"Goodbye, Hello!"

-David Breeckner, Interim Museum Director

Today the Imperial Valley Desert Museum made its first steps toward the next stage of its development and offerings.  A group of dedicated volunteers came together to transform an underutilized and underappreciated facility on the Museum’s grounds into a dynamic work space for future arts-based projects and programs.  Join us in saying “goodbye” to the old Information Center (IC) and “hello” to the new Activities & Propagation Center (APC).

Since the closure of the original Imperial Valley College Museum in El Centro, the IC served as a storehouse and repository of its collections and records.  It held this role for many years, until the construction of the new IVDM  building in Ocotillo in 2008.  From then until 2012, its storerooms were emptied and the artifacts carefully transported to their new forever home at the Imperial Valley Desert Museum.  Since that move, the IC has been listless and often relegated to the background of any conversation.  Many, including some of our own membership and Board, have since forgotten the history and importance of its earliest role!

Now, the IVDM Society, Inc looks to revitalize that same facility, giving it new purpose as an outdoor education and activities space.  Moving forward, we hope to see the APC succeed as a place for dedicated cultural art and science programs.  On a busy day at the Museum, it can be difficult to find the space to run our signature coiled clay program, or to design new mosaic signage and artwork.  It is even more difficult to garden, propagating local plants.  The new APC gives the Museum room to grow in all these activities, and more.

In place of a single building on its property, the IVDM now looks to grow into a multi-building, multi-purpose campus.

Today, a team of six volunteered their morning and afternoon to begin the first stage of its transformation.  Working to the musical stylings of the 1950s, 60s, and 70s and the promise of grilled hotdogs, volunteers swept, sorted, and binned the accumulated trash of the last two decades (and beyond).  Looking forward, the IVDM hopes to continue its work on the APC: repairing its sloped roof, repainting the exterior walls, developing its open courtyard, and to complete its design and installation of a planting space for the propagation of the town of Ocotillo’s namesake.

Our “Community BBQ & Clean-up” series has only just begun!  If you would like to get involved, we welcome you to reach out to Museum staff by email, phone, or by just stopping in.