Answerphone at temporarily closed Marlborough Museum was all sorts of outdated

The answerphone at the Marlborough Museum said it was open 10am to 4pm daily.

It had a number to contact for the Marlborough heritage education programme. And it advised visitors to wear a mask and maintain social distancing.

In fact, the Marlborough Museum has been closed for three months. The Marlborough heritage education programme no longer exists. And mask requirements, except in healthcare and aged-care facilities, were dropped in September 2022.

“They haven’t even the nous to change the answerphone message,” said new Marlborough Historical Society president Paul Davidson.

But that was on Wednesday. By Thursday afternoon, after being contacted by the Express, the message had changed. It said the museum was “temporarily closed as it transitions to the Marlborough District Council”.

A council spokesperson said they had issues getting the phone account transferred from Spark, “which took some time, unfortunately”.

“We couldn’t change the message until it was transferred over. However, that has now happened and we’ve updated the message.”

The historical society elected a new president and committee at its latest AGM. The nine-strong committee included past presidents Dale Webb and Rien Wagenvoort, and local historian John Orchard, who basically set up and ran the heritage education programme.

They represented a “changing of the guard”, or rather bringing back the “old guard”, Davidson said.

“We are very disappointed that [the museum] has been closed for so long, and we are not sure why the council feels they cannot continue to provide access to the community,” Davidson said.

The Marlborough District Council took over the management of the museum on July 1 after the Marlborough Heritage Trust was disestablished. The trust was formed in 2014 to act as an umbrella organisation to “govern” the heritage assets of Marlborough. A review of the trust in 2021 found it was not fit-for-purpose.

The trust was wound up and, with that, the museum, the assets, and archives at Brayshaw Park went back to the society. The plan was for the council to essentially take over from the trust, and manage the museum and the archives for the society. But talks between the council and the society had stalled.

Webb and Orchard had been dealing with the society’s solicitor but said the legal process had been slow and complicated.

“We have not really had any negotiations with the council, just some exchanges between our respective solicitors,” Webb said. “It would be great to sit down face-to-face at a governance level and sort out the major strategic issues.”

The council previously declined to comment on the negotiations as they were confidential.

In the meantime, Davidson felt the council was acting like it owned the museum.

“From the point of view of the society, which owns the building and the assets … and if [management] is to be transferred to council, and this should have happened 12 months ago, there needs to be a great deal of consultation, consideration, contemplation and maybe some compensation, if we’re to transfer several million dollars’ worth of assets.”

Davidson, Webb and Orchard were part of a group that asked the council at this year’s annual plan hearings to “pause” the takeover. They were unsuccessful.

As part of the restructure, museum staff were made redundant, with new and slightly tweaked roles created. These had now been filled.

The team comprised Marlborough Museum manager Dr Liz Ward, curator of archives Wendy Harnett, collections manager Sally Papps and museum co-ordinator Sophie Wool.

In a press release earlier this month, Ward said their relationship with the Marlborough Historical Society was “very important”.

“We are committed to this going forward.”

In the same release, the council’s project lead for arts, culture and heritage, Nicola Neilson, put the ongoing closure of the museum down to “embedding the team, modernising systems to align with current best museum practice and performing an inventory of the collection”.

However, the society’s new committee was keen to restore public access as soon as possible.

They also wanted to ensure their many buildings and their collection of artefacts were properly curated, cared for and displayed to the community.

“It is fairly incredible what a bunch of enthusiastic volunteers have built up over some 70 years – including the collections, the museum and the many historic buildings now at the park,” Orchard said. “We greatly respect those past members and are determined to preserve their legacy for present and future generations.”

Davidson said they wanted a “sound future for Marlborough’s past – and a sound future for the Marlborough Historical Society”.

“In partnership with the council, I am sure we can do it.”

The Marlborough Museum can be opened by appointment for groups. The archives are open by appointment only.