Museum director Liz Cotton says protecting taonga, and increasing accessibility were among the main reasons for the renovation. Photo: Supplied
Waikato Museum will close for renovations for months after it failed to secure national and international exhibits because of humidity and temperature control issues.
The museum in Hamilton opened in 1987 and does not have an air-lock entry that keeps the inside temperature to 21 degrees with only 55 percent humidity - the optimum setting for housing art.
As well as a double-door entry, it also needs a new heating, ventilation and air conditioning system, new electrics, a new roof and bathroom and flooring improvements.
The work will take more than four months and the museum will close in July until early December.
Waikato Museum Te Whare Taonga o Waikato director Liz Cotton said protecting taonga, improving water-tightness and increasing accessibility were the main reasons for the renovation.
"This long awaited programme will ensure Waikato Museum is up to standard and will extend its useful life as a community facility for Hamiltonians and for the tens of thousands of visitors who come here each year."
Cotton said all museums needed to have a stable environment and there were strict temperature and humidity levels that an air-lock entry and updated HVAC system would enable.
"It keeps all of the objects in a stable condition so they don't get too hot or too cold or damp, or subject to humidity."
An air-lock entry would mean art works were not subject to the weather outside which Cotton said fluctuated, particularly because of the museum's location on the banks of the Waikato River on Grantham Street.
She said while they could remove an object or art work from an exhibition if staff were concerned it was becoming compromised, it was the sourcing of some exhibits that was becoming an issue.
"One of the things that really impacts us is that, major lenders and including in New Zealand but also internationally, they'll ask us for climate readings before they'll lend us exhibitions or objects and often at the moment our climate doesn't meet the standards required which means we aren't eligible for some loans and some exhibitions so that's something that we really want to address."
It meant Waikato Museum was excluded from some of Te Papa's touring exhibitions because some of its galleries did not meet their standards for climate control.
Waikato Museum. File photo. Photo: RNZ / Andrew McRae
As part of the renovations, the museum's 37-year-old ceramic roof tiles would be replaced with long-run steel, work that began in October and would be finished during the closure.
The new roof would make the building weathertight and reduce maintenance costs.
While the renovations were underway, museum collections would be returned to lenders or stored in the building's basement, which already had a stable climate environment.
Waikato Museum is home to 30,000 collection objects.
One of its most prized objects is the carved waka taua Te Winika, gifted to the residents of Hamilton in 1973 by the Māori Queen, Dame Te Atairangikaahu, as a gesture of goodwill and harmony.
During the work, the interactive centre for discovery Exscite will remain open, as well as two classrooms used for delivering education programmes and public events.
Some staff would continue to work at Exscite throughout.
Cotton said the $7.2 million of work was already budgeted for in the current Long Term Plan and would not pose a new cost on ratepayers who were facing an unprecedented 19.9 per cent rise next year.
Instead the new systems would allow operational cost savings.
She said extra work to enlarge the building and add a cafe had been pushed back five years.
