Museum storage facility for Nelson one step closer

Scott Construction managing director Justin Candish with Stephen Broad-Paul and Lucinda Blackley-Jimson, both of the Tasman Bays Heritage Trust, at the future site of the Nelson Provincial Museum’s new archive facility.

A safe place to house Nelson’s taonga and social history is a step closer to reality, with a local firm winning the bid to build the Nelson Provincial Museum’s storage facility on Church St.

Scott Construction will work with Irving Smith Architects on the $12.4 million project, which will allow the museum to move its collection out of the ageing Isel Park facility to a purpose-built space.

The Tasman Bays Heritage Trust governs the museum, which is New Zealand’s oldest. Trust chairperson Stephen Broad-Paul said the facility would preserve the collection for future generations.

The Isel Park building in Stoke currently houses the sizeable collection of taonga, archives, photographs, social history, textiles, art, and natural history specimens.

Last year, Nelson and Tasman councils heard from Belinda Wheatley, a Tasman Bays Heritage Trust internal project manager for the archives, research and collection project, who said the facility was the “equivalent of a garden shed” and at the end of its functional life, leaving the $20m collection vulnerable to leaks, earthquakes and flooding risk.

During the August 2022 floods, staff, who were also affected by the poor working conditions, covered valuable items with plastic sheeting, the councils were told.

Because of the Isel Park facility’s design, which consists of small and crowded rooms, the collection was not able to be organised by object type and there was no space for education or iwi groups to gather.

“Our collections team do the best that they can, but the building itself is a risk to the collection,” Wheatley said.

The new facility on Church St will be behind the Provincial Museum building on Upper Trafalgar St. The proximity will allow visitors easy access to both.

The building will include specialist conservation facilities and a dedicated research area for students, scientists and researchers. Temperature and humidity controls will significantly increase the lifespan of the collection’s objects.

About 62,000 people visited the museum each year, and the impact on the wider community was significant, Broad-Paul said.

New Zealand research suggested that for every $1 invested in museums, $5 was generated for the wider community, he said.

According to the museum’s latest visitor experience survey, almost a third of visitors went to a local eatery, and almost half shopped in nearby stores on the day they visited, he said.

Scott Construction is one of the South Island’s largest locally owned construction companies. Its previous projects include the Cawthron Institute, Port Nelson, and the Suter Art Gallery.

Construction of the storage facility was likely to begin in the middle of the year, after funding had been raised, Broad-Paul said.

Last year, the Nelson and Tasman councils agreed to fund $3.165m and $3.2m respectively for the facility.

This article was originally published in Stuff on Thursday 25th January 2024. To view the story - click here.