The Standards Program kicks off for another year

The finale of our road trip around the long paddock was a workshop in Wagga Wagga on Friday, introducing new participants to the 2012 Standards Program. Held at the Old Council Chambers at the Museum of the Riverina, it was a day to meet everyone who we will be working with this year, and let them know exactly what they have got themselves in for!

Ten museums from the Eastern Riverina have signed up for the program of self and peer review this year, and the program is definitely off to an excellent start. Each museum had a chance to share with the group a bit about their museums, and it was great to hear what a diverse range we have on board.

We were lucky to hear from Myfanwy Thompson, who kindly joined us from the Old Courthouse Museum in Batemans Bay. Her museum completed the Standards program last year and successfully made it through in one piece! It was reassuring to hear of their museum’s experiences in going through the program and everyone really appreciated her lively and encouraging presentation.

We are looking forward to the next get together in August, in the meantime we know everyone will be very busy getting stuck into the program activities!

Thanks heaps to the staff at the Museum of the Riverina for all their help in running the workshop and making it such a successful day.

Catching up with Mark Lipscomb and David Mathieson from Adelong Alive Museum.

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The team from Tumut Historical Society and Sandra West from the Up to Date Store with Rachael Vincent, Regional Museum Officer.

Journeys on the Long Paddock

Phoebe and I are currently traveling in the western Riverina and Murray regions of NSW, talking to councils and museums about the Standards program we're planning to run in the area in 2013.

After a delayed flight we arrived in Griffith on Tuesday morning and popped in to the Griffith Pioneer Park Museum where we met with Manager Darryl Collins and Councillor Pat Cox. The Pioneer Park is home to an incredible variety of heritage buildings that have been moved to the site from the surrounding district, including a one room school, small temporary buildings made from scrap materials and covered in canvas bagging from Bagtown (the construction camp for the early 20th century irrigation scheme), a police lockup and a pub.

The Pioneer Park is also home to the Italian Museum. Strongly supported by the local Italian community, the Italian museum celebrates Griffith's large and diverse Italian community, their contribution to the wine industry and the vibrancy of Griffith. We were also privileged to have a sneak peek at the newest display area in the Pioneer Park- a new building dedicated to telling the story of the local wineries. It was great to hear that the building has been strongly supported both financially and through the donation of collection items by the wineries themselves.

The Pioneer Park is clearly a community hub, as we wandered through the grounds, children from the play group that meets there on weekdays were scooting around, the local craft group meets in one of the heritage buildings on a weekly basis as does the local arts society. Darryl also showed us plans for a new entrance building with a small conference facility that he hopes will enable even more community groups to use the Pioneer Park.

After a lovely lunch of sandwiches and cake (with extra supplies gratefully packed for the road) we headed off to Hay where we met with General Manager Allen Dwyer and Corporate Services Director Mark Dowling. Mark is also a volunteer at the Hay Gaol Museum and on the board of Shear Outback so was able to give insight into these museums from both Council's and the Museums' perspective. It was great to meet someone so senior in a council so engaged with the local museum community.



We called in briefly to Shear Outback before heading to Deniliquin. Shear Outback celebrates the significant contribution shearers have made to regional Australia with exhibitions about the history of shearing, interactives that give visitors a sense of the energy used in shearing and video oral histories and images about shearing life. Adjacent to the museum building is a heritage shearing shed where a local shearer provides shearing demonstrations for visitors.

 Leaving Hay we headed south on the Cobb Highway to Deniliquin, the highway is part of the Long Paddock, a droving route used to move livestock from Queensland through NSW to Victoria. Along the route are a series of interpretive panels and artworks highlighting local stories and sites. We were particularly taken with the story of the headless horseman depicted in a series and large cutout metal figures silloueted against the horizon like giant shadow puppets. As the car's airconditiong had stopped working just out of Griffith, we experienced the full brunt of the day's heat and were delighted to arrive in Deniliquin and gaze upon the tree lined river.

Congratulations to South East Museums!

The Standards Program journey has finally come to an end for eleven museums in the South East region who participated in our 2011 program.

Yesterday Michael, Andrew, Sarah-Jane and I joined South East Arts, local council and other supporters of the museums in Cooma to congratulate the participants on their great achievement. Everyone put in so many volunteer hours and hard work to improve their museums and, despite some very challenging moments, persevered to the finishing line!

Before the celebrations began, each museum had a chance to talk to the group about their experiences in taking on the program. Everyone described significant challenges but also rewarding experiences.

