Alice Springs museums to get a new look for greater involvement of visitors

The Northern Territory Government is distributing almost $122,000 in funding to three worthy regional museum based projects in Alice Springs.

The National Trust, Central Australian Aviation Museum and National Pioneer Women’s Hall of Fame have been allocated funding under the Regional Museums Grant Support Program 2015-16.

“Each of the projects funded and reflect some amazing work by these organisations to preserve, display and document important historical collections for Territorians,” Chief Minister and Member for Braitling Adam Giles said.

“For example, The National Pioneer Women’s Hall of Fame is developing an exhibition of the Old Alice Springs Gaol titled Relationshipswhich will provide audio/video installations to give a sense of the people of the Old Alice Springs Gaol and their relationships.

“It will include Object Walls where artefacts are mounted and a programmed spotlight moves to the objects while audio plays, and Story People, three-dimensional human forms with voices from the past.”

Operations Manager at the Pioneer Women’s Hall of Fame, Trudy Fullerton, said the grant provides much needed assistance to create Interpretative displays that will give visitors a glimpse into a rich history.

“The history and stories of the ‘Old Alice Springs Gaol’ are complex, difficult and reverberate into the present day,” Ms Fullerton said.

“Museums tell the fullness of our history and are safe places for difficult ideas or stories, and by establishing ways to tell the history of the Old Gaol in a sensitive way, we can enhance the quality of the museum experience.

“We appreciate the funding support from the Country Liberals government to enable us to do this important work.”

The Regional Museums Grant Support Program funding is available annually to assist eligible organisations to develop projects which will benefit their museum, meet recognised museum standards, be accessible to the public and able to be completed within the year.

“The Northern Territory Government is proud to support regional museums through the grant program,” Arts and Museums Minister Gary Higgins said.

“The program aims to assist regional museums and keeping places to foster the development of high quality community museums; encourage the development of projects involving local communities; ensure the preservation of heritage; provide an enjoyable learning experience for visitors; and encourage increased visitation through quality interpretation of collections.”

The Alice Springs grants are:

• National Pioneer Women’s Hall of Fame – exhibition development of the Old Alice Springs Gaol titledRelationships – $83,482
• Central Australian Aviation Museum – continuing accessioning and cataloguing of the Museum’s collections – $34,624
• National Trust of Australia – Hartley Street School Museums – for the preservation of written, philosophical and official documentation of the library collection of the McDouall Stuart branch of the National Trust through digitisation – $3750