Council endorses a new direction for QVMAG

Image: Exterior view of the Queen Victoria Museum at Inveresk. 

The City of Launceston has outlined a dynamic new future for Launceston's Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery with the unanimous endorsement of a new future directions plan at today's Council meeting.

The QVMAG Future Directions Plan contains a roadmap to a new governance structure, a sustainable funding model, and improved activation outcomes, as well as infrastructure overhauls of both Royal Park and Inveresk sites.

The new governance model is known as a 'company limited by guarantee', allowing the Council to retain ownership of the museum buildings and collection.

A new skills-based board will also be established to oversee all operational activities.

This structure will allow the QVMAG to be registered and endorsed as a recognised charity and to seek out funding opportunities to supplement its operational activities.

The plan also outlines five potential future funding models, as opposed to the current model which sees the majority of funding met by Launceston ratepayers, with around 20 per cent currently coming from the State Government.

Mayor van Zetten said the Council believed the State Government needed to increase its share of funding to better reflect the museum's role as a state-level institution and to provide more equity for Launceston ratepayers.

'The Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery is one of Launceston's most treasured and important cultural institutions,' Mayor van Zetten said.

'This ambitious Future Directions Plan aims to set the institution on a pathway to an exciting, sustainable and secure future.

'For 130 years the QVMAG has been exploring, cataloguing and celebrating the rich cultural fabric of our city, region and State.

'QVMAG can look back on a very proud past, but it's most exciting years are yet to come.'

Download a PDF file of the QVMAG Future Directions Plan(PDF, 19MB)

Issued Thursday 30 June 2022.