Coromandel Region Museums Participate In Scheme

Museums in Coromandel region participate in New Zealand Museums Standards Scheme

Today at the Mercury Bay Regional Museum, museum personnel from the Coromandel Region are meeting to begin work on the New Zealand Museums Standards Scheme in a workshop lead by Wallis Barnicoat from Te Papa National Services Te Paerangi.

The museums will participate in the scheme over the next year as a regional cluster group, and each museum will complete a self review of their museum practice by working through the modules in the Standards Scheme manual.

Grant Collie the Project Director at the Mercury Bay Regional Museum Project is the regional coordinator for the scheme, “ Once completed, the Mercury Bay Regional Museum Project aims to be in a position to provide technical and other specialist support services to the wider regional museum sector, therefore we were delighted to accept the suggestion to work with Te Papa National Services Te Paerangi on the Standards Scheme “ Grant said today. Amongst the museums attending are the Coromandel School of Mines & Hist Museum, Thames Historical Museum, Thames School of Mines & Mineralogical Museum, the Hauraki Thames Indexing, Ngati Hei Trust and others.

The Scheme encourages a museum to review their current performance against accepted standards of best museum practice; and after completing this, the museum will undergo a peer review, carried out by a bicultural pair of museum professionals. Peer reviewers will spend a day at each museum with museum staff, reviewing the museum’s performance against the Standards, and will later provide a report of their findings to the museum.

The Standards Scheme aims to encourage all New Zealand museums to achieve accepted standards in managing their collections, exhibitions, public services, visitors and resources; to build public confidence in museums as effective organisations responsible for the care of New Zealand’s heritage collections; promote good practice in providing visitors with access to the collections through various activities; provide a focus for strategic planning, training and development and encourage the development of bicultural policy and practice.

National Services Te Paerangi works in partnership with museums, iwi and related culture and heritage organisations to enhance the services they provide to their communities. These projects include workshops, wänanga, lectures and strategic development projects that enhance skills and collaborations within the cultural sector, and with related sectors.

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