The 13-plus year museum embarrassment that's finally turning positive
“There has certainly been a change, without doubt, from the negativity of the last five years has been without having a museum."
It’s late March in 2010 and the (then-named) Community Trust of Southland has a gift for the province.
Then chairperson Tracy Hicks announces it is going to hand out its largest individual grant ever.
The Trust agreed to commit $5 million to a major redevelopment of the Southland Museum & Art Gallery building in Invercargill.
The $5m topped the $4m the Trust had previously given to the ILT Stadium Southland build.
It was a significant moment for Southland, especially those with a passion for the museum and art gallery.
The $5m was to join the $3.3m the Invercargill City Council had already pledged to the project. The Invercargill Licensing Trust, Southern Trust and central Government were going to be approached for further funding.
Then Southland Museum and Art Gallery board chairman Darren Ludlow described the $5m injection as “just fabulous – beyond belief”.
Hicks believed the museum redevelopment would bring real benefit to the region.
“I look forward to watching it progress,” Hicks said after announcing the $5m injection in 2010.
The problem is, there wasn’t any progress. That $5m never got spent.
In 2018 - eight years after the grand announcement - the Community Trust pulled the pin of the $5m funding.
Eight years of patiently waiting had worn thin.
The initial plan was for the work to be carried out in 2015 but the Trust was later advised it was more likely to be a 2018 start “and through until 2028”.
Then Invercargill councillor Toni Biddle had just been appointed as the museum trust chair when the Trust revealed it was removing the funding grant.
Biddle was disappointed, but not surprised the funding had been pulled.
"They have been waiting for something [to happen] for 10 years,” Biddle said at the time.
There have been various reasons provided as to why the project stalled.
The collapse of ILT Stadium Southland, and the resources that needed to be thrown at sorting that was one offered up.
That waiting has continued.
Months after the Community Trust pulled its funding in 2018 the Southland Museum & Gallery building was closed to the public because it was deemed earthquake-prone.
It’s triggered another round of debate, meetings, plans, and public consultation to figure out what to do.
The resources that have been thrown into sorting the museum over the past decade or so - both staff time and outside consultant costs - to largely get nowhere, would hurt if it was added up properly.
But there’s now some momentum at least.
The council has agreed to invest $39.4 million to develop a 3550m2 museum at Queens Park.
New mayor Nobby Clark asked that the museum be a priority this term.
Highest-polling councillor Nigel Skelt had his sights on the deputy mayor’s job after the latest election, but Clark had other plans.
Skelt’s now the lead councillor overseeing the new museum build. He’s had experience in the project space with ILT Stadium Southland.
In true Skelt fashion, he’s attached a tagline to it - Project 1225.
“It means get the bloody thing built, that’s what it means,” Skelt says.
It’s a nod to December 2025 when the council is committed to having the shell of a new museum built at the current site off Gala St.
The “Like” button had only just been added to Facebook when the Community Trust of Southland announced its $5m contribution to that museum redevelopment over a decade ago.
On Wednesday night - 13 years on - the Invercargill City Council held a Facebook Live screening where a panel updated the public as to what is going on.
The word momentum can finally be added to Southland’s museum plans.
“It’s been a five-year period since we’ve had a museum, so the community gave us a very clear message that they want our museum rebuilt,” Skelt says.
In the next couple of weeks, the council is expected to announce the contract for the design-build. It attracted 11 submissions, more than the six or seven the council expected.
That was whittled down to three before it will soon confirm the “winner of that process”.
That company will provide the base build and framework. Effectively the shell of the building.
A storage facility is currently being built at Tisbury which is expected to be completed by November.
The collection inside the current museum building, on the edge of Queens Park, will then be shifted to Tisbury.
Later this year the council will go out to the market to find a demolition company to demolish the existing building.
That work is expected to start in April-May next year, although Skelt would love for the demolition date to be earlier.
“I’m just not totally comfortable with that date just yet. Bit of work to do on that demolition date.”
The shell of the build is set to be completed at that December 2025 date but it’s what goes on after that, in terms of the actual museum experience, that looms as the most important element.
Programme director Lee Butcher acknowledges just what is on offer inside the building - the experience - is the key piece in the puzzle.
“We’ve got to figure out how we tell these amazing stories, but not in the way of yesteryear, in a more modern way, in a future-proof way,” Butcher says.
“We are writing the experience brief at the moment with the plan for it to go out to market in the next few weeks.
“Mid-year we’ll merge the experience guys and the base build guys together in one big cohesive design process.”
Skelt says there are varying opinions as to the way the experience should be presented, but the vision is to make it as interactive as possible.
“It is to have a visual experience, obviously taking in the virtual world we a living in.”
What can be confirmed is after over a decade of meetings, constant news articles, and plans being drawn up and put to one side, there’s finally some action.
A generation of school kids has missed out on having its drawcard museum open. If the momentum is anything to go by, the next generation shouldn’t find themselves in the same predicament.
Skelt can also sense a shift in mindset within the community.
“There has certainly been a change, without a doubt, from the negativity of the last five years without having a museum. It’s been a long period of time for our young ones, they haven’t experienced that.
“There is some real positivity out there. I’ve been out on speaking engagements recently, all the feedback we are getting is huge positivity.”
The council will need some positivity from external funders as well to make the project work. That will include going back to the now Community Trust South with its latest pitch.
Excellent news although, like Nigel Skelt, I would like to see demolition begin earlier than proposed. It will be so good to have a new museum in Invercargill.