Dunedin's cultural institutions, the Dunedin Public Art Gallery and the Otago Settlers Museum, were until recently corralled together under a single director. That relatively short-lived experiment in centralisation has ended with the appointment of two new directors, one for each. Charmian Smith and Nigel Benson meet them.
There's a fair bit in store, or at least storage, for the new director of the Otago Settlers Museum. Charmian Smith catches up.
Museums are more relevant now than they've ever been, according to Linda Wigley, the new director of the Otago Settlers Museum.
They give people a sense of place and pride about who they are and where they come from. That's hugely important, but museums have other roles besides telling stories about our people and our place. They have educational roles, are a tourist attraction, and hold collections of taonga, or treasures, she says.
Formerly director of the Whangarei Museum and Heritage Park, she was "handed over" by Ngapuhi, of Northland, to Ngai Tahu in Otago earlier this month. It was a special occasion and a great start to her new life in the city, she says.
Born and educated in the UK, Ms Wigley (47) has formed close relationships with the iwi in the places she has worked in New Zealand in the past eight years. When she moved to Whangarei after working at the Coal Museum, in the Waikato, Tainui "handed her over" to Ngapuhi for safekeeping.
The Whangarei Museum had a problem supplying 24-hour security for "Ko Tawa", a travelling exhibition of the Gilbert Mair collection of Maori taonga - there had to be a physical presence as well as sophisticated alarm systems, she says.
"Our Maori community stepped into the breach and lived with us 24 hours a day for two months. We became very close over that period. They are my northern whanau and they wanted to make sure I was going to be looked after and wanted to see where I was going to be working and the people I was working with.
"They all met their approval so they left me here, but they did say if I'm not well looked after they'll come and take me back."
Although she has only been here a few weeks, she has already been made welcome and looks forward to forming a strong relationship with local iwi in the South. Maori were the first settlers in this region, and the settlers museum has a Maori display and some taonga, even if Otago Museum has a larger collection, she says.
She was attracted to Dunedin by the city's strong sense of heritage and culture and the way it looks after and celebrates it.
"We have some fine collections here, particularly at the settlers museum. It's comparable to some of the fine regional museums in the UK.
"We have excellent archives and social history collections, and what's important are the people and stories associated with the collections. I gather from my short time here we are very rich in that sort of material - archives, diaries, and supporting information - and that's what brings them alive."
People who gave the museum their family treasures made a point of including information about their families. This makes the collection unlike that of many museums, which are full of objects without any context or provenance, she says.
Ms Wigley has been interested in museums and heritage since she was a child. Her mother took her to stately homes, museums and gardens; she joined the Birmingham Museum Club when she was 10, and at 16 decided she was going to work in museums.
Her family was keen on arts and crafts and she has a strong interest in textiles, although she hasn't had much time in the past few years to pursue her hobby, weaving.
In 1991 she received a Churchill fellowship to study textiles in Mexico and Guatemala, and has also researched Romanian, Palestinian and Jewish costumes and textiles and curated exhibitions on them.
She first visited New Zealand about 10 years ago, accompanying her husband, musician Johnny Morris, on a tour and fondly remembers they spent their first night in the country in Dunedin because Morris was playing in the Octagon. A year or so later, when one of her contract jobs was coming to an end, they decided to move to New Zealand. The couple are joined in Dunedin by their cat.
In the UK there was more support for museums, both from the public and from funding bodies, than in New Zealand, perhaps because Britain itself was like a big museum. When you step off the plane you can't help noticing you are immersed in history, culture and heritage buildings, she says.
Having helped set up three museums in the UK, she is excited by being involved with new developments at the settlers museum, and identifying ways it can reach its full potential.
New developments, including construction of a large new wing that will provide storage to international standards, are well under way.
"What thrills me about this project is we are starting off by looking after our collections - which is what the museum is. Then we are going to be improving our displays. Often it's the other way around, so it shows a lot of foresight by those who have been planning it so far. It's easier to get money for sexy things like exhibitions, but at the end of the day, the museum is the collection, so I'm really pleased we are looking after that."
Moving the collections to better storage facilities in the new wing will free space in the former bus garage for more displays, including several oriented towards children.
Museums have the potential to be important tourist attractions, but not all tourism bodies realise their significance in the tourism mix, she says.
Sandwiched between the historic railway station and the new Chinese Garden - both of which offer synergies - the museum is part of a tourism precinct and the heritage values of the buildings need to be preserved.
That said, the settlers museum is confusing for visitors as its two main buildings - the old museum building and the adjoining former bus station - and the building that links them, seem to have three possible front doors.
The plan is to have a new main entrance at the railway station end of the building and improve visitor flow and facilities, including a shop, cafe and new toilets, which people expect in museums now.
All this is scheduled to be completed by 2012, Ms Wigley says.
Which is to say, Ms Wigley's own entrance is to be followed closely by a new one for the museum. The front door seems as logical a place to start as any.
