TAIRAWHITI MUSEUM ANNUAL REPORT 2010-2011 CONTENTS From the Chairman...................................................................……..2

Current Board of Trustees……………………………………………….4

Director's Review of the Year.............................................................5

Statement of Financial Performance...............................................12

Statement of Financial Position ......................................................14

Notes to the Financial Statements ..................................................15

Audit Report .....................................................................................17

Cover Photograph: Tokomaru Bay c.1965 Miller Collection A photograph set up by a professional photographer. This photograph shows Tom Edge’s store (which was previously Oates Brothers’), Chemist Shop, the garage and the fish shop to the left of the store.

BOARD MEMBERS POSITION APPOINTED BY

Dr Apirana Mahuika Chairman Ngati Porou

Victor Walker Te Aitanga-a-Hauiti

Allan de Lautour Treasurer Gisborne District Council

Keri Kaa Gisborne District Council

Michael Muir Deputy Chairperson Friends of the Museum

Norman Maclean Friends of the Museum

Ingrid Searancke Friends of the Museum

Richard Brooking Friends of the Museum

Pene Brown Te Aitanga-a-Mahaki

Steve Gibbs Ngai Tamanuhiri

Hineiromia Whaanga Rongowhakaata

Note: During this year Victor Walker replaced Anne McGuire as Te Aitanga-a-Hauiti representative and Pene Brown replaced Tawera Tahuri as Te Aitanga-a-Mahaki representative.

MUSEUM STAFF

Director Dr David Butts

Administration Officer Leanne Rattray

Exhibitions Curator Jolene Douglas

Archivist/Kaitiaki Māori Jody Wyllie

Curator of Photography/Technician Dudley Meadows

Collection Manager Ann Milton-Tee

Aaron Compton Museum Teacher

Jennifer Pewhairangi Museum Teacher (Te Reo Māori)

Jonty Hall Fabricator/Maintenance Officer

Fiona Challies Receptionist

Christine Page Weekend Receptionist

Anna Cirolli Weekend Receptionist

Marija Cooper Weekend Receptionist

Director’s Review of the Year Tairāwhiti Museum has continued to offer local communities and visitors to the region a diverse

programme of long and short term art, history and science exhibitions. The Museum Education

Programme services thousands of children in the region every year.

1. Introduction

1.1 This report reviews the Museum’s progress for the 2010-11 financial year and evaluates

performance against the KPI’s set out in the Annual Plan 2010-11.

1.2 The Museum has met all of its key performance targets for 2010-11 .To meet these key

performance targets the Museum has:

(a) met all of the targets for the first year of LEOTC Contract 2010-13 with the Ministry of

Education;

(b) exhibited an innovative and diverse programme of art exhibitions;

(c) maintained and developed the museum collections;

(d) made the museum collections accessible to a wide range of individuals and communities;

(e) developed a strategic plan to address limited exhibition, storage and workshop space;

(f) continued working with Nga Taonga a Nga Tama Toa Trust and GDC to develop a new

facility for the C Company (28 Maori Battalion) Price of Citizenship exhibition;

(g) continued to strengthen the Museum’s revenue generating capacity.

1.3 Ann McGuire, Te Aitanga-a-Hauiti representative, resigned from the museum trust board

this year after more than a decade of service to the museum. Mrs McGuire made a significant

contribution to the development of the relationship between the museum and Te Aitanga-a-

Hauiti leading to a number of important exhibition projects both at the museum and at

Tolaga Bay. She also contributed to the development of important policies and practices

relating to care and use of taonga Māori within the museum.

1.4 The museum has developed a long term facility development strategy, including the building

of additional storage and exhibition space on the current museum site. Surveying and

geotech testing has been undertaken. It is anticipated that resource consent will be sought to

build the first extension to the museum facility during the 2011-12 year.

1.5 This year the museum added 266 items to the collection, including 8 taonga Māori, 36 art

works, 45 archival items, 12 photograph collections, and 165 historical items.

1.6 The museum continues to take an active role in facilitating the Tairāwhiti Marae

Conservation Project in partnership with Te Puni Kōkiri and Tairāwhiti Iwi. The Project

Working Group initiated a pilot project to undertake a conservation survey of marae

buildings in the Wiwi Nati Cluster in the Waiapu area. A preliminary report has now been

received from the Historic Places Trust Buildings Conservator and a report will now be

commissioned from a conservation architect.

