Tough choices emptying museum
A significant grant from the New Zealand Lottery Environment and Heritage Fund has enabled those behind a refurbishment of the Temuka Courthouse Museum to go ahead with the project.
The Courthouse Museum Project has been in discussion for five years, and project co-ordinator Pat Mulvey said the $376,344 lottery grant allowed them to proceed with those plans
‘‘[It] got us into a position to confidently go out and get estimates from building firms.
‘‘We were working on that application for quite some time.
‘‘We want to get started ASAP on the refurbishment and strengthening.’’
Mulvey said it would be a few weeks before they sign with a building firm, but before construction starts, they must sort and store more than 6000 items in the museum collection.
‘‘It’s a big job, going through everything and checking its condition. We’ve had to make some tough decisions.’’
On Sunday, a team of 10 got together for the first time and started a working bee, sorting through items, wrapping them and getting them ready for storage.
Mulvey said it is too early to tell how many items would remain, but noted that not everything will be kept due to deterioration and lack of storage space. The main rule they’ve been operating under is to ‘‘retain things from our local area’’.
Once the museum enters the construction phase, Mulvey estimates it’ll take 8-10 months before the refurbishment and strengthening is complete. During this process, the items will be held in a storage space donated by Temuka Transport.
‘‘It’s all of those things [donated storage space] that help us keep our costs down.’’
Mulvey hopes for the Temuka Courthouse Museum to open shortly after this. He’s already been in conversation with members Te Papa Museum to help with displays before reopening.
Te Papa Museum gives assistance to regional museums on how to use space and display a collection, he said.
‘‘They’ll come down and have a look at our space available, they’ll give us advice for the best way to display what we’ve got.’’
Mulvey said in the five years the project has been in the pipeline, there had been a few hardships.
‘‘We started this in 2017, so we’ve had a lot of hoops we’ve had to jump through, but it’s good, it will require work and determination to see through to the end yet.’’
Back in 2020, the project was estimated to cost $320,000 all up, but the price has increased since then. After a quantity surveyor report in April 2021, the project was priced at $532,000 plus GST. Mulvey said he can’t provide the exact cost until they’ve contracted a firm to do the job, but following the latest grant ‘‘to get it over the line, we will need to get some extra funding’’.
Other major donors include Aotearoa Gaming Trust’s $47,000 grant and a $100,000 donation from Ritchies Transport.