MTG decision goes on hold

Newly appointed director Laura Vodanovich will take up her post at MTG in February.

The final go-ahead for a new MTG off-site storage facility is likely to be put on hold until the museum and art gallery's newly appointed director, Laura Vodanovich, has a chance to review the plans.

Napier City Council announced yesterday Ms Vodanovich, currently director of Gisborne's Tairawhiti Museum, would take up the top role at the MTG Hawke's Bay on February 1 next year. She replaces Douglas Lloyd Jenkins, who is stepping down next month.

The $18 million MTG, opened in September last year, had a rocky first year with revelations the new facility did not have sufficient storage to house its entire collection as originally planned.

An independent review led to a major staffing restructure and was followed by Mr Lloyd Jenkins announcing his resignation.

The facility has also failed to spark with the public, as evidenced by a non-scientific Hawke's Bay Today online poll, which found only 9 per cent of respondents on the paper's website believed the MTG had been a success in its first year.

By last night, the poll had attracted 450-500 respondents, with detractors evenly split between those who said the MTG was "too expensive" (46 per cent) and those who felt there was "not much to see there" (45 per cent).

Ms Vodanovich said yesterday she had been following developments at the MTG and one attraction of the role for her was the challenge of getting the facility "into the hearts of people" in the region. "It's a wonderful facility, now it's just a question of getting people engaged with it."

Ms Vodanovich has 18 years' experience in the museum industry in a variety of roles, including running large-scale building and collection projects, and overseeing the development and completion of an iwi-led exhibition at Tairawhiti Museum, where she has been director for more than two years. From 1997 until 2012 she worked at the Auckland Museum, starting as assistant registrar and progressing through to director of collections and research.

Ms Vodanovich holds an MA in anthropology (hons) from Auckland University, a post-graduate diploma in museum studies from Massey University, and a diploma in law and collection management from Melbourne University. Napier City Council chief executive Wayne Jack said the role had attracted a number of quality candidates and Ms Vodanovich had "a great range of skills and enthusiasm".

The council has been working on plans to build a storage facility on land it owns in Onekawa to house artefacts unable to be stored at the MTG.

Given Ms Vodanovich's qualifications and experience in collection management, it was likely final decisions on the location and specifications of the storage facility would be made after she began in the role, Mr Jack said. Most of the collection is currently in secure storage at a facility in Ahuriri and while the council's initial lease meant it had previously needed to find a new home for the artefacts by January, an extended agreement with the property owner meant pressure to move was now off. "We want to get it right. We've now got an opportunity to work through that in a little bit more detail," Mr Jack said.