Notice of Meeting:

I hereby give notice that an ordinary meeting of the Toitū Otago Settlers Museum Board will be held on:

 

Date:                                                    Monday 11 April 2022

Time:                                                   9.30 am

Venue:                                                Via Audio Visual Link

 

Sandy Graham

Chief Executive Officer

 

Toitū Otago Settlers Museum Board

PUBLIC AGENDA

 

MEMBERSHIP

 

Chairperson

Phil Dowsett

 

 

 

 

Members

Cr Rachel Elder

Cr Doug Hall

 

Cr Carmen Houlahan

Susan Schweigman

 

Peter Smith

 

 

Senior Officer                                               Cam McCracken, Director - Dpag, Toitū, Lan Yuan and Olveston

 

Governance Support Officer                  Rebecca Murray

 

 

Rebecca Murray

Governance Support Officer

 

 

Telephone: 03 477 4000

rebecca.murray@dcc.govt.nz

www.dunedin.govt.nz

 

 

 

 

Note: Reports and recommendations contained in this agenda are not to be considered as Council policy until adopted.

 


Toitū Otago Settlers Museum Board

11 April 2022

 

 

ITEM TABLE OF CONTENTS                                                                                                                                         PAGE

 

1             Apologies                                                                                                                                                                    4

2             Confirmation of Agenda                                                                                                                                        4

3             Declaration of Interest                                                                                                                                           5

4             Confirmation of Minutes                                                                                                                                       9

4.1       Toitū Otago Settlers Museum Board meeting - 21 February 2022                                           9    

Reports

5             Toitū Otago Settlers Museum and Lan Yuan Dunedin Chinese Garden Activity Report              12              

 

 


Toitū Otago Settlers Museum Board

11 April 2022

 

 

1          Apologies

At the close of the agenda no apologies had been received.

2          Confirmation of agenda

Note: Any additions must be approved by resolution with an explanation as to why they cannot be delayed until a future meeting.


Toitū Otago Settlers Museum Board

11 April 2022

 

Declaration of Interests

 

  

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

1.         Members are reminded of the need to stand aside from decision-making when a conflict arises between their role as an elected representative or independent member and any private or other external interest they might have.

 

2.         Elected and Independent Members are reminded to update their register of interests as soon as practicable, including amending the register at this meeting if necessary.

 

 

RECOMMENDATIONS

That the Board:

a)     Notes/Amends if necessary the Elected or Independent Members' Interest Register attached as Attachment A; and

b)     Confirms/Amends the proposed management plan for Elected or Independent Members' Interests.

 

 

Attachments

 

Title

Page

a

Register of Interests

6

  


Toitū Otago Settlers Museum Board

11 April 2022

 

PDF Creator


 

PDF Creator


 

PDF Creator

 


Toitū Otago Settlers Museum Board

11 April 2022

 

Confirmation of Minutes

Toitū Otago Settlers Museum Board meeting - 21 February 2022

 

 

 

RECOMMENDATIONS

That the BoardCommittee:

a)     Confirms the minutes of the Toitū Otago Settlers Museum Board meeting held on 21 February 2022 as a correct record.

 

 

 

Attachments

 

Title

Page

A

Minutes of Toitū Otago Settlers Museum Board meeting  held on 21 February 2022

10

 

 


Toitū Otago Settlers Museum Board

11 April 2022

 

 

 

Toitū Otago Settlers Museum Board

MINUTES

 

Minutes of an ordinary meeting of the Toitū Otago Settlers Museum Board held via Audio Visual Link on Monday 21 February 2022, commencing at 9.30 am

 

PRESENT

 

Chairperson

Phil Dowsett

 

 

 

 

Members

Cr Rachel Elder

Cr Doug Hall

 

Cr Carmen Houlahan

Peter Smith

 

 

IN ATTENDANCE

Cam McCracken (Director – DPAG, Toitū, Lan Yuan and Olveston), Jane Macknight (Manager Exhibitions and Collections – Toitū/Lan Yuan) and William McKee (Exhibition Developer – Toitū exhibition and Collections)

 

Governance Support Officer                  Rebecca Murray

 

 

  

1          Apologies

There were no apologies.

