Museums and galleries struggle to balance books without govt funding

Each year, roughly 400,000 people visit Tūhura Otago Museum in Dunedin.

Photo: RNZ / Tess Brunton

Museums and galleries are calling for a dedicated central fund for cultural institutions, as some resort to fund-raising to protect their growing collection of taonga.

They are among the countries most visited attractions, but are struggling to balance the books and fork out for patching up ageing buildings, seismic upgrades and rising operational costs.

One museum board chairman even attempted a Cook Strait swim to raise money for sprinklers.

They argued they were being left out of conversations about tourism funding, saying the current model was broken and fixing it would require recognising museums and galleries as essential parts of the tourism ecosystem.

Tourism and Hospitality Minister Louise Upston said Te Papa received government funding, but that was an exception as it was a Crown entity and the national museum.

"Other museums and galleries are the responsibility of local government," Upston said.

"Regional museums and galleries are enjoyable and valuable experiences for our international visitors, but their visitation is often ancillary.

"Most visitors to regional museums and galleries are those who have been separately attracted to the location - for example due to its mountains, lakes or beaches - rather than the museum or gallery being the primary destination and reason for travel."

About 400,000 people visit Tūhura Otago Museum in Dunedin every year.

The museum received around $4 million annually from the city council, about half what it needed.

It had to raise the rest itself to keep the doors open.

Tūhura Otago Museum marketing manager Charles Buchan.

Photo: Supplied/Tūhura Otago Museum

Marketing manager Charles Buchan said the museum did not get government funding.

"When it comes to things like fire protection, sprinklers, restoring galleries that are outdated and we have a huge issue around storage, with collections coming in fast, we definitely don't have room to store those," he said.

"So we have to think about future proofing and what that looks like with very low funds. So it is a hard task."

Costs were high and rising.

Earthquake improvements were expected to cost between $2 million and $6 million and changes to the fire service levy would cost an extra $50,000 per year.

He estimated it would cost tens of millions of dollars to create more storage for the museum's growing collection.

Such was the pressure on finances, the museum's board chair tried to swim Cook Strait to raise funds for sprinklers earlier this year, he said.

"Some of our main galleries don't have sprinklers. So in the case of a fire, these items are irreplaceable."

Buchan believed museums and galleries should have more of a say on how tourism was funded, saying they ran on the smell of an oily rag despite their role in the industry.

"We generate hundreds of millions of dollars for the economy a year, which means we are significant enough to surely sit around a table and have these important conversations," he said.

Even an extra million dollars per year would make a big difference.

"It would make a huge difference. It would mean we could do a lot more of our capital projects, put in our sprinkler, do up our galleries, make them viable and sustainably sound for our collection items," Buchan said.

Museums Aotearoa chief executive Jaenine Parkinson.

Photo: Supplied/Kate Van der Drift

Museums Aotearoa chief executive Jaenine Parkinson wanted the government to find a sustainable funding solution.

"Museums and galleries maintain about $5.6 billion worth of cultural assets and local councils provide the majority of funding for them," she said.

"However, many of them are already at their funding limits and are facing some significant changes."

That meant they did not always know if they would be funded one year to the next, she said.

Previous funds that supported museums and galleries have vanished and the current government funds for tourism were not adequate, she said.

Parkinson wanted specific funding for their infrastructure.

"We receive no dedicated national infrastructure funding at all. We've been completely cut out and we're calling on the government to try and find a way to insure our cultural assets into the future."

In Ōamaru, Forrester Gallery recently opened an extension with a dedicated education space, more exhibition spaces and storage, and accessibility upgrades.

Forrester Gallery, Mahika Kai Mahika Toi, opens its new extension with a dawn ceremony.

Photo: Supplied/Waitaki District Council

Director Chloe Searle said the gallery received about $6.5 million from the government's now-closed regional culture and heritage fund.

Without that funding, she questioned if the project would have gotten over the line.

"We were in a three-storey building which didn't have a lift for staff or for the public so we were having to shift artwork up and down the staircase, which was a little bit hair-raising," she said.

"Also for a lot of members of the public, if they couldn't use the stairs safely, they couldn't access all areas."

Searle was open to a bed levy, but said museums and galleries needed a seat at the table at any future tourism funding conversations.

"We do attract visitors and we are kind of an all weather, all year round activity, which is something that we can offer to New Zealand tourism."

Construction was underway on the new Tauranga Museum.

Director Greg McManus would like to see fewer museum costs fall onto ratepayers.

"I do think it would be great if museums and galleries got more support from central government for basically looking after the collective memory of our country," he said.

He hoped the new museum would be a drawcard for travellers and help to keep cruise ship visitors in the city.

"Some museums in New Zealand have had admission fees for non-locals for a long time and it's a model that works, and in that way visitors from out of town or from overseas are actually helping to subsidise the costs of the delivery of the museum or the gallery to the local community

The government's new tourism policy statement is expected to be released in the coming months.

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