Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences incorporating the Powerhouse Museum and Sydney Observatory 1999-2000 ANNUAL REPORT MISSION CONTENTS Highlights 1 STATEMENT President’s foreword 2 Director’s report 3 TO INSPIRE DIVERSE Trends 4 Charter 6 Senior management structure 6 AUDIENCES BY USING THE Review mechanisms 6 Aims and objectives 6 COLLECTION AND Organisation chart 7 Exhibitions, programs and services 8 Sydney Observatory 9 SCHOLARSHIP TO Public and education programs 9 Serving diverse audiences 11 PROVIDE INFORMATIVE, Museum support and self-generated income 17 The collection 18 SPIRITED, INNOVATIVE AND Information Technology 20 Beyond the Museum 22 Customer service 23 WELL-RESEARCHED Properties 24 EXHIBITIONS, PROGRAMS Year in review - financial 25 AND SERVICES IN THE APPENDIX 1. Customer numbers 42 FIELDS OF SCIENCE, 2. Selected acquisitions 42 3. Exhibitions 44 TECHNOLOGY, INDUSTRY, 4. Public and education programs 45 5. Evaluation and audience research 48 DESIGN, DECORATIVE ARTS 6. Systems implementation projects 48 7. Publications 49 8. Staff publications 49 AND HISTORY. 9. Staff presentations and related activities 50 10. Staff professional commitments and achievements 52 11. Staff professional travel 53 November 2000 12. Trustees 55 13. Trust standing committees 55 The Hon R J Carr MP 14. Guarantee of service 56 Premier of New South Wales 15. Freedom of information 56 16. Legislative changes 57 Minister for the Arts and Minister for Citizenship 17. Affiliated societies 57 Level 40, Governor Macquarie Tower 18. Life fellows, distinguished service awards and 1 Farrer Place, Sydney NSW 2000 honorary associates 57 19. Volunteers 58 Dear Minister 20. Corporate and contributing members 58 In accordance with the Annual Reports 21. Members events 59 (Statutory Bodies) Act 1984, and on behalf of the other 22. Consultants 59 Trustees, we submit for presentation to Parliament the 23. Staffing 59 annual report of the Museum of Applied Arts and 24. SES positions 59 Sciences for the year ending 30 June 2000. 25. Staff development 59 26. Equal employment opportunity (EEO) 60 Yours sincerely 27. Staff list 60 28. Payment performance indicators 63 29. Budget estimates 63 Index 64 Marco Belgiorno-Zegna AM Mark Johnson Museum supporters Inside back cover President Trustee Contact/admission details Back cover Board of Trustees ISSN 0312-6013 © Trustees of the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences 2000. Compiled by Irma Havlicek, MAAS. Design by Teague Moore. Print run: 1000. Unit cost: $11.42. Captions for cover photos are on pages 12-22. Photography by MAAS Photography staff: Sotha Bourn,2 Geoff Friend, Marinco Kojdanovski and Sue Stafford. HIGHLIGHTS The Museum presented one new permanent gallery and 15 new temporary exhibitions at the Powerhouse Museum in the period. The Museum’s exhibition, Bayagul: contemporary Indigenous communication is the first exhibition in the first major Australian permanent gallery dedicated to contemporary Indigenous material culture. The Powerhouse Museum won the Tourism Council of Australia 2000 New South Wales Award for Excellence in Tourism for the Audrey Hepburn: a woman, the style Tourism Marketing and Promotional Campaign. The Audrey Hepburn: a woman, the style exhibition attracted 69,727 visitors in the period 6 December - 26 March. An evaluation of visitors to the exhibition revealed that 70% of respondents had visited the Museum primarily to see the exhibition. The complementary shop set up by the Museum broke all previous sales records for Museum exhibition shops. AND SCIENCES MUSEUM OF APPLIED ARTS The national prize in the Eureka Science Awards for the promotion of Science was won by the ‘Science in the pub’ team, which includes Museum staff. 1 A first for the Museum-managed Australian Museums On Line was the publication online of the Open Museum Journal, which features scholarly and applied research on museums and is the only peer reviewed journal of its type anywhere in the world. Hits to the Museum’s website have increased from 1,003,293 in 1997-98 to 1,892,255 in HIGHLIGHTS 1998-99 to 3,278,204 hits in 1999-2000, with 172,284 users registered in 1999-2000. The Museum commenced full operational use in June 2000 of a newly constructed groups entrance which will be of particular benefit for school groups. The Museum secured more than $1.1m cash sponsorship plus $370,000 in in-kind contributions for its three Olympic Arts Festival exhibitions to take place in 2000. The Museum’s commissioned concert grand piano, designed by Wayne Stuart and made by Stuart and Sons in Newcastle NSW, was acquired during the year. This piano was used for an ABC Classics CD recording of two Beethoven sonatas performed by Gerard Willems. Member benefits have been improved, with an expanded and diversified program of member events, an expanded Powerline members magazine and the introduction of free entry to charging exhibitions for members. PRESIDENT’S FOREWORD PRESIDENTS ’FOREWORD On behalf of the Board of Trustees I