Three positions in the eight-member senior leadership team have been chopped, while one senior role outside the team is also gone in a move museum director Dr Ian Griffin yesterday described as "flatlining the management structure".
"It’s always incredibly sad when you have to lose good people," he said, confirming the cuts.
But the museum had been running at a loss for some years.
"It’s a tight economic climate and we had to cut our cloth accordingly."
The restructure process, which began in April, had been "tough, but fair".
"It is tough financial times; we are not the only institution that is downsizing — the Otago University has done it and obviously several government departments have done it.
"But it just paints a picture that is common across the board."
Dr Griffin said the museum was "extremely grateful" for the council’s 4.6% increase in funding for next year, but it still had to be taken in context.
"We’ve had inflation as high as 6% recently ... While we really absolutely welcome the investment from the council, we still have to work out the best structure going forward.
"These changes were backed by the board. We decided to do a restructure that would ensure the museum remained sustainable in the long term."
Dr Griffin said most people would not notice much in the way of change.
There were about 70 full-time-equivalent museum staff prior to the management restructure, which was now complete, he said.
The new management structure was one "we hope will be effective into the future", he said.
The museum recently recorded its highest-ever visitor numbers for the end of the financial year.
The 400,000-visitor milestone surpasses previous records, which last peaked in 2020 at 368,475 visits.
The increased popularity is believed to now position the museum as the most-visited cultural institution in the South Island.
About half of the museum’s annual budget of about $10 million was funded from council rates, said Dr Griffin, who has long advocated for government funding for regional museums.
"We have a collection in our museum that is of national importance and it’s almost ridiculous that ... the government doesn’t want to help us out.
"While the national museum Te Papa is very well funded, it would be great to see some of that national funding go towards regional museums that have collections of significance."
Dr Griffin said he hoped visitor growth would continue.
"My view is that museums should be a place where everyone wants to visit; I want visitor numbers to grow.
"But to do that we need to renew and maintain the galleries — and that costs money."
The museum was "a $300 million asset", once one took into account the value of the buildings and the collections.
"One of the challenges for museums across the country is that we’re struggling to maintain the asset.
"This recent change will help keep us afloat and enable us to save some money to put away to replace the things that need to be replaced."
