The collection is big enough for both.
The Alliance includes longstanding benefactors of the museum, former trustees, design and heritage experts and senior museum professionals. However even on the basis of potential income from the sale of the Powerhouse site, the cost of building a world-class museum of the same size with the same storage capacity at Parramatta, and safely moving and storing hundreds of thousands of objects there (some the size of locomotives, steam engines, helicopters, space satellites) – how can this not cost at least as much as the sum raised from the sale of the Ultimo site?
However, every visit with my son over the past 10 years has led to disappointment over the broken “interactive” displays, irrelevant temporary exhibitions (Abba, etc.) The fact that the land on which The Powerhouse Museum stands is to be sold to developers , is both opportunistic and very short sighted. Certainly, a museum at Parramatta would be an excellent idea but it should be a separate project not an excuse to dismantle an vital part of the city of Sydney’s history and an iconic building in the city’s centre.The Powerhouse Museum needs to remain accessible from all parts of Sydney. Please think outside the square and use some of it to fund Parramatta’s own new cultural space, Premier Berejiklian!The Powerhouse Museum is more than a place to store and exhibit objects. Towering apartment complexes surround the area and an ever increasing local population, together with visitors from around the country and internationally, ensure the growth of patronage. The Alliance includes longstanding benefactors of the museum, former trustees, design and heritage experts and senior museum professionals. Museums such as the Powehouse have to be in the central city for tourism.
The combination of calm assurance and passion, backed by the ability to cite specifics, shown by so many speakers with backgrounds in the industry should be enough to convince any impartial body of the folly of shuttering the Ultimo location of the museum. It is a reckless waste of money to demolish an award winning museum and a major piece of cultural infrastructure, simply to move the museum 23ks west to a less accessible and smaller site. Leave the soul of the City in peace so there is some history to share with our children.The Powerhouse is a beautiful building and should be kept in public hands. Other Sydney-siders from the North, West & South benefit from its’ CBD location and express a desire for the existing site to remain & develop as the PHM.I do not support moving the powerhouse museum from Ultimo.The wonderful Power House Museum is part of Sydney and needs to stay where it is. I agree with all the above statements. It sensitively repurposed the buildings that had powered Sydney trams, incorporating their design into the aesthetic, and added modern, lofty, airy spaces into which you could look up and out at the diverse objects, large and small, which have affected the development of our society. These places are unique cultural assets in the hub of the tourist area.
Privately selling public property of any kind is careless and selfish, but selling something this rich in non-monetary value for petty cash is truly heartless and reflects a total lack of care for Sydney as a city and the opinion of it’s people.
The children especially when they were young and myself with a couple of study groups.
It is an excellent tourist destination, located as it is near the CBD, Chinatown, Darling Harbour and its attractions and easily accessible by public transport. Its location in Ultimo provides cultural depth to the City of Sydney. Also, what about tourists visiting Sydney?Mr Baird and the NSW Liberal/National party…..why are you all so soulless…stop making our city into an ugly conglomerate of Square/rectangular Boxes!!!!!
I know this. There is no reason a similair institution cant be built in parramattaThe building itself belongs in a museum. Or they may wonder about the need for a collection of philately – and yet what a story stamps can tell about communication, transport and design. And if one area of the collection were to be depleted or lost, that could set a sorry precedent for removing other areas of the collection. Recent years has seen more and more arty exhibitions that are better catered for by the Museum of Contemporary Art. After selling the poles and wires the State finances should not require the sale of the family jewels to keep the house.Elizabeth Farrelly’s essay in the SMH today (18 Feb 2016) does not mention the Powerhouse Museum, but her arguments are relevant to this matter. I run Heritage Tours of the buildings and these illustrate social history as well as technological and architectural history – all of these are crucial to our national history and culture, particularly in the urban setting. Its hard to recall a compelling reason to pursue this dreadful lose/lose proposal. If you want to build a similar facility in Western Sydney, it should not mean the sell off of the Powerhouse.There are a number of other organisations and individuals working on this issue, these include: The Powerhouse could and should have a west location in addition to the city location.
And promote the ferry service for transport between Sydney and Parramatta. On 17 February 2016, this campaign group, the Powerhouse Museum Alliance, prepared an Open Letter, signed by 178 leading members of arts and business communities, which was was published in the Sydney Morning Herald.
The range has been exhibited in Milan, London, Shanghai, New York and nationally, and has been recognised at a national and international level with numerous awards, publication and peer acknowledgement.Coming full circle, I’ve been fortunate enough to give back to the Powerhouse Museum by providing presentations to the public and school students on environmentally-aware design, whilst exhibiting my work at this prestigious venue.