 

 

2          Confirmation of agenda

 

 

Moved (Phil Dowsett/Cr Rachel Elder):

That the Board:

 

Confirms the agenda without addition or alteration.

 

Motion Carried

 

 

3          Declarations of interest

Members were reminded of the need to stand aside from decision-making when a conflict arose between their role as an elected representative and any private or other external interest they might have.

 

 

Moved (Phil Dowsett/Peter Smith):

That the Board:

 

a)     Notes the Elected or Independent Members' Interest Register; and

b)     Confirms the proposed management plan for Elected or Independent Members' Interests.

Motion Carried

 

4          Confirmation of Minutes

4.1       Toitū Otago Settlers Museum Board meeting - 8 November 2021

 

Moved (Phil Dowsett/Cr Carmen Houlahan):

That the Board:

 

Confirms the minutes of the Toitū Otago Settlers Museum Board meeting held on 08 November 2021 as a correct record.

Motion Carried

   

Reports

5          Toitū Otago Settlers Museum and Lan Yuan Dunedin Chinese Garden Activity Report

 

The report covered the activities of Toitū Otago Settlers Museum (TOSM) and Lan Yuan Dunedin Chinese Garden (Lan Yuan DCG) from 1 October 2021 to 31 December 2021.

The Director – DPAG, Toitū, Lan Yuan and Olveston (Cam McCracken), Manager Exhibitions and Collections – Toitū/Lan Yuan (Jane Macknight) and Exhibition Developer – Toitū exhibition and Collections (William McKee) spoke to the report and responded to members’ questions.

 

Moved (Phil Dowsett/Cr Rachel Elder):

That the Board:

 

Notes the Toitū Otago Settlers Museum and Lan Yuan Dunedin Chinese Garden Activity Report for the period 1 October 2021 to 31 December 2021.

Motion Carried

The meeting concluded at 10.18 am.

 

..............................................

CHAIRPERSON


Toitū Otago Settlers Museum Board

11 April 2022

 

Reports

 

Toitū Otago Settlers Museum and Lan Yuan Dunedin Chinese Garden Activity Report

Department: Dunedin Public Art Gallery

 

 

 

 

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

1          This report covers activities of Toitū Otago Settlers Museum (TOSM) and Lan Yuan Dunedin Chinese Garden (Lan Yuan DCG) from 1 January 2022 to 31 March 2022.

RECOMMENDATIONS

That the Board:

Notes the Toitū Otago Settlers Museum and Lan Yuan Dunedin Chinese Garden Activity Report for the period 1 January 2022 to 31 March 2022.

 

BACKGROUND

2          This report is prepared for the TOSM Board Meeting and details the latest activities and KPI performance at TOSM and Lan Yuan DCG.

DISCUSSION

Visitation

3          Visitor numbers at TOSM were down 38.9% on the corresponding period last year. This is largely due to the restrictions in place with the Covid Protection Framework and the reoccurrence of Covid in the community. This has had a negative effect, not only on general visitor numbers, but also commercial events and public programmes.

4        Visitor numbers at Lan Yuan were down 25.7% on the corresponding period last year due to the cancellation of the Chinese New Year event which draws thousands of visitors. The decline in numbers is largely due to the restrictions in place with the Covid Protection Framework and the reoccurrence of Covid in the community.  

COLLECTIONS AND EXHIBITIONS

Exhibitions

5          “The Big Day”: An exhibition presenting wedding costumes from the collection spanning a 160-year period opened to the public on Saturday 5 March 2022. It is a new display in the material culture gallery and is expected to remain on display for a minimum of three years. CTANZ (Costume Textile Association of NZ) have invited the collections team to prepare and share a short film outlining the intensive preparation process behind dressing costumes onto mannequins.

