Tuesday, November 4, 2014

OPEN LETTER: QVMAG GOVERNANCE


READ THE LETTER HERE: http://openletter7250-1qvmag.blogspot.com.au/

Dear all,

After over 15 years of using the QVMAG as a case study for the Communities of Ownership & Interest relative to musingplaces and cultural landscapes I have had the opportunity to observe quite closely the QVMAG as an institution and its relationships with Launcestonians and Tasmanians generally.

It is an institution that I have had a long relationship with and well before I came to Launceston to live. I have work in the QVMAG’s collections; when I worked for the TAAB
(now Arts Tasmania) it was a part of my responsibilities; as a lecturer at the university’s Art School it was a resource for myself and my students; as board a member of NETSS (now CAST Touring) it was a part of that organisation’s client base; as a LCC ratepayer for over 25 years now I’ve been contributing to its recurrent budget via my rate payments; as a cultural producer, cultural theorist and cultural geographer it is an ongoing research subject; and as a Launcestonian it is my musingplace at the bottom of the hill I live upon.

Like many people I have quite a bit invested in this ‘place’ as a cultural institution which by extension is in no small way is a part of a vast network of people, Tasmanians and others, who have cultural property, social histories ad much more held under the custodianship of this public institution.

With all these things in mind I was a member of the working group that drafted the institution’s current charter and as a foundation member of the QVMAG;s Museum Governance Advisory Board I participated in the institution’s first ever strategic plan. Likewise, with all this in mind it is clear to me that the institution’s governance needs a root and branch review given that its future sustainability and viability is being questioned. This is the background against which I am writing to all who in various ways are connected in some way with the institution’s governance and trusteeship – specifically LCC Aldermen, relevant State Govt. Ministers et al.

Yours sincerely

Ray Norman

Ray Norman
<zingHOUSEunlimited>
The lifestyle design enterprise and research network

PH: 03-6334 2176
EMAIL 1: raynorman@eftel.net.au
EMAIL 2: ray@7250.net
40 Delamere Crescent Trevallyn TAS. 7250

WEBsite: http://www.raynorman7250.blogspot.com

“A body of men holding themselves accountable to nobody ought not to be trusted by anybody.” — Thomas Paine