2. Funding

2.1 The Tairāwhiti Museum Trust Board continues to focus on generating increased operational

funding. The GDC funding to the museum for 2010-11 of $635,346 represented 71.7% of

the total income of $886,404.

2.2 The annual income from the Ministry of Education contract for the Museum Education

Service was $164,684 (18.6% of budget). The museum’s shop sales, entry fees, exhibition

income, donations, photographic sales and café lease generated $47,678 of income.

2.3 The museum finished the 2010-11 year with an audited surplus of $60,031.

Note: The museum has exercised considerable restraint with expenditure this year in the

knowledge that there will be additional expenditure required in 2011-12 for the proposed

building projects. Capitalised assets including collection acquisitions and equipment are paid

for from this surplus.

2.4 External grants, totalling $34,229 were secured for the following projects: 

Iwi Karioi HakaNation Exhibition: Te Puni Kōkiri, Clarke Trust, Matatini Society

Taonga Conservation Project: Te Puni Kōkiri

Surveying and Geotech Testing: Marjorie Redstone Trust, Dr Jack Richards

2.5 The audited accounts for Tairāwhiti Museum for 2010-11 are attached to the end of this

Report.

3. Collections

3.1 The museum’s collections continue to be maintained at a high standard, within the space

constraints of the current museum facility. Planning for the redevelopment of storage,

loading bay, work and administration spaces continued through the year. Site surveying and

geotech testing have been undertaken and the geotech report is due.

3.2 The museum’s collections continue to develop although the museum has taken a much more

selective approach to new gifted acquisitions in recent years. Loans are only accepted into

the collection when they are items of considerable cultural or scientific significance and they

either require the standard of care the museum can provide to ensure their long term

maintenance or in order to make them accessible for the museum’s education and exhibition

programmes. The museum also deaccessioned a number of items that it was no longer

appropriate to keep in the collection. This programme of collection rationalisation is

ongoing.

3.3 The following temporary exhibitions used items from the museum’s collections in this

financial year: Tairāwhiti Landscapes, The Written Word: Nigel Brown Paintings, Iwirakau,

HakaNation, Jewellery and Silver, Scene in Tokomaru Bay, Norman Scott.

3.4 Each year the museum endeavours to improve the documentation of part of the permanent

collection. In recent years attention has focused on the taonga Māori collection and the

museum’s collection of dresses. This year the museum commissioned Mrs Margaret Wirepa,

local gemologist, to document the museum’s jewellery collection. Following the completion

of this work a selection of jewellery items was shown in the Concourse Gallery.

3.5 Increasing use is being made of the museum’s collection of historical photographs. This year

Dudley Meadows, the museum’s Curator of Photography, selected a range of images of

Tokomaru Bay for an exhibition that was shown both at the museum and at Tokomaru Bay.

The public response to this exhibition was very positive and visitors were able to provide

additional information about the images for the museum’s records.

4. Education Service

4.1 The Museum Education Programme offers a museum and place-based education programme

funded by a contract with the Ministry of Education. The programme is based in the

Discovery Gallery and Lysnar House is used when additional space is required. The

programme is supported by an Advisory Group of local school principals and teachers.

4.2 The first year of the LEOTC contract for 2010-13 with the Ministry of Education is

complete. The museum has recently been advised that this contract is to be extended to June

30, 2014.

4.3 The Museum Education Programme delivers programmes in three modes: Museum Based,

Outreach and Wānanga. The total number of students attending Museum Education Service

programmes this year was 11,064. The contract target was 8,600.

4.4 Aaron Compton was appointed to replace Senior Teacher Mrs Gayle Te Kani. Jennifer

Pewhairangi continued in her role as Education Officer (Te Reo Māori). Teachers using the

Museum Education Programme continue to rate the teachers’ performance very highly.

4.5 The Body in Action touring interactive exhibition was very popular with schools. This attests

to the importance of the museum being able to bring a major interactive exhibition to

Gisborne each year. Many children visited the exhibition in the weekend with their parents

after having been to the exhibition during the week with their school class.

4.6 The Museum Education Programme continues to make regular use of the Watersheds: Ngā

Waipupū exhibition (an overview of Tairāwhiti history), Te Moana (Tairāwhiti maritime

history) and the Star of Canada. The C Company 28th Māori Battalion Price of Citizenship

exhibition is also a focus for many lessons. The changing programme of art exhibitions

provides important resource material for the art lessons provided by the Education

Programme. This year the museum hired the Star Lab from Te Manawa in Palmerston North,

as a focus for the celebration of Matatini, for the Education Programme. School bookings for

this exhibition were very heavy and it was very well received.

