Five-Year Strategic Plan

Tāmaki Paenga Hira Auckland War Memorial Museum is Auckland’s place of gathering, welcome and orientation, where we share knowledge of our taonga (treasures) and explore the many stories of Tāmaki. This Strategic Plan sets out our direction for the next five years.

Our ambitions are bold. Much has been achieved in recent years. We have completed needed heritage restoration work to Auckland’s iconic Domain building. Over the next five years, we will undertake a range of building and gallery improvement works that will renew the building as Auckland’s war memorial and a key cultural destination.

At the heart of the changes will be our new Tāmaki galleries, to be launched at the end of 2019. These will share the stories of our people and our place, resonating both with Aucklanders and our growing international audiences.

As kaitiaki (guardians), responsible for caring for more than 4.5 million treasures, we hold the ‘DNA’ of Auckland. In recent years, we have worked with communities to better understand our taonga and have doubled our investment in their care.

We have brought the collections to the world by making them widely available online.

Our priorities for the next five years centre on enriching the visitor experience, extending our reach and impact, fostering new research questions and debate, and supporting social belonging and participation. We will also deepen our engagement for individual visitors and audience groups, sharpen our business and operating models, and grow and diversify our income.

We see Auckland Museum as the place to discover Auckland – past, present and future – asking questions and stimulating debate about this city and its evolving identity.

Success will depend not just on deploying our own talent creatively, but also on our partnerships and supporters as well as on the broader network of arts and culture organisations across Auckland, with whom we collaborate. With the continuing support of Auckland Council, Regional Facilities Auckland and others, the Auckland Museum in 2022 will be a vital part of Auckland’s future as a modern, inclusive and dynamic, global city.

Challenges

The period 2017–2022 will be one of continued change for Auckland Museum and Auckland’s cultural sector. Wider social, economic and environmental pressures affecting Auckland present a challenging context. Auckland’s growth trajectory continues to increase demands on its civic infrastructure. It puts the spotlight on the role of cultural heritage institutions and the contribution made by them to our economy, our communities, and to people’s sense of identity and belonging.

At a time of fast-paced change, when society faces many challenges, we are determined to seize this as an opportunity to respond in a way that is relevant, brings cohesion and enhances people’s lives.

Social

Auckland’s current population is 1.6 million, with 1.4 million living within the region’s urban area. Auckland grows by 45,000 people a year and is rapidly emerging as one of the most diverse cities in the world. By 2038 approximately 2.2 million people will live in Auckland, almost 40% of New Zealand’s population.

Our broad Asian communities will increase the most during this period, with almost two thirds of the country’s Asian population living in Auckland, and one in three Aucklanders likely to identify as Asian in 2038.

The Māori ethnic population is set to grow in all areas of Auckland, with a quarter of the Māori population to live in the city in 2038. Pacific communities are also projected to rise significantly in scale, to make up 18% of the Auckland population in 2038, up from 15% in 2013.

Auckland Museum has an important role to play as a place of learning, participation and belonging, enriching the lives of all Aucklanders and engaging all of our visitors.

Environmental

The refreshed Auckland Plan expresses the need to value, protect and enhance our environment and cultural heritage, and recognises that these assets are under considerable pressure.

The iconic Domain building is bursting at the seams and is expensive to maintain and upgrade. It currently serves many purposes: war memorial, public galleries, special exhibitions hall, visitor amenities, collections care and storage, education centre, reference library and workplace. We are rethinking the building and how we best use it. It needs to be optimised for public use, and ‘fit for the future’, able to accommodate increasing demand and visitation as our city grows.

Above all, we want Auckland Museum to be a place where people can meet, connect and be inspired.

Financial

We are appreciative of Auckland ratepayer support for our core activities and recognise that, in an environment which is financially constrained, we need to demonstrate a return on the investment made in Auckland Museum. Continued responsible fiscal management and a greater emphasis on selfgenerated income through commercial activities, grants and fundraising are crucial.

We also need to work collaboratively with others in the sector and beyond it, to maximise our overall impact.

As Auckland’s population continues to grow and diversify, there is a need to enhance and maintain a shared sense of belonging. Our aim is to attract 1.2 million onsite visitors annually by 2022 and to more than double our outreach audiences in five years to 100,000.

We will establish ourselves as the place to go for information, debate and discussion on Auckland and our connection with it. We will reach out to all Aucklanders – the people who live or work here, those who feel at home here, and those newly arrived.

