New Southland Museum On Christmas List For 2025
The Southland Museum rebuild has been renamed Project 1225 and the community can look forward to a brand new facility open for Christmas in three years time.
Project lead Nigel Skelt is fully committed to the task, but realistically thinks it might be a further three to six months for the new museum to be fully fitted out and operational.
Work has already started around putting a museum plan in place to present to the council in the coming weeks.
Mayor Nobby Clark said they should be able to do both the storage facility and the museum at the same time, and staff had “really got on board with it.”
“There was always debate about whether we should call it a museum or another name, an iwi name, So we’ve avoided that by just having an initial project that says 1225.”
The Invercargill City Council decided to spend $39.4 million on a smaller museum and art gallery though its annual plan process in July.
The smaller 3550sqm building was agreed on rather than the 4150sq m initial preferred option following community consultation, taking into consideration the rising costs of living and construction in general.
The new building is still larger than the existing pyramid building, and since Mayor Nobby Clark came into office, plans to build a $10 million arts storage facility at Tisbury have also been put on hold – further cutting costs.
A final decision on both projects will occur at the November 29 council meeting.