Thames Museum pleads with council for funding

Thames Museum Society management committee chairwoman Carolyn McKenzie (third from left) and Thames Museum Te Whare Taonga o te Kauaeranga volunteers.

Thames Museum Te Whare Taonga o te Kauaeranga has made pleas for support, saying there is no provision for funding of heritage and cultural sectors in the town.

Thames Museum Society management committee chairwoman Carolyn McKenzie called for assistance when she addressed the Thames-Coromandel District Council during Long-Term Plan (LTP) hearings on Wednesday.

Her pleas come weeks after the organisation joined Museums Aotearoa’s national Keep the Lights On campaign as it is feeling the pinch of recession.

McKenzie told the meeting she was very disappointed in the LTP as there was no provision for funding of the heritage and cultural sector in the town.

While there had been money invested in promoting the town, there needed to be money invested in representing its history, she said.

“Before the pandemic the museum was self-sufficient; in the four years since the pandemic, we have struggled, but we survived through funding streams.”

The meeting heard the museum was given $2000 per year by the Thames-Coromandel District Council, while other authorities contributed significantly more to their museums.

McKenzie said Thames Museum led the way in 2023 as the town commemorated 150 years.

“Over the years, our savings have been eroded by Covid and weather events; we are facing increases in all operational costs.”

She asked the council to enter into negotiations with the museum to establish a funding solution.

Councillor Martin Rodley asked McKenzie if Heritage New Zealand would be open to working on a solution.

She said the museum had to look at its own funding solution and relied on visitors for survival.

Thames-Coromandel Mayor Len Salt told McKenzie he would go and see her in order to see if the council could help with a membership drive.

Late last month, McKenzie told the Hauraki Coromandel Post the museum was staffed entirely by volunteers, and like other museums around New Zealand, was experiencing tough financial times with climbing costs, and a Covid-19 “hangover”.

Visitor numbers had not reached pre-pandemic levels, and even if they did, the museum would still need a significant increase in visitor numbers to make up for low visitor numbers during the pandemic.

Added to that were the weather events which hit the Coromandel early last year and a nationwide economic crisis.

To help raise funds, Thames Museum had introduced a membership scheme, but the scheme didn’t bring in enough money to cover the museum’s fixed costs.

McKenzie recently told the Thames Community Board how much it costs to run the museum, saying in the past 10 months, door sales and the membership scheme faced a shortfall of $1615 in meeting fixed costs like electricity, insurance, telephone, security, and rates.

The museum also had to find money to protect and enhance its collection.

The museum had been active in securing contestable grants, including from the community board, and raised an average of $54,000 per year in the past three years, she said.

However, those funds were mostly for specific projects, rather than operating costs.

Thames Museum is encouraging people to become members.

Memberships cost $20 per adult (there are memberships for families, students and retirees as well) and are available by transferring funds into ANZ account 06-0457-0169842-00 or by popping into the museum between 10am and 1pm, Monday to Saturday (503 Cochrane Street).