Corporate branding at Vimy war memorial visitor centre will be 'noticeable but subtle'

Joshua Dauphinee admits he’s invested in the Canadian National Vimy Memorial in France. After working on the site as a guide in 2004, and again in 2006 as a head guide, the Luxembourg-based Canadian said he remains attached to the site and its future. So when he discovered a promotional package on the Vimy Foundation’s website that solicited donors for a new education centre at the memorial, it made him uncomfortable.

“It’s a bit odd that this was the only route to be able to achieve those ends,” he told Yahoo Canada News. “I’m not personally comfortable with there being any level of corporate sponsorship at any memorial site.”

The memorial honours the Canadian Expeditionary Force members killed in WWI. The new education centre is set to open in April to mark the centennial anniversary of the battle, which involved all four divisions of the forces and took nearly 3600 Canadian lives.

The idea for the site came in 2007, while the memorial was undergoing renovations and a temporary visitor centre was erected, with the intention to build a permanent one.

In 2013, Veterans Affairs announced it would allot $5 million to build a visitor education centre on the site. The Vimy Foundation then committed to matching that number.

“I think that was essentially a political decision at the time to work with a non-government entity in the delivery of the building of this project,” said Craig Kenney, director general of European operations for Veterans Canada.

He adds that working in partnership with the foundation also helped in getting public participation in the project.

“I think accepting donations, and the work Vimy Foundation does in promoting the site and the memorial and what it stands for, I think that probably culminated in the decision to work with (the foundation) in accepting the funds they were able to raise,” Kenney said.

Ottawa-based architect firm Robertson Martin designed the centre, which will feature displays, artifacts and exhibits about WWI. It’s located in the forest, a short distance from the towering limestone monument built by Walter Seymour Allward. Admission to the centre will be free.

Last year, 775,000 people visited the memorial. Those numbers are expected to rise after the education centre opens.

Jeremy Diamond, executive director of the Vimy Foundation, assures the name of donors will be featured on a wall in a “noticeable but subtle” manner, and the size and design of the acknowledgment won’t take away from the focus of the centre.

“We allocated a number of spaces inside the centre that would be tied to naming recognition,” he said. “Not the building itself but a gallery, and education room and a learning centre within the space inside. That would be related to the size of donation received by the foundation.”

Diamond points out that all the donors who contributed agreed that they didn’t want their recognition to overshadow anything in the building.

“Everybody who’s made a donation towards this project understands that the subject matter is sensitive and important and a seminal moment in our history,” he said.