6          Furthest Frontier II:  Filming of this series took place in Fiordland in January led by a core crew of TOSM staff. The project is a multi-organisation partnership presented by Seán Brosnahan and featuring Ron Bull from Ōraka Aparima Rūnaka, Natural Science curator Kane Fleury of Otago Museum, archaeologist Frank van der Heijden from Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga and maritime archaeologist Dr Kurt Bennett. The short films focus on social history stories from southern Fiordland, and the first of the 10-episode series will be released on the TOSM online channels from June 2022.  

Gallery Refreshes

7          As noted, Material Culture: The exhibition “The Big Day” presenting wedding costumes from the collection opened to the public on Saturday 5 March 2022. It is expected to remain on display for a minimum of three years.

8          NZR Garage Refresh: Work continues with planning and preparation. Otago Motor Club Trust (OMC) has agreed to support this project with a generous donation of $200,000 as well as the long-term loan of their Morris Minor OMC patrol car to go alongside the Trust’s Austin 7 OMC patrol car, which is already on display.

History Intern

9          TOSM hosted the University of Otago History internship again this year. It is awarded to the top second year History student. This year Alice Houston-Page joined us and worked with Curator Pete Read gathering stories of working women in the Victorian era, especially in the clothing and textile industry. The research is part of the development of some new AV clips for our First Great City displays.

Collections

 

Collections support of exhibitions

 

10        Collections staff are now working to support the NZR Garage refresh project.


Collections Projects

 

11        Hazardous substances in collections: This is an ongoing project to identify any unknown hazardous substances in items from the collection.

 

12        Costume cataloguing, storage, and significance: A project which will culminate in collection significance statements and a research strategy guiding future collecting is now underway. Phase One is completion of the inventory onto Vernon, the collections database.  Further work will include reviewing the future collection development, all storage and public access to the costume collection for research purposes.

 

13        Conservation/digitisation of objects: The Buchanan watercolour albums are now with NZ Micrographic Services for digitisation. The process is likely to take at least 4-6 weeks, there will then be a process of uploading the digital files to Vernon before they are digitally accessible via our online platforms.

 

14        The OSA minutes are currently being valued and digitisation will begin as soon as that process is completed. 

 

15        Australasian Registrars Committee (ARC): Registrar Claire Orbell attended (online) the ARC conference on 10 and 11 March.

 

Gallery Cleaning

 

16        The new regime of regular deep-cleaning of permanent exhibitions commenced in 2021 continues with New Edinburgh and the Cobb Cottage in March/April.

 

17        A regular detailed clean of collection stores is also now underway.

 

Archive Statistics

 

18        Staff processed 77 written public enquiries and 4 telephone enquiries between 1 January and end of February. March statistics were not available at the time of writing.

 

AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT

Learning Experiences Outside the Classroom (LEOTC)

19        Education visits started again in February with 274 students supported by 54 adults attending during that month. The period of 1 – 18 March saw 252 students participating in education programmes, supported by 48 adults.

 

20        The major themes that are emerging over this time included the local and New Zealand histories curriculum incorporating voyages, journeys and immigration and exploring personal ancestry and local stories.

 

21        During this time, 15 NCEA Design students from Otago Boys and Otago Girls High Schools explored architecture and garden design in both the museum and at Lan Yuan DCG.

 

22        There was an initial delay in programmes starting due to uncertainty around how the Covid situation would impact schools and how confident they felt about taking children out of school once there were Omicron cases in their school community.

 

23        This reporting period also saw a series of teacher planning meetings where we trialled a new collaborative planning format incorporating local curriculum and New Zealand history goals and objectives. These were presented both face to face and via Zoom.

 

24        The TOSM educator has developed a series of classroom-based resources on their Treaty of Waitangi topic for the teachers to lead at their school.

 

Public Programmes

25        Traditionally January tends to be a quiet month for Visitor Programmes audience participation however we were pleased that the new ‘Summer Snapshots’ gallery trail was completed by approximately 1,000 people over the summer holiday period.

