Whanganui’s Quartz Museum of Studio Ceramics needs funding as founder faces burnout

Rick Rudd says he wants to keep Whanganui’s Quartz Museum of Studio Ceramics sustainable and independent. Photo / Mike Tweed

The future of Whanganui’s Quartz Museum of Studio Ceramics is in doubt as the founder cites burnout and a lack of funding for staff.

Artist Rick Rudd opened the museum in 2015 after selling his house in Castlecliff and using the money to buy a building on Bates St.

During hearings on the Whanganui District Council’s 2025/26 annual plan, he said, other than a few dedicated volunteers, he had run the facility by himself since it opened.

Rudd asked the council for annual funding of $60,000 to employ people to take over some of his roles.

“I’m getting too old. I’m 75 and I’ve been doing it seven days a week for the past 10 years,” he said.

“The museum needs to move to a new phase.”

A Rick Rudd-made gorilla from 1972 on display at Quartz. Photo / Mike Tweed

Rudd said he wanted the museum to remain independent and sustainable, and that would require about $250,000 a year including council funding.

“For a museum of national significance, that’s peanuts and, as you all know, a lot less than the [Whanganui] Regional Museum or the Sarjeant Gallery,” he said.

“I’m asking the district council to be a partner with the museum. Not to totally fund it, but to pay for some staff to give me time out.”

According to the council’s draft annual plan, the rates requirement for the regional museum is $1.77 million for 2025/26, with the Sarjeant at $4.88m.

Rudd said he had put $60,000 of his own money, from his pension and through selling his pots, into the ceramics museum every year since 2022.

“I’m burned out. I need some time for myself.

“I haven’t had a day off for illness in the 10 years I’ve been running the place.”

Whanganui Deputy Mayor Helen Craig asked whether, if the council could not provide funding, relief staffing from council officers would help.

Rudd said that was not what the museum required.

“The way I see it going forward is two part-time staff doing desk duties and Facebook and Instagram - all the things I can’t do.

“I’m computer illiterate, and I have someone who comes and deals with my emails.

“I’m part of the old, fuddy-duddy generation.”

Permanent staff could get to know the museum and the works, and would not “be changing every five minutes”.

Rudd said there was no advertising budget for the museum, and council funding could potentially help with that.

Councillor Ross Fallen said museums around the country were struggling to sustain themselves and asked if Rudd would consider a door charge.

Rudd said that was “absolutely not” an option.

The council insisted on adding a door charge to the Sarjeant Gallery in the early 1990s when he was on the gallery’s trust board, he said.

The museum is home to around 4500 works. Photo / Mike Tweed

“Three months later, they asked to take the door charge off.

“Numbers had plummeted, donations had disappeared, it does not work.”

According to Rudd’s submission to the council, visitor numbers at Quartz were 4785 for 2024, up from 3804 in 2022.

Other than his own money, funding came from donations from supporters and visitors, commissions from sales of works, and bequests, the submission said.

Public funding grants were also sought for “special projects/activities”.

Every three years, Rudd runs the Emerging Practitioner in Clay Award, with a $15,000 prize for 2024.

Entrants must have worked with clay for less than five years without featuring in any major exhibitions.

Rudd said there were 4500 works at the museum - “a nationally recognised collection and unique to New Zealand”.

“No other place has a museum of studio ceramics in this country,” he said.

Quartz houses about 2700 works from well-known Wellington collector Simon Manchester, who bequeathed them in 2019.

Whanganui Mayor Andrew Tripe said the museum was well-regarded.

“I’ve obviously been there and people speak so highly of what you’ve done and achieved to further deepen our identity in the arts and creative field.”

The council will deliberate on the annual plan on May 28 and 29. The final plan will be signed off before July 1.

Mike Tweed is a multimedia journalist at the Whanganui Chronicle. Since starting in March 2020, he has dabbled in everything from sport to music. At present his focus is local government, primarily the Whanganui District Council.