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