 

26        The nationwide move to Red traffic light restrictions saw the unfortunate cancellation of the annual Burns Night event scheduled for 25 January. We are hopeful this will be able to go ahead in 2023.

 

27        In support of the Waitangi commemorations, we hosted a looped video presentation from Ngā Taonga Sound and Vision. This was also screened at various venues across the country. We calculate that several hundred visitors to TOSM viewed this over its weeklong screening.

 

28        March saw the reintroduction of the 2022 series of the Tuesday Club. This was presented live online via video link and was offered only to Otago Settlers Association members. Guest speaker Jude Tindill presented on her historical fiction novels set in gold rush Dunedin.

 

29        TOSM and Lan Yuan DCG also supported March’s Pride month with an I SPY @ Toitū – Dunedin Pride gallery trail was on offer for visitors and hosted the rainbow community’s March edition of FriGay.

 

Commercial Activity

30        Commercial activity has been slower this quarter than in the previous year which is reflected in the drop of visitation at both TOSM and Lan Yuan DCG.  

 

31        The TOSM shop had a busy January but has been quieter Feb and March. Throughout the pandemic we have experienced good support from the local community but we are now looking forward to welcoming back domestic and international visitors. We have sourced a small selection of shop products relating to “The Big Day” exhibition.

 

32        Lan Yuan DCG retail shop sales and food and beverage sales have been steady in the last quarter however there was no Chinese New Year stall this year so we missed out on the added boost to our retail revenue. 

 

33        TOSM functions and private events were sporadic due to Red traffic light restrictions which hampered many planned bookings. Many clients have postponed to later in the year. 

 

34        We are offering a guided tour service again at TOSM and Lan Yuan DCG in collaboration with a local contracted tour guide. This is a commercial product that will be available to the public but also an important offering for our inbound tourists, both domestic and international. We have trialled the tours inhouse and are currently working through the pricing structure and marketing of this product.

 

Lan Yuan DCG

 

35        Unfortunately, February’s 2022 Chinese New Year celebrations were cancelled due to the ongoing Covid environment. As a way to still mark this important celebration the Visitor Programmes team developed online offerings for the community. These included Chinese recipes and craft activities to make at home, videos from the Chinese Consul General and Chair of the Dunedin Chinese Garden Trust, a zodiac hunt through the garden, and discounted admission and complimentary fortune cookies for visitors to the garden.  

OPTIONS

36        There are no options as this report is for information only.

NEXT STEPS

37        There are no next steps as this report is for information only.

 

Signatories

Author:

Chris Snow - Operations Manager

Authoriser:

Cam McCracken - Director DPAG, Toitū, Lan Yuan and Olveston

Simon Pickford - General Manager Community Services

Attachments

There are no attachments for this report.

SUMMARY OF CONSIDERATIONS

Fit with purpose of Local Government

This decision promotes the cultural well-being of communities in the present and for the future.

Fit with strategic framework

 

Contributes

Detracts

Not applicable

Social Wellbeing Strategy

Economic Development Strategy

Environment Strategy

Arts and Culture Strategy

3 Waters Strategy

Spatial Plan

Integrated Transport Strategy

Parks and Recreation Strategy

Other strategic projects/policies/plans

 

The activities in this report support the Arts and Culture, Economic Development and Social Wellbeing Strategies.

Māori Impact Statement

The Museum consults with and works with the Ngāi Tahu Advisory Group.

Sustainability

No implications although the principles of sustainability under pins all the activity of TOSM and Lan Yuan DCG.

LTP/Annual Plan / Financial Strategy /Infrastructure Strategy

This report is for noting purposes only.

Financial considerations

This report is for noting purposes only.

Significance

In terms of the Council’s Significance and Engagement Policy, the matters in this report are deemed to be of low significance.

Engagement – external

This report is for noting purposes only.

Engagement - internal

This report is for noting purposes only.

Risks: Legal / Health and Safety etc.

There are no legal or health and safety risks related to matters in this report.

Conflict of Interest

There are no known conflicts of interest.

Community Boards

There are no known specific implications for Community Boards.