Some of the great feedback we got included ‘the Standards Program got us to focus on what we have as well as what’s missing’; ‘participating in the program brought us together so we know each other’, and ‘we found the independent view and positive feedback about our displays and museum valuable.’ 

Part of the Standards Program includes on site reviews of each participant by Standards Reviewers. It was clear that all the museums appreciated the huge amount of advice and assistance from the reviewers.

Congratulations to everyone who participated, and thank you for being such a great group to work with! Thanks also to Andrew at South East Arts for all the support and helping us make it happen in the South East.

Happy (and relieved) participants of the Standards Program 2011 

2011 IMAGinE Individual Achievements

The 2011 IMAGinE award nominations have closed and as always we have been inundated with entries from throughout NSW. Over the next four weeks we'll highlight the nominees in each category as we warm up for a glamorous night of canapes, wine and awards at the Australian Museum's Terrace Room.

A strong category this year is Individual Achievements celebrating specific people in our sector who have tirelessly sought excellence and innovation for their museum, gallery or keeping place. Whether volunteer or paid, these ladies and gentlemen have proved to be invaluable and irreplaceable for their organisations and the sector as a whole. 

And the nominees are . . . 


VOLUNTEER STAFF

Glen Johns contributed tirelessly to the museum sector across NSW from the late 1990s through to his death on 31st January 2011. Glen's contribution to the museum sector began with his work with the Boorowa museum in the late 1990s when he moved to Boorowa.

Within museum circles, Glen is probably best remembered as the man behind the Working Spaces  conferences held at St Clements, Galong. As a man who believed anything was possible, Glen approached Museums & Galleries NSW in 2006 with an idea for a volunteer museums conference with "no talking heads" and plenty of practical workshops. In no time, Glen had convinced the major cultural institutions in Canberra to contribute staff to run the various workshops and the Working Spaces conference was born.

Gillian Kelly has shown great leadership as a volunteer Curator working with QDHMS (Society) members and CIT Museum Studies Students with the support of QCC in transforming the Queanbeyan Museum's displays over the last 8 years. Amongst a great deal of work, Gillian has researched, developed, consulted on, planned for and led a team that has set up an average of two new exhibitions in the Museum each year.

Led by Gillian, the volunteer team  has transformed Queanbeyan Museum into a high quality and accessible community facility that tells the many stories about Queanbeyan and its history. Gillian is also a local historian and received an OAM for her contribution to the history group Lacemakers of Calais.

In April 2002, Jill Madew, a long term resident and business woman of Adaminaby, heard the heavy machinery previously used in the construction of the Snowy Hydro-Electric Scheme in NSW would be offered at auction. Under Jill's leadership, a group of Adaminaby residents formed a fundraising committee and in a frantic scramble before the auction, the committee raised $40,000. The money raised by the committee enabled the purchase of eight of the ten items earmarked as most historically important.

With the beginnings of a collection in hand, Jill converted the fundraising committee into a museum committee and set about the long and arduous task of convincing Governments through grants applications and other fundraising endeavours, that the proposed museum was needed as a tribute to one of the engineering wonders of the modern world. Next month, Snowy Scheme Museum Adaminaby opens to the public. 

On moving to Grafton in 1976, Pam Fysh became an active committee member of the Jacaranda Art Society. The society established and presented the annual Jacaranda Art Prize and founded the Grafton Art Gallery which in 1988 became the Grafton Regional Gallery. Since then, Pam's guidance and actions in developing and supporting the gallery in its programs, collections and support groups, and its facilities and equipment has always been positively and diplomatically given.

Pam Fysh has been and continues to be an active advocate for museums and galleries in the Clarence Valley and beyond. Over the last year Pam has worked with the Grafton Showground Trust to upgrade the kitchen of the Barn, a heritage listed pavilion. Pam has been instrumental in gaining a grant of $100,000 through the Community Building Partnership of the NSW Government, gaining the services of an architect pro bono and having the project completed on time.

Christina Webb has had a significant impact on the community-based Thredbo Historical Society since she joined in 2000.

From 2001 Christina undertook the duties of Honorary Secretary/Treasurer. Her work involved correspondence, minutes, membership, accounts, banking, transcription of oral histories, 3 newsletters annually, publicity and archiving of printed material. Between 2000 and 2009 the Society membership increased from circa 60 members to 200. By 2009 the volume of Secretary/Treaurer’s work had increased so much that it was necessary to split the position in three, and Christina was appointed Honorary Museum Administrator/Publicity Officer.

Christina drives half hour drive from her home in Jindabyne to Thredbo in order to open the Museum, an activity which she combines with a ski prior to opening the museum during the winter months.


