Double celebrations for latest museum exhibition

December 13th, 2012

Motueka Museum's next big exhibition, to open next Monday December 17th, is a twin celebration: 25 years for the museum and 100 years for the building it occupies.

The exhibition, titled "Behind the bricks and mortar - 100 years of memories", will run until June 28th 2013, and as an experiment will be open during the weekends over the summer months, as well as the customary week days.

The first school in Motueka opened in 1847 and was operated from a church. Ten years later a proper school was built on the corner of High and Greenwood Streets but soon became too small for the burgeoning pupil population.

Land was offered by the Superintendent of Native Reserves and a new school was built on the present site of the museum in 1866, catering for primary students only. Over the years further buildings were added.

In 1902 the Motueka District High School was opened with one teacher and a roll of 21 pupils, and a second wooden building, with a bell tower, was built alongside the 1865 structure to accommodate the ever-increasing number of pupils. By 1910 both buildings were too small and in 1913 the new school, built in brick, was erected.

By 1970, due to worries over the building's structural earthquake strength, it was closed and became surplus to the Department of Education's need. It was gifted to the Motueka Borough Council on the premise it be used as a museum. The museum finally opened its doors to the public on 4th November 1987 and is still going.

This exhibition traces the history of the school and the museum, with all its trials and tribulations. Featuring lots of historic photographs of the buildings and pupils over the years, the story also follows through to the emergence of the museum and all the changes that have been made both externally and internally.

The museum's curator Pauline Westall hopes many local residents will take the opportunity to visit and see how things changed. "See if you know anyone in the photographs," she suggests. "Share memories - there will be a book for you to write in. And for the younger set there will be a chance to try your hand at the old style of printing."

The exhibition will be open until the end of February on Mondays to Fridays 10am to 4pm, and on Saturdays and Sundays from 10am to 2pm, and on weekdays only thereafter.

Pauline says it will be interesting to see what response they get from the locals on the weekend opening, given the results of the survey done by recently by High School students which found that many would like to visit on weekends.

We will add photos to this article once the displays are finished.

The building's opening in 1913

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