Museum strengthening $1.4M

Press, 20 September 1985, Page 5

Museum strengthening $1.4M

Restoring and strengthening the older section of the Canterbury Museum will cost about $1.4 million in the next five years. The Canterbury Museum Trust Board yesterday approved a five-year general budget for the work. The board’s accountant, Mr K. J. Jensen, said the proposal from the outset did not necessitate going cap in hand to the supporting local bodies. Already the board had $lBO,OOO for the work. Funds bequeathed for general purposes would provide $370,000 and in each of the five years the board would allow $50,000 in its budget for the work.

The board expects grants totalling $300,000 from the Lotteries Board and expects to receive $300,000 in grants and gifts. The board decided at an earlier meeting to do restoration and strengthening work on the nineteenth century section of the building because the City Architect had said the building should be secured or demolished within 10 years. Strengthening work is needed to bring the building up to earthquake standards. A final plan for the work has not yet been approved by the board. According to the financial plan, about $1 million will be spent on structural re-

pairs, restructuring the Canterbury history section, storage facilities, temporary shop security and switchboard resiting, rebuilding displays over the five years, and improving the foyer, shop, and heating system. Architects and engineers’ fees are expected to be $361,000 in the five years. Te Maori All the kudos for Te Maori exhibition would go to the art gallery which housed it in Christchurch in 1986 or 1987 rather than the Canterbury Museum which had helped instigate it, according to a board member, Mrs Myrtle Duff. She said she was disap-

pointed to see in recent news reports that if Te Maori came to Christchurch as proposed, it would be exhibited in the Robert McDougall Art Gallery. “Why not exhibit it here? We are one of the originators of the idea,” she said. The museum’s director, Mr Michael Trotter, said that the museum did not have the environmental control necessary for the exhibits. The museum would also probably be in the throes of reconstruction and have limited space when the exhibition reached Christchurch in early 1987. The Chicago Museum had spent $3 million installing environment controls to the

standard necessary for Te Maori exhibits, he said. Mrs Duff said most of the exhibits were from museums, such as the Canterbury Museum, which had no environment control, and so it was surprising that a high standard of control was insisted on when they were exhibited together. The board agreed to let its exhibits in Te Maori be used on the proposed 16month tour of New Zealand. The tour will begin once Te Maori returns from the United States. It will probably be shown in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, and Dunedin, with about eight weeks in each venue.