Hawkes Bay Today
  • Hawke's Bay Today home
  • Latest news
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology

Locations

  • Napier
  • Hastings
  • Havelock North
  • Central Hawke's Bay
  • Tararua

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • Napier
  • Hastings
  • Dannevirke
  • Gisborne

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • What the Actual
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Hawkes Bay Today

MTG makes changes after flak flies

By Simon Hendery, Roger Moroney
Hawkes Bay Today·
19 Jun, 2014 09:00 PM3 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

The drop in price was welcomed by MTG director Douglas Lloyd Jenkins yesterday. Photo / Duncan Brown

The drop in price was welcomed by MTG director Douglas Lloyd Jenkins yesterday. Photo / Duncan Brown

A report highly critical of the region's newly revamped MTG cultural facility has cost the Napier City Council $34,000.

However, the cost of the independent consultants' report represented "good value", council chief executive Wayne Jack said yesterday, and the MTG was already moving to introduce many of its recommendations.

The report accuses the MTG (Museum Theatre Gallery Hawke's Bay) - the revamped Museum and Art Gallery Hawkes' Bay, which reopened last September after an $18million upgrade - of having "lost its way" and being out of touch with ordinary visitors.

Patronage at the facility this year is forecast to be below the number who visited before the revamp. "MTG Hawke's Bay is an institution whose potential has yet to be realised," the McDermott Miller report said.

"It is well sited and designed to draw people in, but they are not responding. It lacks facilities which other museum developments have in abundance - a cafe and other commercial concessions, for example. It should be regarded as a work in progress."

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

The council released the report on Tuesday and moved immediately to lower the cost of entry, from $15 for adults to $10 - taking ticket prices back to the cost before the upgrade.

The drop in price was welcomed by MTG director Douglas Lloyd Jenkins yesterday. "I do think $15 has been a challenge. That's what you pay to see a movie with a $40million budget ... I hope in time to become a free institution - that would be fantastic."

He rejected the report's findings that the MTG was focused on catering to "established museum and art gallerygoers" and that "the general population and lower socio-economic groups are not seen as potential audience segments" for the facility. "I think there is something for everyone," he said. "Are we elitist? I would hope we're not."

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Mr Jack said the museum was already displaying more of its taonga Maori, as suggested in the report, and the council was working on other initiatives including a new marketing plan and addressing storage issues to free up more room for displays.

The report said if recommended changes to the MTG's operation were introduced, visitor numbers could be lifted from an expected 31,400 this year to 44,000 to 58,000 per annum.

That would lift annual revenue from $421,000 to between $583,000 and $753,000, with a resulting drop in the council's funding for the facility.

Mr Jack said he believed those figures were achievable, but he was unconvinced there was value in adding a cafe given MTG's proximity to several "fantastic" existing cafes.

Discover more

Dame Kiri to put young singers through paces

03 Jun 04:30 AM

Museum underplayed, visitors say

03 Jun 07:32 PM

Prices to drop after museum slated in report

18 Jun 10:00 PM

Editorial: MTG issue needs to be fixed fast

18 Jun 05:00 PM

Hawke's Bay Museum Trust chairwoman and former Napier mayor Barbara Arnott said she was pleased the operational review had been carried out and pleased people were talking about it - but believed the whole MTG issue had been blown out of proportion by some people who had expressed their feelings and opinions without "thinking it through".

She had full confidence in the management.

The trust, which owns the MTG Hawke's Bay collection, will meet soon to discuss the report in detail.

Save

    Share this article

Latest from Hawkes Bay Today

Hawkes Bay Today

Watch: Deer's ill-fated dash to airport - 'I've hit the darn thing'

09 May 02:44 AM
Hawkes Bay Today

'Absolutely stunning': New $825m highway nears completion

09 May 01:12 AM
Premium
Hawkes Bay Today

58m wall, no 'fatal flaws': New details about dam for Heretaunga revealed

09 May 12:34 AM

One tiny baby’s fight to survive

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Hawkes Bay Today

Watch: Deer's ill-fated dash to airport - 'I've hit the darn thing'

Watch: Deer's ill-fated dash to airport - 'I've hit the darn thing'

09 May 02:44 AM

It ran across suburban streets and the runway – then authorities intervened.

'Absolutely stunning': New $825m highway nears completion

'Absolutely stunning': New $825m highway nears completion

09 May 01:12 AM
Premium
58m wall, no 'fatal flaws': New details about dam for Heretaunga revealed

58m wall, no 'fatal flaws': New details about dam for Heretaunga revealed

09 May 12:34 AM
'The perfect excuse': Hastings trail lights up NZ Music Month

'The perfect excuse': Hastings trail lights up NZ Music Month

08 May 11:23 PM
Connected workers are safer workers 
sponsored

Connected workers are safer workers 

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Hawke's Bay Today e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Hawke's Bay Today
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • What the Actual
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven CarGuide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • NZME Events
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP