2006, the MOA will have increased its size by almost 50 per cent by March 2010, adding a 41,000-sq.-ft. wing called the Centre for Cultural Research. It will also have mostly completed an ambitious plan to renovate approximately three-quarters of the existing building, refresh, and reorganize some of the permanent collections, and install two specially commissioned Musqueam artworks as part of the new Welcome Plaza.

MOA has also made tremendous progress on the Reciprocal Research Network (RRN), an essential component of the overall Renewal Project. Jointly co-developed by MOA, Musqueam Indian Band, Stölo Nation/Tribal Council, and the U'mista Cultural Society, the RRN will be the first digital network of its kind to geographically link dispersed users and institutions including originating communities, academics and museum staff. It will enable individual or collaborative cultural research. (For complete details see: www.moa.ubc.ca/renewal/rrn.php.) By the time MOA re-opens in March, Webb says the new wing will be largely operational and they will have nearly completed their renovations, including a $3.5-million upgrade to the building envelope and the environmental systems. The Multiversity Galleries (formerly Visible Storage) and MOA's major temporary gallery will still be under construction until the project as a whole is complete. The grand relaunch of all the new spaces will occur during Vancouver's Cultural Olympiad. To make sure that you won't forget, enter this occasion in the January page of your 2010 calendar.

The Museum of Anthropology was last mentioned in Preview in the "Behind the Scenes" article from the September/October 2008 issue, in reference to the theft of severals works by Northwest Coast artist Bill Reid, including a gold eagle brooch and large lidded box.

Ann Rosenberg is a freelance curator, critic and author.