Collaboration the key to experience development at Te Unua Museum of Southland
Work to bring Southland’s stories to life is continuing at Te Unua Museum of Southland, with the project now officially in the production and build phase of the museum experience fit-out.
Te Unua Museum of Southland Team Leader Experience David Dudfield said the current phase of work focused on production, fabrication, and installation.
“Sharing the stories of a region – it’s people, its places – is a really complex and multi-layered process, and it requires a huge collaborative effort between Gibson International, our own museum and heritage services team, and a variety of locals – from subject-matter experts, to artists and designers, and manufacturers and fabricators,” he said.
“The spiderweb of people playing a role in the transition of Te Unua, as it moves from a vision into something tangible and real, is enormous – and the end result is going to be really dynamic and reflective of our region because of that.”
The experience at Te Unua would be contemporary and story-led, and would draw on a mixture of traditional and innovative methods that appealed to all of the senses, Dudfield said.
“Visitors to Te Unua will come across objects they know and love from the past – for instance, both the figurehead from the barque England’s Glory and the Fresnel lens from the Waipapa Point Lighthouse will be integrated into the museum experience.
“Both of those collection items will be familiar to people who visited the former Southland Museum and Art Gallery, but they can expect the stories they unlock to be told in new and exciting ways at Te Unua. They’re both not only really striking visually, but there’s also a nice connection between the stories of shipwrecks and lighthouses with the voyaging narratives that will be woven throughout Te Unua,” he said.
“We know the people of our region feel a deep sense of connection and investment in the collection items they are already familiar with. Going through the process, and working out how we can tell the stories behind these familiar objects in fresh and engaging ways, is really exciting.”
Gibson International – which had also led the design concept phase of experience development for the permanent exhibition showcasing the stories of Southland – had been awarded the experience build contract for the permanent exhibition within Southland’s new regional museum.
Founded in 1977, the award-winning Gibson International was one of New Zealand’s most renowned exhibition design and production studios, specialising in cultural, heritage, and tourism visitor experiences. It had been involved in the development and delivery of eminent visitor experiences at Tumu Toka Curioscape, Punakaiki on the West Coast, cultural and marine education space Te Wharekura in Auckland, and the Ngilgi Cave Ancient Lands Experience, in Western Australia.
Gibson International Co-owner and Creative Producer Brett Tompkins said thorough research – guided by local knowledge – was critical in experience development.
“This has been led, in large part, by the museum team as they are the connector into the community, and will continue to be so long after we have completed our work. It’s really vital to make sure the experience is not only authentic, but representative as well,” he said.
“Relying on something like Google searches doesn’t cut it on a project of this scale and complexity. Finding the right people on the ground, to provide that local lens, is essential to feed into content and design, so we can create an experience that looks and feels authentic. Ultimately, the end result has to be an experience that really reflects the people, spirit, and stories of Murihiku Southland.”
Every element created during the design and build phase of experience development at museums such as Te Unua was completely bespoke. The work on Southland’s new regional museum spanned multiple creative disciplines and required input from a range of specialists, he said.
“We are not creating a building. Our responsibility is to weave together the story of Southland, and give visitors the opportunity to engage in physical, aural, visual, and interactive spaces,” he said.
For example, one of the displays that would eventually make its home within Te Unua involved acoustically-locating visitors in an area that reacted to their presence in real-time, via large-scale projection and surround audio, he said.
“It’s a huge body of work, and it all has to be developed with the knowledge that we have to cater for a really broad and diverse range of visitors, who all have different expectations, abilities, and attention spans,” he said.
“I’m really looking forward to seeing some of those large-scale immersive displays in action. Nowadays, we consume so much through the tiny screens of our mobile phones. I want to see strangers standing side-by-side and actually sharing an experience together,” he said.
Working on the development of Te Unua had been a memorable experience for the team at Gibson International, he said.
“The opportunity to create an entire museum experience from scratch is incredibly rare – especially in New Zealand. It’s a huge responsbility we don’t take lightly,” he said.
Te Unua Museum of Southland Director Eloise Wallace said working with Gibson International on the design and build phase of experience development had allowed for greater continuity within the project.
“The regional heritage collections and our shared stories make up the foundation of the experience at Te Unua, and the team at Gibson had built up a huge store of knowledge throughout their work with us in the design phase,” she said.
“Continuing our partnership as we move into the next phase means we can really hit the ground running across all the production elements of the museum experience.”
“Being able to partner with them as we moved into the actual build of the experience meant the design and development workstreams could continue in tandem, and we’ve really been able to hit the ground running.”
The detailed design for the experience was scheduled to be finalised at the end of March, Wallace said.