We will also be relevant to and inclusive of our many communities and diverse audiences, including Māori, Asian, Pacific, European and many others who call Auckland home. We will continue to listen to our communities, share knowledge about our city and place, and speak out on Auckland issues. We will be a great place to work and our reputation will attract the very best. Our volunteer programme will support Auckland’s community connectedness and deepen our civic engagement.

Growing onsite visitation

In the next five years, Auckland’s population is projected to grow by 7–10%, the rest of New Zealand is expected to grow by 5%, and international tourism could grow by 20–25%, with 4.5 million visitors in 2022 from 3.7 million in 2017.

This means that, to meet our visitor growth targets, extra initiatives are required to boost onsite visitation, in order to achieve average annual visitor growth of between 5% and 7%. Until 2019, we expect growth in visitor numbers to be relatively static, but to accelerate from 2020, coinciding with the ‘reveal’ of new galleries and greatly-enhanced amenities at the end of 2019. We will also be ready to welcome increased visitor numbers in 2021, when Auckland hosts the America’s Cup yacht race.

Investing in public experience

We will draw new and return visitation by investing in the public experience. This will include:

• Increasing the size and quality of public spaces, creating new gallery content and improving public amenities. From 2020, our audiences will experience fresh and modern exhibits in our permanent galleries, and the amenities that our visitors want and need will be at hand, with the creation of a new welcome and hospitality precinct in the South Atrium.

• Introducing a richer special exhibition offering, including international touring exhibitions with broad appeal. We will also intensify our schedule of public programmes, debates and online discussion responding to issues facing those who live and work in the Auckland region. Our new Tāmaki galleries, to open at the end of 2019, will share new stories of our place and our people. It will be a landing place for visitors and new arrivals to the city and a site of engagement and re-engagement for Aucklanders.

• Continuing to play a leading role in cultural tourism for the city and nationally, increasing tourism numbers visiting the Museum.

• Activating the Domain and Museum to draw more visitors to the area, for example by opening for extended hours and developing new public programming aligning with celebrations in the Domain.

At our heart, we will always be Auckland’s war memorial – home of Auckland’s collective remembering and commemoration. We will continue to deliver annual programmes of commemorative activity, in partnership with key stakeholders, with such activities drawing ever increasing numbers of Aucklanders. We will welcome the establishment, in the Domain, of a new WWI peace memorial in 2019.

Growing membership and support

We will reach more people, and deepen their engagement, through the establishment of a strengthened Membership Programme in 2019. This programme will provide enriching visitor experiences that Aucklanders seek, cementing our engagement with our communities. We expect membership of Auckland Museum to provide a core constituency of support and, over time patronage. By 2022, we aim to have a membership of 5,000, together with 100 patrons.

He Korahi Māori – our Māori dimension

Auckland Museum will have strong partnerships and collaboration with iwi and Māori that contribute to Mātauranga Māori and research in Te Ao Māori (the Māori world) and Te Taiao (the natural environment).

We will ensure access for communities to their taonga at the Museum through our new galleries, Mātauranga Māori and research initiatives, digital and online access, and by taking taonga to communities. We will enable our audiences to enjoy a bicultural experience, embedding this in our welcome, our exhibitions and our programmes. We will acknowledge iwi and hapū, their tikanga, taonga and pūrakāu (stories), especially in the new and refreshed Tāmaki galleries on the ground floor, to be delivered in 2019. Te Reo Māori will be a visible and important part of the Museum’s brand that is experienced by visitors onsite through bilingual signage and programmes, as well as via bilingual staff, and online.

Auckland Museum is also committed to rectifying historical actions that have resulted in Māori, Pacific and other tipuna (ancestors) being cared for at the Museum. We will do this through the repatriation of tīpuna to Māori, Pacific and other communities. We will initiate new research and exploration of the New Zealand Land Wars and colonisation that shaped this country.

Teu le Vā – our Pacific dimension

The Treaty foundation of Tāmaki Makaurau provides for and embraces a growing and diverse society. Auckland is a diverse and dynamic Pacific city and Auckland Museum will be the place to hear and experience Pacific languages and cultures through participation of Pacific communities in our Museum activities and programmes. These will be supported by a workforce with Pacific knowledge and language capability.

We will nurture our partnerships with Pacific communities and organisations, for example through our partnership with the Ministry of Pacific Peoples, to host the national launches of every Pacific language week.

