Town Acre 445 is the gateway (waharoa) for our community to explore and reflect on their cultural heritage and the natural history of the region. At our central city location, on the corner of Trafalgar and Hardy Streets, Nelson, there are two main gallery spaces featuring permanent and temporary exhibitions, a classroom, museum shop and rooftop garden.
See Visitor Information for details on opening hours, entry fees, contact details and maps.
Total visitor numbers for the year to 30 June 2011 were just on 43,000. This figure includes 7,544 school students who came through the LEOTC education programme. Given the circumstances in the country as a whole this figure is a sound result.
The Research Facility is where staff develop exhibitions and care for our regional treasures (taonga), including one of New Zealand's most significant photographic collections. Extensive historical archives and library resources are also stored there. Trained staff are available to assist visitors with research.
See Visitor Information for details on opening hours, entry fees, contact details and maps.
Chief Executive, Tasman Bays Heritage Trust: Peter Millward
This is the end of my third year here in Nelson. We have been extremely fortunate in the current economic climate to successfully achieve grants and sponsorship that allow staff to continue work on a number of special projects and exhibitions. We have continued to maintain excellent and overwhelmingly positive coverage of our activities in the local media. Our email newsletter now keeps over 2300 of our friends and supporters in touch as exhibitions and programmes change. The largest of these projects, the Glass Plate Negative Project, has completed the digitisation and rehousing of more than 35,000 glass plates in the last year and nearly half that number added to our Collections Online resource.
The exhibition programme has been very well supported, Treaty2U, and Future Food and a display for the Rugby World Cup all attracting quite different audiences. For more information on our previous exhibitions click here.
The exhibition, Extraordinary Frontiers; Cawthron Science, Innovation and Mysteries from our Environment, opened in November 2011 and celebrates the 90th anniversary of the Cawthron Institute. The exhibition is a wonderful example of a collaborative partnership that commenced almost from the start of that institute. The exhibition was curated by the Cawthron's community educator with the professional support of Cawthron scientists and our Collection Services team. Designed by Sally Papps it portrays the current research interests of the Cawthron in a very engaging manner. This exhibition makes very good use of new media potential with digital media players in hard state completely replacing DVD players for the first time.
Staff have achieved some significant changes in the layout and quality of the Isel Park Research Facility which have improved both amenity and accessibility. The real challenge facing us at present is to ensure that forward planning from our stakeholder Councils includes attention to the need to replace and upgrade the storage of our priceless heritage Collection.
A fuller report on the 2010-11 year can be found in the Annual Report which you can download here (PDF format).
