Wellington Museums Trust Annual Report 2006

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THE YEAR’S HIGHLIGHTS Wellington Cable Car Museum attracted a large number of school groups on casual visits and, once the building extension was complete, began work on developing curriculum-linked resources. PUBLIC PROGRAMMES Action-packed programmes at City Gallery Wellington and Museum of Wellington City & Sea stimulated, informed and entertained a wide range of audiences. Both facilities regard public education as a core activity and aim to complement their exhibitions with a diverse programme of associated events. With Capital E’s strong performance and event focus, there was no shortage of activities there either for the enjoyment of young people and their families. The New Zealand Cricket Museum embarked on its second year of public programmes, with a presentation on Chris Cairns’ career to 2002 by biographer Hamish McDouall. Art and beyond While artist talks formed the backbone of the gallery’s public programme, events spanned guided tours, curator talks, lectures, dance performances, poetry readings and much more. Highlights included: • The Young at Art children’s music and colour workshop, devised by artist Michael Smither to encourage children to “compose colour”. Children created their own composition from coloured squares of paper on card. This was then notated by Smither and played by students from Te Köki The New Zealand School of Music. • A keynote lecture, Extrahuman: The New Organic Order Of Patricia Piccinini, by Juliana Engberg, artistic director of the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art in Melbourne. • A late night session: Music for Dreamers, Believers and Late Night Creatures. This was a Friday night event combining the Patricia Piccinini and Michael Smither exhibitions with live music, food and drinks. This popular event drew a crowd of 500 spilling all over the gallery, with visitors arriving right up until the late closing time of 11pm. On the waterfront At the Museum of Wellington City & Sea, exhibitionlinked public programmes included curator talks as well as poetry readings, book launches and music events. Prime Minister the Rt. Hon Helen Clark launched Revolution at the museum, which was a book published by Canterbury University Press and the Trade Union History Project on the 1913 waterfront strike (the museum’s exhibition Strike 1913 opens in August). The museum also took part in the Arts Wellington-arranged weekend The Big Look See. Following on from the success of last year’s nine-week public programme Telling Tales Live, the museum ran a similar season titled Wellingtonia Live. This was launched with an electrifying performance by one of Wellington’s leading bands, Rhombus, and included screenings of the film Wellingtonia, a display of photographs by Julian Ward and a range of performances. Artist Michael Smither at his Young at Art workshop | Photo by Stephen Gibbs Murray Henderson gives a talk on the Pamir for Wellingtonia Live 14 14
THE YEAR’S HIGHLIGHTS production, drama and robotics as well as new sessions linked to the holiday theatre shows. The facility also hosted and co-produced seven shows as part of the Wellington City Council Dance Your Socks Off event. RESEARCH & COLLECTIONS Bell donated by the San Francisco Cable Car Museum Photo by Mark Coote As mentioned in the chairman’s report, the Museum of Wellington City & Sea commissioned an independent review of its collection store. As a result of this report, which confirmed that the storage was inadequate, the museum placed a moratorium on new acquisitions, carried out some remedial work on the store and is now working with other institutions to identify regional needs for collection management. The museum also took part in Audit New Zealand’s preparation and consultation process for its report Management of heritage collections in local museums and galleries. The final report highlighted many of the points made about best care and practice of collections already identified in the independent review. Focus on collection management Volunteer Peter Ross in the New Zealand Cricket Museum library Photo by Michael Hall The museum continued to enjoy public programmes offered by the Maritime Friends, the Maritime Archaeological Association of New Zealand and the Wellington Historical and Early Settlers’ Association. Enjoying the seasons Children and families enjoyed interactive fun throughout Christmas as well as the summer break with Capital E’s traditional Christmas event and its new Summer at Capital E, which provided a playground of themed summer activities for the entire holiday period. Holiday workshops were offered in television, sound and music Near the end of the year, the museum was unsuccessful in its application for funding to provide a library and information service within the museum building. Given the decline in funding and mindful of the two reports referred to above, the focus over the next period will be on collection management ahead of other related services such as research. The museum is now nearing completion in the hand-over of its Union Steam Ship Company and Wellington Harbour Board archives to the Wellington City Archives, a process which began in 2004 to provide better public access to these historically significant archives. During the year, the museum purchased a major painting of the Pamir by artist Frank Barnes, adding to an already significant collection of his work. The painting’s purchase and restoration were made possible by a donation from the Maritime Friends of the Museum. The museum also acquired 34 photograph works by Alison Jones depicting life on the Wellington railways in the 1980s and 1990s. 15
Page 1 and 2: ANNUAL REPORT 2006
Page 3 and 4: HIGHLIGHTS Wellington Cable Car Mus
Page 5 and 6: CHAIRMAN’S REPORT With over 700,0
Page 7 and 8: CHIEF EXECUTIVE’S REPORT This has
Page 9 and 10: CHIEF EXECUTIVE’S REPORT and prof
Page 11 and 12: THE YEAR’S HIGHLIGHTS Across the
Page 13 and 14: THE YEAR’S HIGHLIGHTS Capital E a
Page 15: THE YEAR’S HIGHLIGHTS In June and
Page 19 and 20: THE YEAR’S HIGHLIGHTS Podcasts fo
Page 21 and 22: STATEMENT OF PERFORMANCE KEY OBJECT
Page 23 and 24: STATEMENT OF PERFORMANCE MUSEUM OF
Page 25 and 26: AUDIT REPORT TO THE READERS OF WELL
Page 27 and 28: FINANCIAL STATEMENTS WELLINGTON MUS
Page 33 and 34: OUR SUPPORTERS The Trust and its fa
Page 35 and 36: DIRECTORY Trustees Bill Brien, Chai

Wellington Museums Trust Annual Report 2006

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