New Zealanders are passionate
about museums. In New Zealand the definition of what constitutes a museum is
broad and may include art galleries, marae, cultural centres, historic places
or heritage sites, open-air museums etc. In essence a museum “preserves and
researches collections of art, taonga, objects and information, which it holds
in trust for society and makes accessible in actual and virtual environments”.
Ninety percent of our museums in New Zealand are classified as either small
(1-5 permanent full-time staff) or micro (0 permanent full-time staff) museums[1].
Southland for example has more than thirty museums. These small and micro
museums, including the Ashburton Public Art Gallery were established by their
relative communities. There are so many museums in New Zealand because they are
founded on the passion, drive and funding of small groups of people attempting
to ensure their history, culture and identity is preserved and shared.
This year the Ashburton Public
Art Gallery celebrates its twentieth birthday. So much has been achieved over
this period thanks to the dedication of a long standing committee and a very
small staff. The Gallery has established and maintained relationships with
stakeholders locally and nationally. Artists, museums and sector professionals
including those that provided their time to advise on the new building at
little to no cost see the Ashburton Public Art Gallery as an institution that
demonstrates due diligence by developing and implementing transparent policies
and procedures to ensure artworks, objects or/and archival material is cared
for in a manner consistent with industry standards. The Gallery takes its
responsibilities seriously and does not put policies in place only to ignore
them.
So what is the industry standard
for museums? Well fortunately there is a wealth of freely accessible
information for any museum to utilise to review and improve their practice as
caretakers, interpreters, educators and promoters of our history, culture and
identity. One such example among many would be the New Zealand Museums
Standards Scheme. “The Standards Scheme enables museums to measure their
performance against accepted standards of museum practice. It provides an
assurance of quality and accountability, an appreciation of the roles and
responsibilities of those museums offering services, and a commitment to best
museum practice”. This is a peer reviewed process that addresses for example: Governance, management and planning, Care of
collections & taonga, Public programmes, Customer service, Relationships with community, Treaty of
Waitangi, Publications, Evaluation, Delivering educational programmes,
Relationships with cultural heritage sector, Public safety and security, Budget
management, Disaster preparedness, Conservation decisions, Visitor facilities
– well you get the picture, the list goes on. The point is that museums in New
Zealand have well established standards of practice that recognise the museum’s
responsibility to preserve and present that which we hold most dear – the
stories of our lives.
The failure of an
air-conditioning unit which caused a leak and compromised the climate control
in the Ashburton Public Art Gallery’s new exhibition spaces has resulted in the
Gallery seeking to postpone the opening of the building until the environment
in the galleries is stabilised. However it appears that the opening will be
proceeding regardless with Ashburton’s Mayor Angus McKay seeming to be
insistent that the Gallery could just come and grab some of the council’s art collection
off the council office walls. He is completely prepared, he says, to engage
helpers to move the artwork over to the Gallery if required. During my tenure as
Manager/Curator the Gallery looked into the potential of exhibiting artwork
from the Ashburton District Council Collection. As the Gallery had built a
significant relationship with Ashburton born and raised author and illustrator
David Elliot, when it was found the council had purchased one of his early
paintings, we were very excited to see and potentially exhibit the work.
Unfortunately when the artwork was located it was no longer on the wall – it
had been taken down by a council employee and was behind a large cabinet. Once
revealed we realised just how damaged the work was – so damaged that following
an assessment the Gallery was informed that the painting was irreparable. The
artist was understandably upset – artists generally take for granted that work purchased
by a council with public funds will be cared for as a public asset which would
be a reasonable expectation.
Having recognised the potential
for damage to the art collection the council to their credit adopted a
collection policy which outlines how the collection should be cared for and
managed. Given that the council has this in place it is baffling that the mayor
seems to be treating artworks from the collection as if they do not require the
same care as the Gallery’s collection. The council’s art collection is a
community asset purchased with public funds. Unless the mayor believes it is
appropriate to ignore the policy they adopted to ensure the preservation of
artworks which effectively belong to the people of Ashburton then the artworks
on the council walls must be treated in the same way as the Gallery’s
collection. What would exhibiting damaged or deteriorated artworks from a
public collection in a brand new art gallery say about Ashburton? Managing a
public museum/art gallery is not a hobby, the Ashburton Public Art Gallery Manager
and Committee have experience in the museum sector, they have an understanding
of the responsibilities they have as museum professionals in a publicly funded
environment. They are making decisions consistent with what is expected in the
industry. They have Ashburton’s best interests at heart – postpone the opening
of the Ashburton Art Gallery & Heritage Centre - get behind them Ashburton,
they deserve your support.
