IN a city that takes pride in its creative industries and their output, there are many unspoken success stories. Newcastle Museum, this weekend celebrating its fifth birthday in Honeysuckle, is one of those stories.
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In the 2014-2015 fiscal year, the museum opened its doors to more than 174,000 visitors.
In the 2015-2016 fiscal year, it counted more than 185,000 visitors, boosted by the hugely successful Tyrannosaurs Meet the Family exhibit.
As it celebrates five years in the former Honeysuckle railway workshop complex, which was specifically redesigned for its new use, there is every indication it will continue to increase not only its visitation figures, but stature locally and nationally.
“The thing about the museum is it sometimes gets underestimated,” says Newcastle City Council cultural director Liz Burcham. “It works in such simpatico with community, it does it in an understated way. The downside is it is not necessarily valued to the level it deserves. People don’t realise what a rock star it is.”
The thing about the museum is it sometimes gets underestimated...People don’t realise what a rock star it is.
- NCC cultural director Liz Burcham
With a full-time equivalent (FTE) of 9.4 staff, it can definitely make an argument it serves above its weight. Since moving to the Honeysuckle site and opening to the public on August 4, 2011, the museum has presented 55 shows, in addition to the array of programming it runs inside and outside of the premises.
There are inbound exhibitions to be organised and set up. There are community exhibits, driven by the interest groups who are often mentored by museum staff in collecting and creating a show of greater general interest. And there are permanent exhibits such as Supernova, Mininova and, of course, Fire & Earth, the BHP Experience, all of which have been recently refreshed.
Last summer in a show resulting from Greg Ray’s latest local pictorial history book, the museum featured a 12-metre panorama of Newcastle in its earliest days. The various landmarks, hardly recognisable today, were purposely not labelled, to create discussion. On the final weekend, the public was supplied with post-its and pens to do its own labelling, to offer its own insights.
“We don’t want to be removed experts who are not part of the community,” says Newcastle Museum manager Julie Baird. “We do a lot of things to make the museum accessible. Other people have the opportunity to tell their story.”
The success of Greg Ray’s pictorial history books and the popularity of Mike Scanlon’s history column in the Weekender are reflections of the pride and interest the people of Newcastle have in their own history.
Of course, the museum knows of that pride, too.
“There is a keen interest in where we’ve come from, who we are, as people,” Burcham says. “There is great resurgence in knowing your family history, knowing the place from which you come, and that influencing where we are going. So in many ways, especially in Newcastle, Newcastle Museum is the custodian of a lot of the city’s heritage.”
The donation this year of George and Richard Owens’ fascinating collection of more than 2000 objects the father and son collected over their long career as pioneering retailers in the Hunter has been a most welcome addition to the museum.
The public gets its first look at the collection this weekend.
Objects from the Owens collection complement many of the museum’s existing exhibits. While the Canadian-made National cash register takes place of pride in the grocery collection, other pieces show up in the Arnotts, Oak and Beaumont Street collections. The 1890s horse-drawn brougham carriage is a major addition to the museum’s new Transport Gallery.
Also opening this weekend is Circle, a national and international travelling exhibition based on the publication of illustrator Jeannie Baker’s latest picture book, which tells the incredible true story of the circular migration of a bar-tailed godwit bird (limosa lapponica bauera).
The Hunter Region is on the godwit’s migratory path; the species can be seen feeding in Fullerton Cove at present and resting on the Stockton sandspit under the Stockton Bridge a few hours after high tide.
The Circle exhibition was organised by Newcastle Museum. It is the institution’s first international show, and will travel to Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane, and Hobart, as well as Korea, Alaska in the US and New Zealand – all locations on the godwit’s migratory path.
Jeannie Baker came to the museum four years ago to measure their interest in the godwit project, and the concept developed from there.
“It was an awful lot of planning before things got off the ground,” Baird says.
The compact 24-linear-metre Circle exhibition consists of 23 original collage constructions plus title and explanatory text relating to the migration of the bar-tailed godwit. For the museum, the job included creating the publicity and marketing package and an education package, which was developed by museum staff member Emma Best.
Burcham is unbridled in her enthusiasm for value of the Circle project.
“It’s our first time making an exhibition and sending it out to the world,” she says.
Yet, for all the kudos it may bring, Burcham realises the museum’s engagement with its own community is just as important, if not more important.
“While we do national shows, you never let go of community exhibitions,” she says.
The museum assisted with the curation and develop of the recent Westpac rescue helicopter exhibit on site and will play a role in upcoming shows from the University of Newcastle about the history of “radical Newcastle” and another show focused on the Pasha Bulka flood.
The museum’s outreach programs are another aspect that travels under the radar of recognition. Museum Express is an outreach science program aimed at primary schools. It was launched in 2015, with funding from Orica. Burcham calls it a “jewel” with the potential to be packaged for use beyond Newcastle.
The museum also provides “pop up” exhibits at libraries, clubs and businesses. It also offers science and history programs to a wider audience, such as squid dissections to brain injury survivors.
Back to the big picture, an audience evaluation study done last year provided evident that the Newcastle Museum’s audience is younger than most and heavily engaged during visits.
“A lot of people come here to learn something new,” Baird says. “It’s that idea that the museum is a place of new things, something that you haven’t seen before. As the world becomes more digital, people are exposed to more stuff online but they can come to a museum and see the real thing.”
Carrying that notion that the museum has a close and trusting relationship with its audience, it can push the boundaries.
“People feel safe in museums, so you can bring challenging ideas to them,” Baird says. “We have tested it with shows that push boundaries and we are going to do it more.”
In February 2017 the museum will host its first international exhibition: Perseverance: Japanese Tattoo Tradition in a Modern World.
“It’s about culture and tradition, tapping into something huge in Newcastle,” Burcham says. “It’s about the connecting of history and traditional culture with contemporary culture and fashion, bringing a new lens to it.”
Baird came to work at Newcastle Museum in 2002. She thought she would serve five years and move on. But it didn’t work out that way; she’s enjoyed every minute.
“It’s always about finding something new, somewhere we haven’t gone yet,” she says.
“It’s really about being so immersed in the community that they can’t imagine what it would be like without us.”