Museum Welcomes $10 Million Funding Boost For Redevelopment

A $10 million Government contribution to Canterbury Museum’s redevelopment is “hugely significant and very much appreciated” says David Ayers, Chair of the Museum Trust Board.

Manatū Taonga Ministry for Culture and Heritage announced today that the Museum would receive the funding boost through the government’s Regional Culture and Heritage Fund. The Museum will use the funding to build the base-isolated basement and storerooms which house the collections of regional, national and international importance.

“We’re thrilled with the news”, say David Ayers. “It’s further recognition that the Museum redevelopment is important for Waitaha Canterbury and, as we care for about a quarter of the distributed national collection, for Aotearoa New Zealand. It’s a real boost for the region and a big step forward for our fundraising.”

Visitors to the new Museum will enjoy a more welcoming space, world-class visitor facilities and one and a half times more exhibition space than the old Museum. The exhibition space will be much more flexible, allowing exhibits to be changed more often. Base isolation across much of the site will protect visitors, staff, the collections and the buildings, in the event of another major earthquake, and enable the Museum to bring major international touring exhibitions to Canterbury again.

At the heart of the new Museum, Araiteuru will provide a space for mana whenua to tell their own stories using taonga Māori that the Museum cares for in partnership with them. Visitor favourites like The Christchurch Street and Fred & Myrtle’s Pāua Shell House will return to the new Museum, while other areas like the Antarctic displays and Discovery will be completely reimagined.

With this contribution announced today, the Museum has now secured more than $160 million of the $175 million needed for the construction phase of the redevelopment. This means that the Museum can finance construction through to 2026, giving space to raise the remaining $15 million to complete the building construction and fit out and a further $28 to $30 million for the new exhibitions and displays. Further funding will be sourced through grants, philanthropic giving and community fundraising.

The Museum Trust Board decided to press ahead with the project in 2022 so that escalating construction costs would not run away and make the project unaffordable. The Museum closed to the public in April this year. Staff and the collection have moved to temporary offices and storage in Hornby for the duration of the 5-year redevelopment.

A pop-up Canterbury Museum at CoCA opened at 66 Gloucester Street, in central Christchurch, in July this year with visitor favourites and collection highlights, alongside temporary exhibitions.

The new Museum is being built in several overlapping phases. In January Cook Brothers Construction started work on the first phase, strengthening the Robert McDougall Gallery to make it safe for contractors working in the building. This will be completed towards the end of 2023 and is being funded by the building owners Christchurch City Council.

Demolition contractors Ceres New Zealand moved on site in May 2023, stripping out the interiors of the twentieth century buildings ready for demolition, which is due to start in October. The heritage buildings will be restored, further strengthened and carefully protected during all the construction works.

Building the base-isolated basement under the new building and the McDougall Gallery will be one of the most complex parts of the project due to the high water table and geology in the area. The Museum’s project team have already worked with expert civil contractors March Construction, to design the below-ground structures as part of our active risk management.

This work is expected to take at least 2 years, until the end of 2025 and is being funded by the Museum’s local authority funders Christchurch City, Hurunui, Selwyn and Waimakariri, together with the Government, which contributed $25 million in October 2022 from Greater Christchurch Regeneration contingency funding, and the Lottery Grants Board.

After that the Museum plans to tender for a contractor for the above ground new building which will wrap around the heritage buildings and connect via a glazed walkway to the display spaces in the Robert McDougall Gallery. Work on this is expected to take 2 to 3 years, including the services fitout. The Museum plans to reopen at Rolleston Avenue towards the end of 2028.

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