Out-going museum CEO Peter Millward says the region should have a museum under one roof, not “five miles apart”, as it is now.
Peter announced his retirement last Friday after seven years as the chief executive at the Nelson Provincial Museum.
Currently, the museum has two buildings, the research facility at Isel Park in Stoke and the exhibition and education facility at Trafalgar St.
He told Nelson Weekly that the museum’s current buildings are its most pressing issue.
“The research facility is unfinished business from my point of view and something needs to be done urgently. When they moved the exhibition and education part into town they actually broke the museum into two pieces, and some of the problems we face now are undoubtedly caused by that.”
He says having the museum in Trafalgar St is important, so he’d like to see the research facility moved close by.
“But it’s not going to happen without some capital input and the two councils are both facing their own infrastructure issues, but the museum is now in the position to help itself.”
During Peter’s rein, the museum has paid back $1.5 million of interest-bearing debt. But it still owes an interest-free loan to both Nelson City and Tasman District councils.
At 67, Peter says he’s not the right man to lead a major fundraising project to make a joint facility happen.
“But there is no question that if it is co-located with its own archives it has greater potential than one that operates under separate roofs, especially when they’re five miles apart, like ours.”
Peter’s retirement was announced along with that of the chair of the Tasman Bays Heritage Trust, Terry Horne.
Current deputy chair, Aaron Brown, has been appointed Terry’s successor.
Terry says that Peter has lifted the public image of the museum, overseen some outstanding exhibitions, and leaves the museum in a sound financial position with increasing admission numbers.
Peter says his proudest moment in the job was at this year’s Gallipoli commemorations.
“The way people in the city got involved with everything to do with Anzac Day has been fantastic. Right from people identifying photos that have been in Nelson Weekly to people coming into the museum and saying ‘there’s my father’s name on the wall’. It was humbling and that whole project was phenomenal.”
