Early this month, the Otago, Canterbury and Auckland War Memorial Museums joined forces in a video conference meeting with the Ministry of Culture and Heritage and sought government funding to support the museums.
Otago Museum director Ian Griffin told an Otago Museum Trust Board meeting yesterday he was continuing to work with the directors of the Canterbury and Auckland museums to make a case for "our nationally important but locally funded collections".
Discussions with ministry chief executive Bernadette Cavanagh and senior ministry staff were continuing, and two funding streams had been identified "which might help our situation".
He yesterday told the board that Covid-19 continued to have a significant impact and annual visitor numbers had dropped more than 21% from the previous year to 265,911 on June 30 this year.
The museum continued to receive phase two of the wages subsidy, which provided "critical support" for staff working on the museum’s commercial side.
■ Otago Museum visitor experience manager Teresa Fogarty has continued to help with the management of the Central Stories Museum and Art Gallery in Alexandra.
Ms Fogarty has also helped with staff recruitment and a health and safety system.
Talks had also taken place with the Central Otago District Council about a formalised tenancy agreement, Dr Griffin said yesterday.
Discussions had also included extended tourism services and use of space left vacant by the closure of the i-Site service in the building.
