New South Wales Museums And Art Galleries Inquiry: Labor’s policy for the Powerhouse: to stay in Ultimo with new cultural facility for Parramatta

Sunday 27 January 2019

Labor’s policy for the Powerhouse: to stay in Ultimo with new cultural facility for Parramatta

On 20^th January, outside the Powerhouse Museum, to an enthusiastic audience from both Parramatta and Sydney city, Labor Opposition leader Michael Daley, with shadow Arts Minister Walt Secord, released a policy detailing Labor’s plans for museums and galleries if elected on 23 March. For access to Labor’s Policy and Media Release, as well as news reports and comments, see the News Chronology on our Powerhouse Museum Alliance website, from 20 January on: https://powerhousemuseumalliance.com/find-out-more/a-news-chronology/

Among commitments to regional NSW and protecting Parramatta’s heritage precincts, the policy says a Daley Labor Government will better use the allocated funding to:

• Retain and protect the Powerhouse Museum at its existing Ultimo site
• Invest $45 million over four years to make necessary repairs to the Ultimo site
• Assist with the listing of the Powerhouse Museum’s Ultimo site on the State Heritage Register, and

• Invest $500 million to create a new world-class cultural institution at Parramatta in consultation with the community.

As well, they intend to ‘restore the integrity of arts board appointments’, including reviewing ‘recent appointments to significant cultural institutions’. (Refer PMA news on website above for 22 December, 2018: ‘Powerhouse Museum board gets new look ahead of relocation’)

Continuing research:• In Find out More, and What the Experts Say, on our website, a number of informative papers are being regularly added, as available documents associated with the government’s business case and consultation process are being assessed, and policies considered. https://powerhousemuseumalliance.com/

• You may like to share and comment on our Facebook page (foot of web home page).

• If you write a letter to an editor and it is not published (where I can find it), send it to me and I’ll add it here: https://powerhousemuseumalliance.com/find-out-more/letters-to-the-editor/

• And attached, is a statement on Labor’s Cultural Policy, prepared by members of the Powerhouse Museum Alliance.

A 13th Inquiry hearing announced: 11^th February

A further, perhaps final, Inquiry hearing has now been announced, prior to the NSW state election on 23 March 2019. It will take place at NSW Parliament House on 11^th February, and times and interviewees should be identified soon. The final reporting date should be 28^thFebruary, 2019. For details check: https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/committees/inquiries/Pages/inquiry-details.aspx?pk=2403#tab-hearingsandtranscripts

Grace Cochrane AM

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FOREWORD

Public 'musingplaces' – museums and art galleries – hold in their collections the cultural knowledge; cultural and intellectual property, 'public assets', relative to diverse communities of ownership and interest.

Most of the people who make up these communities, individuals and groups, have many layers of individual and shared interests and ownerships.

Sometimes these people are called stakeholders, and even audiences, but their 'ownerships' are much more deeply held than any of these descriptors might suggest.

Indeed, it would not be unusual for some of their ownerships and interests to be in conflict with each other. Consequently, it is important to identify not only 'the people' but also their ownerships and interests without conceding to an impulse to 'rank' them or some imperative to privilege one group over another.

Typically, these 'ownerships' will be deeply felt and they should be vigorously defended.

In the end all this is a matter of 'lore' rather than 'law' and for each and every individual it's a matter of identity ... and undeniably that 'matters'.”