International

By 2022, Auckland Museum will be recognised as a leading metropolitan museum that contributes at a national level, with a global reach. We will develop networks across our operations and engage in the global galleries, libraries, archives and museums (GLAM) community through conference participation and by entering international awards to ensure our work is appropriately acknowledged. We will seek to host international conferences, such as MuseumNext.

We will develop a programme of exhibitions that can also be used by others, which tell our unique stories in the natural sciences, Mātauranga Māori, and the geological and botanical history of New Zealand. We will seek out partnerships in Asia Pacific, focusing each year on a new area or country starting with the activation of our existing relationships and networks in Australia and Nanjing, China. We will seek to lead the development of touring exhibition and research networks across the region. Our aim is to bring the world to Auckland and Auckland to the world.

1.2 million onsite visitors and 100,000 offsite interactions by 2022

_{Vaka akaraanga, model canoe. Manihiki, Cook Islands. Auckland War Memorial Museum Tāmaki Paenga Hira. 1974.147, 46635. Cultural permissions apply}

We want to stretch thinking – our own and everyone else’s. We possess a unique suite of assets – collections, community relationships and digital tools – that place us at the heart of the knowledge economy. Our goal is to use these to generate new knowledge and new ideas, and be a catalyst for debate, whilst using these assets to educate and engage the next generation.

This strategy has direct implications for how we present the collection, what is included, the research and fieldwork that supports it, and how we enhance understanding and access – on the gallery floor, in the classroom and online.

The Museum as a laboratory

Auckland Museum is a site of investigation about the city and its region, its evolution and future trajectory. The Museum’s collections of human, natural and documentary heritage, together with our extensive digital assets, increasingly enable a trans-disciplinary approach to global questions such as human impact on our natural environment or questions about colonialism and post-colonialism.

We will actively develop our international profile though an enhanced programme of publishing our research in all aspects of museology via a range of platforms and channels. Focusing on our key collections, our museum research priorities over the next five years will focus primarily on Tāmaki Makaurau – its origins, current state and future – and will include biodiversity and the question of human impact on the natural environment, together with a reconsideration of the New Zealand Land Wars.

Increasing utilisation of Manu Tāiko, our new collections management centre, will enable us to create an object laboratory for our researchers, students and community partners. This will reinforce the role of the Museum as a ‘material site of knowledge’, as envisaged by our founders.

We will build partnerships with our universities on a number of mutuallycritical investigation areas, exploring opportunities for digital innovation, as well as for conservation and science research and engaging students at all curriculum levels.

Sharing knowledge

We aim to cast our intellectual net wide and find ways to open up our collections to all those who can help us interrogate our content and explore new meanings. Inspired by our successful Pacific Collection Access and Te Awe collection readiness projects, which unlock cultural knowledge, we will continue to draw on tohunga (experts) and knowledge-holders within our Māori and Pacific communities to transform our understanding of the collections.

Our research spaces are being designed to accommodate engagement with our knowledge communities. Our historic collections are not just rich resources for reflection but rapidly also becoming creative technologies that enable people to make new things in the present. Auckland Museum will be a centre for developing the ‘democratic intellect’ of the city.

Open collections, open data

The global museum community has moved from using traditional models, where specific collections access was exclusive, to a position which enables open digital access as the default. Auckland Museum has been a leader in this democratic approach and we will continue to push the boundaries for the benefit of communities, research and education.

To enable audiences to develop connections and find meaning in collections, we will invest further in our public interface and generate deeper interrogation of our images and data, including community knowledge. Utilising Linked Open Data methods and principles, our collections will be part of a global network that enables access, irrespective of location.

We will be an active contributor to the international community developing open data principles and appropriate practices for the care of cultural intellectual property.

Developing the talent pipeline

Working closely with our tertiary education partners, Auckland Museum will grow our role in nurturing the talent pipeline for the museums and galleries sector. We will co-develop programmes in the postgraduate curatorial training curriculum and create new opportunities for students to undertake internship experiences within the real-time professional museum environment.

In line with our mission to build sector capacity, we will lead workforce development and grow leadership capability. We will share our learning and new practices in cultural competency and community co-development with our counterpart museums and galleries.

