NZLive.com would like to offer a big congrats to the thoroughly deserving winners of Museums Aotearoa’s inaugural awards for industry excellence.

Jim Geddes has won the individual achievement award, nominated by his peers. He’s been described as quiet, unassuming, engaging and totally committed to his work. Jim is a bit of a visionary - he has a very strong commitment to bringing contemporary art within reach of smaller communities. He’s done what many thought impossible – put Gore on the national cultural map.

As Head of Arts and Heritage at Gore District Council, Jim has developed the town’s Hokonui Heritage Centre, the Eastern Southland Gallery, and the Croydon Aviation Museum and expanded Gore’s historical museum. Jim has also been Project Manager for the Southern Odyssey trail and chairman of Hokonui Moonshiners’ Festival.

Jim has also been recognised for his work in acquiring major gifted additions to the Eastern Southland’s collection including works by Ralph Hotere and the collection of Dr John Money. There is a great feature article from The Listener on The Art of Being Gore.

In other Museums Aotearoa awards news: Pearson and Associates Architects’ won recognition for their work at the Colin McCahon house in Titirangi, Auckland. Their design work involving interactive displays and audio-visuals saw them awarded for innovative technical development. The award will be shared with Neil Semple and his Christchurch Art Gallery team for development of their Audio on Demand service.

The service allows users to listen to audio tours of the museum collections either at the gallery or at home, via the gallery website. Interviews with selected artists and curators are available, as is a fascinating history of public art in Christchurch. During your next visit to the museum, make sure you gaze upon some of NZ’s most iconic works with the dulcet tones of Sam Neill narrating.

Whanganui Regional Museum won the exhibition/visitor achievement award for their work on Te Pihi Mata - The Sacred Eye: Partington’s Photographs of Whanganui. The museum and the Whanganui River iwi repatriated to Wanganui a large collection of photographic work by WHT Partington who lived and worked in the region from 1892–1908. ‘By working closely with iwi, the museum has presented the photographs to emphasise their historical, cultural and spiritual significance to the whole community and its visitors,’ said judging panellist Jenny Gibbs.

This really is a very good exhibition, which brings the history of the region to life, and ties it firmly into the present. Another nice feature is that you can order prints of the photographs on display.

For more information on the awards please visit the website of Museums Aotearoa.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 17th, 2008 at 11:43 am and is filed under Building audiences, Funding & awards. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.