A new museum was originally planned to celebrate the achievements of New Zealand’s Burt Munro. However, after research was undertaken and feedback from key stakeholders sought, the museum was deemed not feasible due to limited resources.
An alternative option was launched – to stage an exhibition at the Southland Museum and Art Gallery in Invercargill. The exhibition was a partnership between the museum and the Invercargill City Council, which owns the Burt Munro collection. This gave the city immediate access to the collection, instead of waiting for a new museum to be built.
Taking this less ambitious approach at the start has had several benefits. It has allowed the Council to gauge the interest of the community before allocating more resources to the collection, and the proceeds from the small cover charge on the exhibition have been directed towards funding a museum development.
‘Through careful negotiation, the parties involved were able to come to a mutually beneficial decision which has helped ensure that the Burt Munro collection is publicly accessible and cared for appropriately, and which has helped ensure that any future planning for the collection is robust,’ says Gael Ramsay, Manager of Southland Museum and Art Gallery.