Generate new knowledge and new ideas, and be a catalyst for debate

_{Pterodroma cervicalis, White necked petrel. Auckland War Memorial Museum Tāmaki Paenga Hira. LB4322. CC-BY}

Auckland families represent over a quarter of our visitors and we will attract more. We will be a vibrant place for learning, enabling young people in particular to realise their potential. Programmes will be based around our exhibitions and utilise the unique spaces and experiences only we can provide. The learning environment will be stimulating, memorable and appropriate to the varied learning styles for our visitors, be they educational and school groups, preschoolers, families or lifelong learners.

We will partner with individuals, communities, government and organisations to co-create programmes and enrich what we offer. The Museum will be a model for best practice, providing effective, innovative and responsive learning and engagement for all our visitors. We will deliver this through onsite, online and offsite programmes and events.

A learning hub for the city

We will transform our education offering by expanding its reach, relevance and points of difference. We will put the needs of learners first by rethinking our model of engagement, working flexibly and responding promptly to their feedback. The unique museum learning environments will provide the ability to see, touch and learn about the world around us. We have the potential to offer a wonderful alternative to the formal classroom pedagogy. New opportunities to discover the world at first-hand through the material and digital record align closely to 21st-century curricula.

By 2020, we will have built a new onsite ‘learning base’ facility inspiring curiosity and wonder. We will also establish a more varied and targeted programme of facilitated study visits and distance learning platforms.

We will be recognised as a worldrenowned leader in the museum community for experiential, selfdirected, hands-on learning. Through implementing a product and innovation road map, we will develop a range of services which can be accessed by schools and other learning communities, such as libraries and kindergartens.

The products and services we design, such as Museum in a Box, will be made available through a variety of distribution channels.

To achieve our transformed education and early learning programme, we will:

• Develop a new five-year vision and plan for education and outreach

• Create a new revenue model to support each segment and service

• Develop a network of partners and providers to support our programme

• Grow our formal learning student numbers from 40,000 to 100,000, with digital resources being a key part of achieving this extended reach

• Ensure learning environments and curriculum links are embedded in our galleries and exhibitions • Create a teacher in-service training programme and a teacher membership programme.

Families and early years learning

In a busy urban environment, our Museum will offer safe, creative spaces for families. Building improvements will enhance the education offering. This includes the new Learning Base and the South Atrium, which will, together with the construction of a new kai room in 2019, ensure we provide the amenities our visitors expect.

We will become one of only a handful of museums that specialise in early years programming and expand our programmes for the under-fives. We will provide immersive environments and innovative spaces for play-based learning that will support families, carers, educators and children to learn together. We will combine hands-on exploration and discovery with playbased learning.

Increase our annual engagement with schoolchildren to 100,000

_{Himantopus himantopus, Black winged stilt. Auckland War Memorial Museum Tāmaki Paenga Hira. LB12358. CC-BY}

Following the completion of the Museum’s capital works programme our revenue is planned to increase significantly and by 2022/2023 is expected to increase to $12 million; this is an increase above the revenue reported for 2016/2017 of 30%. This trend reflects actions that Auckland Museum is taking to become more self-sufficient. As a result of these revenue increases, we are planning to reduce our levy increases from 2021/2022, from 2.5% to 2.0% per annum.

We will also continue to manage operational and capital costs closely. With the establishment of the Auckland Museum Foundation, created to raise long-term funding of the Museum’s capital works and programming, the Museum may be in a position to fund its own capital works programmes in the future, rather than rely on Auckland Council through the annual levy process.

Our resources and approach

We will take a staged approach to implementation of the Five-Year Strategic Plan. To ensure Auckland Museum has sufficient resources to pursue its strategy, we will:

• Support all investments with strong business cases and plans

• Undertake annual business planning

Auckland Museum envisages a staged delivery of our Five-Year Strategic Plan, as illustrated below.

In the initial years, 2017–2019, the Museum will focus on initiating and laying the foundations of the Five-Year Strategic Plan, including delivery of a number of essential building and collections readiness projects. In the second stage, 2019–2020, we will transform, revealing key onsite developments.

From the third phase, beginning in 2021, we will be positioned to accelerate growth. We will expand our reach and revenue, and further invest in innovative, commercial partnerships that will help shape our future beyond 2022.

The staged approach will allow Auckland Museum to pursue our strategy in a way that reflects the organisation’s capability and capacity, and balances pursuit of the strategy with delivery of our core business. The phasing of priority and annual initiatives will be a part of the annual business planning process and will allow us to respond as our capabilities grow and opportunities arise.