AAANZ is concerned to hear about proposed cuts at the Chau Chak Wing Museum at the University of Sydney. This museum brings together many of Australia’s oldest teaching and research collections. They are an important part of teaching for disciplines across the university, especially in art history, curatorial and museum studies. You can read more about the cuts in Honi Soit including quotes from staff themselves about the impact on conservation, collections management, curatorial and exhibition and teaching. Ann Stephen, former president of AAANZ, and current senior Art Curator at the CCW was quoted in Honi Soit:
Dr Ann Stephen, Senior Art Curator at the Museum, told Honi she is concerned about “the loss of knowledge and cultural capital” the cuts would bring, saying that “senior curators will no longer have the capacity to initiate and develop exhibitions when positions are reduced to fractional part-time appointments. This effectively eliminates the creative energy of the museum, removing those staff who actively research & publish on the collections.”
“The reduction in curatorial staff will have a major impact on the quality of exhibition development and public programs,” Dr Stephen said. “It will seriously inhibit cross-disciplinary exchange within the university and important synergies with the Power Institute, Sydney College of Art, Anthropology, History, Architecture, Design and Planning, and the many other departments which interact with the CCWM.”
Staff at the Chau Chak Wing Museum (University of Sydney) have organised a petition against proposed staff cuts. Read more and sign the petition here. You can also write directly to Vice Chancellor of the University if you wish to expressyotr concerns directly – Email: vice.chancellor@sydney.edu.au.
From the petition:
The Chau Chak Wing Museum’s collections, exhibitions, research, educational programs and public engagement activities connect communities with knowledge, culture and history while supporting teaching, learning and research across the University of Sydney.
In recent years, the museum has faced ongoing budget constraints and operational pressures. The latest proposed organisational restructure makes redundant eight positions across the Curatorial, Collections and Public Engagement teams, threatening to reduce the care of the collections and the specialist expertise that underpins this work.
These proposed cuts come at a time when the museum is expected to continue delivering high-quality teaching support, research outcomes, exhibitions, public programs and community engagement. The loss of these roles, and changes to organisational structure, risks diminishing the museum’s capacity to care for and develop its collections, deliver educational experiences, support academic research and maintain its standing as a leading university museum.As one of Australia’s most significant university museums, the Chau Chak Wing Museum deserves sustainable investment and institutional support. We call on the University of Sydney to reject further reductions to the museum’s capacity and instead commit to increased funding, sustainable staffing and long-term investment in the Chau Chak Wing Museum. As one of the University’s most important educational and cultural assets, the museum should be supported to grow and thrive, not asked to do more with less.