Background to Canterbury Museum Revitalisation
Canterbury Museum
Rolleston Avenue
Christchurch, New
Zealand
22 May 2002
Canterbury Museum was founded in 1867 with the first building on the current site opening in 1870. The Museum houses a very large collection (c. 2.1 million items), which is undoubtedly of national and international significance. It is the third largest museum in the country, and has suffered neglect in terms of basic maintenance, let alone capital development, up until the last few years.
The local and regional community is strongly supportive of the Museum, both through extremely high visitor support (550 000 per annum) and the commitment of local government.
Canterbury Museum has spent four years of rigorous investigation, research, and testing and refinement of its foreseeable housing needs in a process to formulate a comprehensive capital revitalisation programme. This programme will position the Museum to deliver greatly improved services to a substantially increased number of visitors over the next 30 years.
Amongst the funding
commitments sourced by the Museum are (gst
inclusive):
$15.75 million (over six years) from
central government
$9 million (over five years)
from Christchurch City Council
four grants
totalling $1.478 million from Lottery Environment &
Heritage
$2.81 million from local
government.
In addition, the Museum raised $14.625 million (gst inclusive) from the local community for the earlier (1990-1995) stages of the project, which involved earthquake strengthening of the nineteenth century buildings and construction of the Garden Court building.
During the past few years, Canterbury Museum has been working hard to shrug off the boring and dusty stereotype. This has been reflected in rapidly growing visitor numbers. The Museum now has 550 000 visitors a year, as against 380 000 five years ago. As the redevelopment unrolls it is expected that visitor numbers will rise to 750 000 midway through the project and one million upon completion.
Highlights of
the Canterbury Museum revitalisation include:
Blue
whale
The Museum’s largest collection item, the blue
whale skeleton, will resurface high above the new-look
entrance and circulation spine. The trademark whale was on
display from 1909 to 1994 but was put in storage when work
began on the Garden Court building. Weighing nine tonnes,
the blue whale is 26.6m (87ft long).
Robert
McDougall
The building of the Christchurch Art Gallery
provides Canterbury Museum with a unique opportunity to
enhance its redevelopment plans.
Acquisition of the McDougall would afford a wonderful opportunity to use the 770m2 of high quality exhibition space to display a significant portion of the collections currently in storage because of lack of space. This includes selections from the extensive paintings and drawings collection (over 7 000 items), photographs (800 000 plus), architectural plans (13 000), costume and textiles (13 500), furniture (3 000), and European and Oriental decorative arts (8 500 objects).
New life for Maori meeting house
After an absence of
nearly 50 years, the superb whare whakairo (carved meeting
house) named Hau te Ananui o Tangaroa will return. Between
1874 and 1956 the whare stood outside in the Museum grounds
where it housed the Maori gallery. Measuring 18.3m (60ft)
in length, 6.1m (20ft) in width, and 6.1m (20ft) in height
to the top of the tekoteko (ridge pole), the whare will be
housed on the uppermost level because of its imposing size.
As well as providing a venue for potential daytime Maori
cultural performances and educational activities, it is
hoped the whare will support educational sleepovers.
The
new visitor experience
The new visitor experience will
move away from the traditional museum approach of
subject-based galleries that unfold some kind of sequential
story. Instead, four major exhibition components are
planned: special exhibitions; a new Antarctic experience;
two discovery centres (one natural, the other human
history); and a pathway through the remainder of the public
area devoted to riveting stories about Canterbury/Waitaha,
New Zealand, and the world.
Over the past four years, Museum staff have painstakingly sifted through the collections to identify the top stories we have to tell. About 50 of these, supported by our collection strengths, will unfold in a new story-based exhibition pathway meandering through the Museum. This sequence of changing historic and contemporary stories will create and sustain a sense of drama, exploration, and surprise. “What’s around the next corner?” should become the catch phrase in a continuously developing museum experience.
New Antarctic
experience
Canterbury Museum holds the premier collection
of artefacts telling the heroic tales of Antarctic discovery
and exploration. The existing Sir Robertson Stewart Hall of
Antarctic Discovery, although more than 20 years old,
continues to attract large numbers of international and
domestic tourists, and local visitors. Accordingly, the
current floor area will be doubled for the new experience.
This new experience will complement the existing acclaimed
International Antarctic Centre at Christchurch
International Airport.
Special exhibitions
A programme
of regularly changing special exhibitions will be mounted in
a newly dedicated area off the main entrance. The
exhibitions will have high impact and high visual appeal.
There may be a number of smaller shows running
simultaneously or the occasional ‘block-buster’ occupying
the whole space. Special exhibitions will be sourced
nationally and internationally; community groups may sponsor
special interest shows; and the Museum will mount its own
shows from its rich collection
resource.
Entranceway/Piazza
Stage one of Canterbury
Museum’s building programme is a new entrance nearer to the
centre of the Rolleston Avenue frontage, while retaining the
existing facade. The entrance will flow into an amazing
full height atrium and circulation spine running from the
entrance through to the Robert McDougall Art Gallery, which
the Museum is negotiating to acquire for future expansion.
Congestion on arrival is a key problem for the Museum and up to 11 tourist buses can arrive at any one time. While visitors appreciate the Museum’s content, the majority get hopelessly lost. The high numbers of international tourists mean that nearly 60% of Museum visitors each year are first-timers. As visitor numbers are projected to grow, orientation problems within the Museum will worsen. A circulation spine, with the skeleton of the great blue whale towering above, will greatly simplify and enhance the visitor experience. The existing entrance will be used for access to a relocated café and shop.
There is also the opportunity for the city to create a new, people-friendly piazza or Museum Square at the head of Worcester Boulevard.
Collections and
Research
Canterbury Museum has a priceless collection of
2.1 million items, with a conservative replacement value of
$300 million. Space constraints mean that less than 1% of
the collection is on display. While no big museum can ever
hope to exhibit all its artefacts, visitors to Canterbury
Museum deserve more.
Revitalisation of the Museum is not just front-of-house. They also involve high quality storage facilities to ensure these artefacts are preserved for future generations. Every item in the collection has a vital role to play as the Museum’s research resources are developed, making them accessible for scholars and school children alike. Plans include a $6 million computer inventory, including photographic and video images, and an estimated $7 million of conservation work on collections in hand. The great museums of the world have long been underpinned by scholarly research based on their collections. Canterbury Museum’s redevelopment will provide much better facilities for visiting researchers and the Museum’s own staff, and a greatly enhanced public research centre.
Business as usual
Throughout the redevelopment,
Canterbury Museum will remain open. In fact, the Museum
plans to make a feature of the project, allowing visitors to
feel part of the action and watch as this fascinating work
unfolds. It will be history in the making.
On show
A
special exhibition featuring detailed models, plans and
illustrations of the revitalised Canterbury Museum is on
display on Level 3 in the Chathams Gallery. It will be
updated as work progresses.