Curators are preparing for one of the most meticulous tasks in the Nelson Provincial Museum’s history.
Its Archives, Research and Collection (ARC) facility at Isel Park, which is due to be vacated after 53 years, is set to relocate 1.5 million individual treasured items which have woven the region’s identity.
The building couldn’t be well-preserved like the artefacts, documents and photos housed inside it, with asbestos, leaking, and temperature-control issues leading to a crusade for a more suitable home.
That bespoke facility is now under construction in Richmond, with a total project cost of $9.8 million.
Funding has come from Nelson City Council, Tasman District Council, Rātā Foundation, The Bett Trust and other supporters, with a further $1.2 million still required to cover fit-out costs.
Collections manager Maria Anderson says the physical preparation will begin over June, July and August, with a gargantuan packing process that requires “significant care”.
“We’re dealing with a 100-year-old cloak that’s woven of feathers, porcelain objects, shells, archaeological diggings and findings,” Maria says.
“We need to decant everything in the significant shelving block, uninstall the shelving units, shift them over to Coman Drive and reinstall them.
“There are also quite a lot of objects that are in off-site storage that are larger items, like furniture, carriages, bikes and a waka, that need decontamination and cleaning before they move.
“The actual physical move will start, all going to plan, from March to June 2027, before we hand the keys over to Nelson City Council.”
An open day for the public’s final opportunity to browse the facility, which opened in February 1973, was held last Wednesday.
Maria says research services, including family history enquiries, are now “very much” reduced during the relocation project.
“Many people who arrived [at the open day] have been following it very closely and have been very warm and thankful that we’ve finally got this far, and very generous with their best wishes and community donations as well, which has been great to see.”
A black-tie fundraising gala for the ARC facility will make an entrance in June. Visit: www.museumgala.co.nz for more details.
