If you take care of things, they last. That is why the Provincial Exhibition of Manitoba continues to invest in Maintaining the Glory of the beloved Dome building. The latest improvement is a fresh coat of paint.
The first phase of the outside restoration started in early July, “Our crews scraped, sanded and chipped off all the old and peeling paint as carefully as they could. It took almost three weeks to get down to the wood that was painted ten years ago.” Bob Desjardin is the Operations Coordinator of the Provincial Exhibition. He says as soon as they finished scraping, it was on with the primer, “This is a big undertaking so it’s exciting to see the Dome get a facelift, especially since we’re maintaining the original colour with such a high-quality product.”
The high-quality product is from Sherwin Williams. The company supplied the oil-based primer as well as the topcoat Emerald exterior. According to Jordan Dallari, Business Development Representative, Sherwin Williams was happy to provide the product at a reduced price – all 95 gallons of primer and more than 110 gallons of paint. “We care about the community and the Dome, so we offered the best product to reflect that. We recommended one coat of the oil-based primer for better adhesion and to stop any tannin bleed-through, followed by two coats of the exterior Emerald paint for an overall clean and crisp appearance. We also suggested a gloss sheen to stay true to the historic look.”
Maintaining the Glory is the current campaign that followed an earlier, successful campaign called Restoring the Glory that ran from 2011 to 2018. Funds were raised to restore the Dome to the modern version of its former glory.
The Dome building is both a Provincial Heritage and National Historic Site. That is why the Provincial Exhibition was successful in receiving a one-time AgriSpirit grant from FCC (Farm Credit Canada).
The funding of $20,000.00 will go a long way to pay for crews to scrape, prime and paint the Dome, as well as the cost to purchase the product itself.
Kathy Cleaver, President of the Provincial Exhibition and Bob Desjardin are pictured below. Bob was camera-captured by Matt Goerzen, Managing Editor of the Brandon Sun. Matt has allowed us to use this image that we feel perfectly portrays the care and consideration we take when it comes to the Dome.