extend a very warm welcome to the Museum’s new Director, Dr Kevin Fewster, who commenced with the Museum on 31 January 2000. Kevin comes to us after being the inaugural Director of the The unprecedented program of auspicious Olympic exhibitions for Australian National Maritime Museum, just across Darling Harbour. He 2000 was secured and developed by the Museum’s previous Director, oversaw the completion of construction and opening and over an Terence Measham, AM, who completed his term as Director in December eleven year period guided it to a position where it has become one 1999. Terence can justly be proud of his many achievements at the of Australia’s leading cultural institutions and one of the world’s most Museum, including his authorship of two distinguished and award- highly regarded and visited maritime museums. Having worked closely winning books, Treasures of the Powerhouse Museum (1994) and with Kevin Fewster this year I am confident that under his leadership Discovering the Powerhouse Museum (1997). These books will serve this Museum will continue to build as a public legacy of Terence’s understanding of and commitment to on its record of success, as well as this complex organisation. The Board wishes to thank Terence for his MUSEUM OF APPLIED ARTS AND SCIENCES MUSEUM OF APPLIED ARTS tenacious support and inspired guidance of the Museum over many pursuing important new strategic years; his achievements will continue to reap benefits for the Museum initiatives. I look forward to the 2 for many years to come. fruits of our collaborations. There have been a number of changes to the Board of Trustees Kevin has arrived at the during the reporting period. At the end of 1999 we bade farewell to Museum at a particularly busy time. Ross McDiven, who served the Museum as a Trustee as long as it is Firstly there have been the final possible to do so under the rules - three terms of three years. Ross preparations for the presentation of was a keen and active Trustee for the nine years during which he the Powerhouse’s three Olympic exhibitions - official events in the served, and his contribution to the Museum and to Trust deliberations Sydney 2000 Olympic Arts Festival - 1000 years of the Olympic will be missed. I also thank Irene Moss, AO, who was appointed as a Games: treasures of ancient Greece; Leonardo da Vinci: the Codex Trustee in January 1999. She resigned as Trustee upon her appointment Leicester - notebook of a genius; and Earth, spirit, fire: treasures of the ˆ in November 1999 to the position of Commissioner of the Independent PRESIDENT’S FOREWORD Choson dynasty. Commission Against Corruption. Although her term as Trustee was Exhibition highlights during 1999-2000 included Bayagul: relatively brief she nonetheless made an invaluable contribution to the contemporary Indigenous communication, the Museum’s newly created Board during that time. It is also my pleasure to welcome a new Indigenous Gallery, which was complemented with a fine performance Trustee to the Board, Dr Anne Summers AO, who was appointed in program. In addition, the Museum also presented an exhibition created December 1999. by the Museo Salvatore Ferragamo in Florence, Italy, celebrating the The successes of the Museum owe much to contributions from career of Audrey Hepburn. This exhibition proved very popular over its many quarters: talented staff, keen supporters and volunteers, and also sixteen week season, attracting 69,727 visitors, most of whom came the Board of Trustees. I wish to extend my thanks for their continuing to the Museum particularly to see this exhibition. dedication to the ideals of this great institution. MARCO BELGIORNO-ZEGNA, AM President, Board of Trustees DIRECTOR’S REPORT PRESIDENTS ’FOREWORD I present here my first report as Director of the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences. Before my appointment here, I was inaugural Director of the Australian National Maritime Museum, and I know the challenges and the sense of achievement of navigating a key cultural institution as it establishes itself and its future direction. After eleven years at the ANMM I was ready for a new set of Much of my time since I joined the Museum on 31 January 2000 challenges, and so I am delighted to have been given the opportunity has been spent on preparations related to the Olympics. With the three to lead the Museum as it advances into the 21st century. I hope to Olympic Arts Festival exhibitions to open at the Powerhouse Museum in build on the strengths of this remarkable institution: its magnificent July and September, we will be well placed to enjoy the most successful collection and the scholarship built around it; its staff whose innovation year in the Museum’s history. I am particularly grateful to the staff and and creativity produce stunning exhibitions second to none in the Trustees who have worked with world supported by leading edge information technologies which enormous creativity, spirit and contribute to the Museum’s deserved reputation for interactivity.