The council’s community services committee this week approved a partnership agreement with Te Papa, which formalises its support of council relating to the collection, and also gives Te Papa first right of refusal to buy the collection if council ever sells it.
The council bought the Eden Hore collection for $40,000 from the Hore family in 2013. The collection, accumulated by the late Mr Hore, a Naseby farmer, contains almost 300 dresses of New Zealand high 1970s and 1980s fashion.
Te Papa senior curator for New Zealand history and culture and Eden Hore Steering Group member Claire Renault told councillors Te Papa wanted to help CODC protect and promote the collection. She said Te Papa had initially been interested in acquiring some of the garments, but had realised the strong ownership Central Otago felt towards the collection and that "it was wrong to remove the garments from the region — they had such a strong sense of place".
But Te Papa had agreed to partner with the CODC to do "an exceptional one-off fashion photo shoot of Eden Hore Central Otago garments, set in distinctive Central Otago settings", council community development manager Paula Penno said in a report to the community services committee.
Te Papa would fund the photo shoot, and would have no physical claim on the garments but would have shared ownership and full use of the images, and be able to borrow Eden Hore garments for display at Te Papa.
The partnership with Te Papa offered "many opportunities" for the collection that council would "struggle" to achieve independently, Ms Penno said, including Te Papa’s national standing adding weight to funding requests and sponsorship proposals.
CODC’s purchase of the Eden Hore garments had been controversial at the time and some Central Otago residents had been against it, councillors said.But the collection’s social and cultural value was significant, and its monetary value had gone up, councillors heard.
"And the fact that Te Papa wants first right of refusal for it shows the foresight of those who bought it [the collection]," Cr Lynley Claridge said.
