CULTURE CENTRES

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 75, 30 March 1933, Page 12

CULTURE CENTRES

MODERN MUSEUMS

WELLINGTON'S CHANCE

VIEWS OP AN EXPERT

Having -practically completed : his survey of-thc museums and art galleries in New Zealand, on behalf of the Museums Association of .London' and the Carncgio Corporation of New York, Mr. S. F. Mavkham left Wellington yesterday on' his 'way to Auckland, whence lie sails' next Vfeck for the States. Prior to his departure he outlined at the request of a' "Post" representative the ideal to be arrived at in museum organisation,, and ho also stressed the great opportunity- that presented itself for th« new Dominion Museum to be an institution laid out and run on the most modern lines, and in accordance with the most advanced museum principles. . "New Zealand," remarked Mr: Markbam, "has better museum .provision in proportion to population than any other Dominion, every town of any size, with the exception of Palmerston North, having a museum,, while those in Auckland,'Dunedin, and Wanganui are pa;ticularly fine. But generally speaking, however, museum, practice in .New Zealand is. much: behind . that in. -Great Britain or the United States. "The old traditional rows and rows' of stuffed birds, fossils, shells, etc., all with Latin labels, are still gainfully in evidence in the majority iof . the museums in this country, (although scarcely more than a dozen or so of the two thousand museums in England and tlie States which I have visi'.ed still adhere to this pre,-Victorian method of display." — The newest type of museum,'explained Mr. Markham, was essentially the cultural centre of the community, and it was, or ought to be, a vital and vigorous adjunct to the schools in supplying that visual education deemed in these days so necessary. In every museum thore ought to be continually changing topical exhibits, and in this respect a museum, had as, much- work- to do outside its own four walls as within them. TOPICAL EXHIBITS. Asked to enlarge upon this rather more fully, Mr. Markham .said that what he. meant was when, for instance, an agricultural show was.held it was incumbent upon the local museum, authorities,.if they did their job really properly, to stage special exhibits dealing with some of the local agricultural problems. ' A display of this kind might concern the life history and method of eradicating somo pest at that time particularly troublesome. Then, too, there should be dioramas illustrating the most recent agricultural; methods adopted in other ■ countries. In such displays the co-operation of the Department of Agriculture would ■naturally be sought. "Every field can bo covered in this way," continued Mr. Markham. "Even such events as local 'flower <shows, regattas, or flights by Kingston! Smith lend themselves to topical exhibits. At flower shows there should be museum exhibits-of the pollination of flowers, a demonstration of beehives, amd flowers m section; while during' regattas and aeroplane stunts there should be available boat and aeroplane- models, made so that children can control and use them. • "It jr-ust never be forgotten that the primary function of a museum in these days is to. provide education through the senses of siglit and touch,-and no other institutions can provide this education in' a better way than a museum, "Of course research, and conservation are also two important,duties pertaining to a museum, bfct these in New Zealand are, in my opinion, overdone to the detriment of the more important aspects of the museum's work." EVEE-CHANOINO. DISPLAYS. •Mr. Markham instanced 'what had been done recently "by the London Museum in the way of topical exhibits. At the, time of' the last election it staged a political exhibit. . Portraits of Prime Ministers ft or the last 200 .years were shown. But in.addition to their portraits were exhibited tho actual clothes they had worn when alive, their watches, their pipes, specimens of their autographed letters, and tho furniture of their period. "Tho result was," commented Mr. Markham, "that queues lined up literally in thousands to see the exhibit so far.removed from the traditional row of labelled specimens." Then tho British Museum, possibly tho staidest .of .all museums, had staged topical exhibits showing amongst other things the life history of the locust and demonstrating its ravages, this being .in with the anti-locust campaign. More recently it staged a special ultra-violet ray exhibit. These special exhibits, and the practice of starring each week, one special Museum gem, had enormous educational value and interested thousands of people who otherwise would have continued to look upon museums as a repository for dry and dusty collections. "If museum exhibits remain the same for twelve or even six months on end, that museum is a back number in terms of educational efficiency,' ana it is in' these terms that museums must be judged." 'Discussing the museums in New Zealand, Mr. Markham supplemented his remarks published in the "Post" last week by.saying that the. aloofness of New Zealand museums in the interchange 'of loan collections appears to him to be .amazing. Arl galleries, he found, were prepared to exchange loan collections at times but' not their permanent collections, but any exchange of museum collections seemed to be quite unknown. MUSEUM'S INADEQUATE STAFF. "It is quite obvious that the present Dominion Museum does not come up to modern standards either in buildings-or equipment," Mr./Markham went on to say, "but the advent of a new Dominion Museum presents great possibilities. One can only hope that the new builds ing will be_ properly equipped, with- a commensurate increase in staff. "The present Dominion Museum staff is probably the smallest staff of any museum in the Empire to which the Dominion Museum may legitimately be compared. The Australian Museum at Sydney has a scientific staff of 20, including janitors, etc.; Melbourne has a staff of 12; but your Dominion Museum is content • with a staff-, of only five or six. Its finance, too, considering that Wellington is the capital city of New Zealand, shows up'-in a very poor light compared with other cities." Mr. Markham concluded by saying that the new museum in Auckland was undoubtedly a fine: institution modelled on enlightened museum lines, but there was no reason why the new Dominion Museum should not go one better. If it lapsed into a mere exhibit of labelled collections after the style of other antiquated museums, if it was not equipped and planned "with- vision and in. accordance with the most modern museum practice, a chance which would not occur again for many years would be lost of having a Dominion Museum worthy of the name and something of which New Zealand as a whole could be justly proud.

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