4.7 The museum and art gallery collections are readily accessible to the Education Programme

and museum staff facilitate this access at the request of the teachers. These collections are an

important resource for the Education Programme and provide access to taonga Māori,

historic objects and art works of all media that are not available to teachers in the school

environment. Of particular interest is the growing use of the clothing collection for secondary

school classes.

4.8 The Education Programme continues to provide outreach services to schools in small

communities on the East Coast and in Wairoa. Travel costs make access to the museum

resources difficult for these schools. The outreach service ensures that items from the

museum’s collections can be made accessible to the students in these schools and that they

are used to emphasise aspects of local history.

5. Art Gallery Exhibitions

5.1 The museum had a very successful programme of exhibitions in 2010-11. Twenty

exhibitions were displayed in the temporary exhibition galleries during this year.

Art Gallery Exhibitions 2010-11:

Power Dressing Chinese and Korean Robes – Richards Collection

Tairāwhiti Landscapes From Tairāwhiti Museum painting collection

Nigel Brown Paintings from Museum collection and on loan

Body in Action Science interactive exhibition

Jack Straker and Romilly Brown Painting and sculptures

The Art of John Hovell Painting retrospective

Ocean and Fire Paintings/Pots by Juliet Bowen and Anna Cirolli

Rockers and Rollers Prints from Aratoi Museum Collection

Toihoukura Annual Student Exhibition

Iwi Karioi HakaNation National Te Matatini Festival Exhibition

Tangata Whenua Paintings and drawings by Rongo Tuhura

Guatemalan Textiles Textiles from the Richards Collection

Legacy: Royal Portraits Paintings from Government House, Wellington

A Story of Quilting Bi-annual exhibition of Gisborne Quilters Group

Jewellery and Silver From Tairāwhiti Museum collection

The Labours of Herakles Prints by Marion Maguire

Scene in Tokomaru Bay Historical photographs

Annual Exhibition Gisborne Artists and Potters Societies

Norman Scott Paintings from Tairāwhiti Museum Collection

Project #12 Paintings by Rowan Belcher, Gisborne

5.2 Each year the museum endeavours to provide a programme of exhibitions by local

artists, touring exhibitions and exhibitions of art works borrowed from other institutions,

trusts and private collectors. Exhibitions are also created from the museum’s own art and

history collections. This year the touring exhibitions included Rockers and Rollers, an

exhibition of prints from Aratoi Museum of Art and History, The Labours of Herakles,

an exhibition of prints by Marion Maguire, and Legacy: Royal Portraits, paintings from

Government House, Wellington, toured by the National Portrait Gallery.

5.3 This year there were several exhibitions with local connections that were of particular

interest. The Art of John Hovell was a major retrospective exhibition, organised by the

museum, for an artist who is increasingly recognised as one of the major figures of the

contemporary Māori art movement. This exhibition provided an opportunity to celebrate

the full range his work. John Hovell is renowned for his innovative kōwhaiwhai designs

in wharenui and wharekai in Tairāwhiti and beyond. He very generously gifted four of

his paintings to the museum fine art collection at the end of the exhibition thus filling

what had been a significant gap in the museum’s collection.

5.4 The Norman Scott exhibition focused on a significant local artist whose work is

receiving renewed interest at the present time. After military service during the Second

World War, Norman Scott studied at the Slade School of Art in London before returning

to Gisborne where he worked as an artist until his death in 1978. He is best remembered

for his oil paintings, although he was also an accomplished watercolour painter and

sculptor. The museum has a number of his works in the collection including a

representational image of Mount Hikurangi and a number of abstracted local landscapes.

5.5 The museum’s art galleries provide an opportunity for local artists and art collectives to

share their work with the local community and visitors to the region. It is notable that

this year there was a diverse range of work by local artists, from the abstract paintings

and installations by Rowan Belcher and the strange figures created Jack Straker and

Romilly Brown, to the landscapes and ceramics exhibited by Juliet Bowen and Anna

Cirolli. Rongo Tuhura’s paintings and drawings also made a strong statement about

whakapapa (geneology) and whenua (land). Exhibitions by the Artists Society, the

Potters Society and the Quilters Group confirmed the growing strength of these

collectives.