PAID STAFF

Gavin Fry has been Director of Newcastle Museum since 1999. Since then he has conceived, developed, supervised and brought to completion the redevelopment of the former Newcastle Regional Museum, bringing it firmly into the 21st century as an institution of which the community and the state can be justly proud. Year after year he systematically put in place the building blocks of the project, including the sale of the former museum site, acquisition of the new Museum Storage Facility and successful application to the Commonwealth which resulted in an $8.5 million grant. This was the largest made under the RLCIP nation building program and completed a $23.5 million funding package. 

Gavin is coming to the end of a 30 plus year career in Australian museums, having worked steadily up through a range of significant roles including Senior Curator of Art at the Australian War Memorial, Deputy Director of the Australian National Maritime Museum and Museums Review Consultant for the Department of Defence.

Julie Baird has been Curator of Newcastle Museum since 2002 and Acting Deputy Director since November 2010. Since the closure of the old museum in 2007 Julie has been developing a new suite of exhibitions for the revamped museum and has recruited and led an enthusiastic team to work towards the 2011 reopening. Recruited to Newcastle from her previous role as senior curator at the Australian National Maritime Museum, Julie has become an integral part of the Hunter region museums scene, reorganising and invigorating the Hunter Chapter of Museums Australia, acting as a leader and mentor for the smaller museums in the area.

The new museum's feature exhibition, Newcastle Story, is Julie's work from conception to completion. She provided the brief, worked closely with the architects and designers and led the installation team. The outstanding result achieved in the new Newcastle Museum could not have been achieved without her knowledge, enthusiasm, commitment and passion.

In 2009, Rebekah Schulz, Manager of the Library, Museum & Entertainment for Hurstville City Council, undertook a restructure of the Hurstville Library and Information Services, Penshurst Branch Library and St George Regional Museum to meet 21st century community needs. Rebekah converged the facilities into Hurstville City Library, Museum & Gallery (LMG), a centre of cultural excellence which aims to educate, inspire and engage.

Rebekah has worked on the following major initiatives including the development of Councilor education program, Hurstville’s Community Strategic Plan 2021, The Begin-Again, a Sydney-wide art event with C3West and MCA staff and a successful campaign for the Museum & Gallery to double its opening hours.

Rebekah’s impact on our organisation is evident of her being announced the inaugural winner of HCC's Leader of the Year Award in 2010.

Gary Corbert's twenty-three year career in the museum & gallery sector commenced at Broken Hill Regional Gallery where he worked as an Education Officer. Upon the then Director's resignation, he was subsequently appointed Director - continuing to work towards establishing a strong profile for the gallery, its collections and programs. He also contributed to the museum and gallery sector in various roles including his position as Museums and Galleries Manager at Broken Hill City Council. 

In 2002, Gary instigated the Border Art Prize, which is held at the Gold Coast City Art Gallery and the Tweed River Art Gallery in alternating years. The prize aimed to showcase the wealth of local talent in the Tweed/Gold Coast regions, has become one of the most popular in the region and continues to grow in size each year.

Who will win? Book now for the 2011 IMAGinE awards presentation event!

A Gathering in Narooma

Last week a group of reviewers embarked on the first of their visits to participating Museums in the Standards Program. To round this week of visits up, we put on a workshop in Narooma, which was a great opportunity to get everyone together again and find out how they were getting on.

Sarah-Jane and I took along our friend Clare Power from the National Maritime Museum, whose grant program MMAPSS helped fund the fantastic new exhibition ‘Mainland to Island’ at the Narooma Lighthouse Museum.

We were lucky to have Andrew Gray (RADO, South East Arts) along to talk us through the design of this exhibition during the workshop. It was great for everyone to hear some practical tips on how to put together a professional looking exhibition. We took the opportunity to remind museums that M&G NSW also have grants available at the moment to make this happen.

Another guest speaker was Vanessa Milton, a producer from the ABC Open for the South East region. Vanessa provided a very engaging session on how the museums can get involved with the ABC to showcase their stories.

We are still all recovering from over-indulging in the incredible catering provided by the Narooma CWA, who definitely lived up to their reputation!

UPDATE! It was great to see the workshop get a special mention in the Narooma News!

Andrew Gray from South East Arts talks to Diane Pryor (Bega Pioneer's Museum)
about the new exhibition Mainland to Island

The 2011 Standards Participants

Delicious catering provided by the Narooma CWA

A beautiful day in Narooma for the workshop!















John McGlynn and Kerrie Ruth from Queanbeyan Museum, and Doug Quane from the Queanbeyan Printing Museum with Phoebe.

