Up against big name museums including Auckland Museum and the multimillion dollar Toitū Otago Settlers Museum redevelopment, Raglan Museum has been selected as a finalist in the development NZ Museum Awards for what is regarded in museum circles as a modest new musuem. Raglan & District Museum says it is pleased to have been shortlisted for its ‘new beginning’ entry in the 2013 New Zealand Museum Awards.
Run by national body Museums Aotearoa, the annual awards celebrate individuals and organisations who achieve excellence in the museum and gallery sector in New Zealand.
Museum committee member Rodger Gallagher says, “It’s great that the hard work of the Raglan Museum volunteers has been acknowledged nationally.”
Energy saving, environmental concerns and engaging public programmes are a feature of the 2013 NZ Museum Awards. Winners will be named from among 16 finalists at a gala dinner in Hamilton on 12 April celebrating the sixth annual national museum awards. Museums have been recognised for energy saving, with both Auckland Museum and The Kauri Museum undertaking certification projects. Also innovative is Click Suite’s interactive technology table providing individual access to the vast archives of the National Library.
The ‘development project’ category, new in 2012, has two finalists this time – the multimillion dollar Toitū Otago Settlers Museum redevelopment, and Raglan & District Museum’s more modest New Beginnings.
In other categories, it is not surprising that small museum exhibition finalists have a community focus. Mercury Bay Museum’s History of Fishing and Te Awamutu Museum’s We love Eels explore local interests in social and scientific contexts. The Fashion Museum, which has no collection and no permanent premises, engaged with domestic craft throughout the country with its touring exhibition Home Sewn.
The art exhibition category also brings in local and specialist communities, with City Gallery Wellington’s Samoan tatou being undertaken in the gallery, and Chritchurch Art Gallery taking their programme into Outer Spaces while their gallery is closed.
The selection panel, Greg McManus, Jane Legget and guest judge Tim Walker, was impressed by the range of entries, particularly from smaller institutions. The awards categories are deliberately left up to the judges, and this year they were keen to recognise the community and environment focussed projects. ‘It is very pleasing to see that environment has become a feature of the innovation category’, says Phillipa
Tocker, Executive Director of Museums Aotearoa. ‘We are delighted to see this kind of project entered by large and small museums.’ The judges said that the entries gave them plenty of food for thought. ‘We are
delighted to see such a varied range of high quality entries. Museums and galleries are continuing to produce excellent project and exhibitions, reaching out to their communities,’ said Phillipa Tocker, ‘the announcement of the winners on 11 April will be a wonderful celebration of their achievements.’
The New Zealand Museum Awards dinner in Hamilton is part of Museums Aotearoa’s MA13 conference, Leading Museums. The awards programme is grateful for sponsorship from National Services Te Paerangi, Philips Selecon, NZ Micrographic Services and ServiceIQ.
The full list of finalists for the New Zealand Museum Awards 2013 is:
- Auckland Art Gallery project: Learning Centre Project
- Auckland Museum project: URBANLIFE
- Auckland Museum project: Energy and Environmental Project
- Christchurch Art Gallery exhibition: Outer Spaces
- City Gallery Wellington exhibition: Sui faiga ae tumau fa’avae
- Click Suite project: Lifelines
- Dowse Art Museum exhibition: Arcade
- Dunedin Public Art Gallery exhibition: Sound Full
- Fashion Museum exhibition: Home Sewn
- Mercury Bay Museum exhibition: The History of Fishing Display
- Museums Wellington project: Capital Connections
- Raglan Museum project: New Beginnings
- Te Awamutu Museum exhibition: We Love Eels
- The Kauri Museum project: Achieving CarboNZero Certification
- Toitu project: Redevelopment
- Whangarei Art Museum project: Runway Shows for Charity