Check out Our Attic!

Action Plan Schedule for Day Spring Restoration: Bat Mitigation Project

Day 1: Sept 25th:

Remove Red Awning on the West side entrance, remove lampposts glass cover. These items will be stored in a pod which will be placed on the east side of the parking lot.

The arch window will be removed for items to be passed through.

Scaffold will be erected over where the awning is so that items can be placed on the scaffold.

Items placed on the scaffold will be placed into a large bucket attached to a Telehandler forklift, to then be discarded into a dumpster.

Items that The Square is keeping will be placed into a pod on the east side of the parking lot to be cleaned and eventually brought back into the attic after they clean the objects.

The Arch window will be boarded up each night at the close of their day. They will be using the elevator if needed and also the attic stairs and westside and east side stairs if needed.

Day 2: Sept 26th:

Removal of contents on the west side of the attic.

Day 3: Sept 27th:

Removal of contents on the west side of the attic.

Day 4: Sept 28th:

Removal of contents on the west side of the attic.

Begin HEPA Vacuum walls, floor and all surfaces thereof, and chemical clean on guano affected areas (9-1 bleach solution and a thirty-minute dwell time.

Day 5: Sept 29th:

Removal of contents on the west side of the attic.

Begin HEPA Vacuum walls, floor and all surfaces thereof, and chemical clean on guano affected areas (9-1 bleach solution and a thirty-minute dwell time.

Day 6: October 2:

Items placed on the scaffold will be placed into a large bucket attached to a Telehandler forklift, to then be discarded into a dumpster.

Items that The Square is keeping will be placed into a pod on the east side of the parking lot to be chemically cleaned and eventually brought back into the attic after they clean the objects.

The Arch window will be boarded up each night at the close of their day. They will be using the eastside attic stairs if needed.

Day 7: October 3rd:

Removal of contents on the east side of the attic.

Begin HEPA Vacuum walls, floor and all surfaces thereof, and chemical clean on guano affected areas (9-1 bleach solution and a thirty-minute dwell time.

Day 8: October 4th:

Removal of contents on the east side of the attic.

Begin HEPA Vacuum walls, floor and all surfaces thereof, and chemical clean on guano affected areas (9-1 bleach solution and a thirty-minute dwell time.

Day 9: October 5th:

Removal of contents on the east side of the attic.

Begin HEPA Vacuum walls, floor and all surfaces thereof, and chemical clean on guano affected areas (9-1 bleach solution and a thirty-minute dwell time.

Day 10: October 6th:

Removal of contents on the east side of the attic.

Begin HEPA Vacuum walls, floor and all surfaces thereof, and chemical clean on guano affected areas (9-1 bleach solution and a thirty-minute dwell time.

Day 13: October 11: Attic Cleaning

Day 14: October 12: Attic Cleaning

Day 15: October 13: Attic cleaning and removal of a few more contaminated objects.

Day 16: October 16: Attic cleaning

Day 17: October 17: Attic Cleaning

Day 18: October 18: Cleaned contents brought back into attic.

Day 19: October 19: Cleaned contents brought back into attic.

Day 20: October 20: Cleaned contents brought back into attic. Tentative date for completion of the clean-out, and clean-up of the attic space.

Day 21: Monday, October 23: Final cleaning in the attic and contents brought back into the building. Ground Divots filled and Asphalt damage caused by lift, remedied.

Day 22: Tuesday, October 24: Final Cleaning in the attic and contents brought back into the building. Ground Divots filled and Asphalt damage caused by lift, remedied.

Day 23: Wednesday, October 25: Final Cleaning in the attic and contents brought back into the building.

Day 24: Thursday, October 26th: Potential date for awning to be installed back in place on Westside entrance.

Day 25: Friday: Any loose ends and potentially the last day for completion!

The next phase, after the clean-up, is having High Country Wildlife Pest Control to come in and complete the exclusion portion of the project on the exterior roof and the interior of the attic space, slated for this Fall or Early Spring before the Bats arrive again next season.

Built in 1896, Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art has long served as a center for learning and culture. From a school building to a cultural center and art museum, The Square has evolved over the years, and its service to the community has evolved as well to meet the needs of our patrons and art lovers.

We now face a difficult choice that can determine the future of The Square. Without action, our current capacity for maintaining the attic will eventually lead to permanent and more costly damage. Shifting our efforts is crucial. As stewards to this historic landmark and cultural center, we must take on the challenge of not only mitigating a dangerous issue but of embarking on a long overdue expansion project. And we are moving forward with great care and attention.

Bats are important to our environment. The Square has proposed an ethical mitigation plan that focuses on deterring the bats from reentering the museum’s attic space during their migration in the spring. With the guidance of certified wildlife specialists from the National Wildlife Control Operators Association (NWCOA), we can ethically exclude and make efforts to relocate the bats with minimal disturbance to their migratory route.

Once the attic is safe for use and after the projected multi-month clean-up and mitigation portion of the project is complete, we will begin the process of renovating the attic space to both house our permanent collection and to make the space accessible to the public. Opening original stairways, creating climate-controlled vaults to house our valuable collections, and designing the 33,000 cubic-foot attic into our vision of usable space will bring staggering potential for expansion and possibility.

The museum assumes a legal and ethical responsibility for the care of its permanent collection of artworks. The art collected through the years is a record and a legacy of the cultural heritage and social values of not only a specific physical region, but of entire generations of social response and values. Curating and preserving the collection is a life-long intention to educate, create awareness, and to reflect an appreciation of such cultural movements and milestones. The impact of preserving the documents of such are vital to The Square’s mission and values to promote and educate others in appreciating the role of art in society.

Since launching our campaign in 2021, we have made substantial progress. We continue to come closer to our financial goal to begin the work to restore and preserve the attic space to eventually house our permanent collection. UIn FY23, The Square was awarded $300,979 by the Montana Department of Commerce’s Montana Historic Preservation Grant program (MHPG) toward the rehabilitation, ethical bat mitigation, and cleanup of our historic attic space, as well as repainting 154 exterior windows.

The museum was recently awarded and just completed a Collections Assessment for Preservation (CAP Assessment). Professionals in historic preservation and in art conservation spent two intensive days assessing the building and the state of our collections. They will prepare and share their findings by May 31, 2023, and The Square will use their findings of what we are doing right and their recommendations for improvements to build our strategic plan.