2011 Standards Program kicks off in Bega

Last Friday Sarah-Jane and I were lucky enough to travel the beautiful South East and meet with eleven museums who have signed on for this year’s Standards Program. After a scenic flight down the coast to Merimbula, we drove up to Bega for the workshop at the Bega Council Chambers. We were delighted to have a representative there from each of the participating museums, and it was great to see some familiar people as well as meeting some for the first time (after many emails and phone conversations!). Many had driven some distance to be there, which was greatly appreciated.

The Introduction to Standards workshop introduced the museums to the range of activities they will be completing throughout the program. It was also a chance for the museums to meet some M&G staff, and to get to know their fellow standards participants for the year.

The eleven museums that are embarking on the program are a diverse group, including the Thredbo Museum, the Eden Killer Whale Museum and the Cooma Corrective Services Museum. Each museum had the opportunity to give a short presentation about their unique organisation. We can tell this group will make for a really interesting program this year.

We were also lucky enough to have a pair of Standards Program veterans join us all the way from Gilgandra in the Orana region. Jeff and Shirley Marks completed the program in 2010 and generously provided their invaluable experiences and advice. One of the main recommendations they stressed to the incoming group was the necessity of working through the activities as a team, in their experience this made completing them much easier.

The participants are now busy completing their first activity, and will all get together again in August for a mid program practical workshop. Keep an eye on our weekly email Alert where we will soon be featuring each museum’s profile.

The Standards Program is initiated by Museums & Galleries NSW, and is an important museum development program that is being put on this year in partnership with the South East Arts Region (SEAR), and is supported by local councils including the Bega Valley Shire Council, the Cooma Monaro Shire Council, Eurobodalla Shire Council, and the Queanbeyan City Council.

Participating Museums include:
Adaminaby Snowy Scheme Collection
Bega Valley Historical Society
Bermagui Historical Society
Clyde River & Batemans Bay Historical Society
Cooma Correctional Museum
Eden Killer Whale Museum
Moruya & District Historical Society
Merimbula Old School Museum
Queanbeyan Museum
Tathra Wharf Museum Committee
Thredbo Museum

Jenny Drenkhahn and Stevi Goldsworthy from the Eden Killer Whale Museum, Kerrie Ruth from the Queanbeyan Museum

Robyn Levy and Denise McGlashan from the Bermagui Historical Society.

Congratulations to the 2010 Standards Participants!

Last Friday Sarah-Jane, Michael Rolfe and I traveled up to Dubbo to celebrate the completion of the 2010 Standards Program with the participants. There were ten museums in this year’s group, from as far as Brewarrina and Lightning Ridge, to Narromine and Rylstone. Despite the Program’s challenging demands of time, hard work and energy, everyone was a delight to work with and I was endlessly impressed by each group’s passion and dedication to develop their museum.

Our celebration was hosted by the Western Plains Cultural Centre, a really fantastic venue. It was great to catch up with everyone again, and we were fascinated to hear the tales of the recent flooding that has had such an effect on the region.

After the group kindly shared their feedback with us on their experience of the program (all very positive!), we had a quick lunch and began the presentations of the Final Reports and Certificates of Achievement. We were lucky to have Deputy Mayor of Dubbo Mathew Dickerson join us to present the reports with Michael. They both expressed their admiration for the museums’ great effort and commitment.

I’m looking forward to catching up with everyone again in Dubbo next year when we hold our workshop Access to Funding on 18th March. Hopefully this will help actualize some of the great ideas people have thought up with their reviewers during Standards 2010.

Thanks so much again to this year’s Standards museums for being such a great group! I’ve really enjoyed getting to know everyone, and look forward to staying in contact in the future.

Ted Davies, Jack Haines and Bob Richardson – Narromine Aviation Museum

Narromine Aviation Museum representatives - Ted Davies, Jack Haines and Bob Richardson

Rochelle Sutherland from the Gulgong Pioneer Museum receives her Final Report and Certificate of Achievement from Deputy Mayor of Dubbo Mathew Dickerson.

Sarah-Jane Rennie, Cr Mathew Dickerson, Michael Rolfe and Phoebe Arthur

Delegates speak on their experience of Standards

Participants from Standards programs across Australia shared their thoughts and experiences on undertaking standards in their organisations. Thank you to Clare-Frances Craig for chairing the session and Christen Bell (History House Museum, City of Armadale, WA), Lee Scott (McCrossin's Mill museum and Museums Australia national office), Justin Bishop (former director, Stanthorpe Gallery) for being so candid.