A long and at times painful journey for the Toitu Otago
Settlers Museum ended in celebration at a civic opening
yesterday to mark the completion of the museum's $37.5
million redevelopment.
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Adrian Thein, senior project manager at Octa Associates Ltd,
which managed the project for the museum, told invited guests
that completing the redevelopment had ended a ''very, very
exciting journey''. The museum officially reopens to the
public at 10am today after a two-year closure during the
redevelopment.
Further celebrations will be held at the museum throughout
the weekend.
Addressing more than 100 people in the museum's new Josephine
foyer yesterday, Dunedin Mayor Dave Cull said many people
could recall ''the old style of museum'' where exhibits
remained, untouched, in glass cabinets for decades at a time.
By contrast, the Toitu Otago Settlers Museum was now more
like ''an evolving database'' of snapshots, historic vistas
and ''personal, family and cultural stories''.
He paid tribute to the city's continuing strong Scottish and
Ngai Tahu strands of ancestry but also noted Dunedin was
becoming increasingly diverse.
Asked later about benefits flowing from redevelopments at the
settlers museum and Otago Museum and other cultural assets,
he said Dunedin now had ''the cultural infrastructure of a
city twice our size''.
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