It's tempting in this day and age to regard museums as something of a dated anachronism but many, including Wanganui's museum, are proving this to be anything but the case.
The most successful museums are obviously those which appeal to the widest audience possible.
If the Whanganui Regional Museum does succeed in building a cafe, there will be yet another reason for families to visit, boosting the facility's patronage.
Interactivity is also important, as Wellington's Te Papa has shown.
Equally exciting are the plans surrounding the new branding, website and moves into social media, which should also work towards boosting the museum's profile, particularly with a younger generation who may not have necessarily seen themselves as museum patrons.
The aim is for the museum to eventually showcase its entire collection of hundreds of thousands of objects online, with summarised information.
What fantastic potential to boost the museum's accessibility and its reach to a potential audience well beyond Wanganui's boundaries.
According to Dr Dorfman, Whanganui was the first museum to adopt bicultural governance.
Clearly, we've led the way in the past, and the museum is already a feature of our city that we can all be justifiably proud of.
But it's even better to know that those charged with ensuring the museum's ongoing success are already looking ahead, and taking steps to move with the times.
History may be important, but so is the future.
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