Unbelievable. Monday May 18 was International Museum Day ( Read all about it here ). Guess what? The Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery was closed! Is this Hicksville?
State Liberal Government edict decreed TMAG would be closed on Mondays ( here ). This is part of the Libs’ policy of Public Service trimming. Of course there’s still plenty of money for the bottomless pit of forestry and miners who dig holes in the Tarkine, then scarper ( TT here ) without paying a cent in royalties. In fact they are positively encouraged with licence fees free …
Nationally, council workers copped it for working 9-day fortnights ( here , and here, and here, and here )
Well this is even “better” … 4 day weeks for all full-time staff. What do they do when the museum is closed?
And who is affected? Those least able to afford it of course … the lowest paid contract workers, the attendants!
It just makes no sense. TMAG’s clients are The Public (who pay for it all). And to think … the world celebrates International Museum Day … and TMAG is closed.
But wait … there’s another irony. Hag is on the TMAG mailing list … and it was TMAG who informed me it was International Museum Day.
Oh the irony … I’m speechless …
BUT it seems the elite have special opening powers …
• Tuesday Mercury, P2: says they opened Monday night for reception for Mayor of Le Havre …
• Jane Rankin-Reid, in Comments: The recent auditor’s report on TMAG’s performance indicates the dangerous extent of Labor’s poor ministering of the institution over the last decade or so. With $5 million+ missing from TMAG’s coffers and the selective debasement of the institutions collecting and exhibiting integrity among other problems, it’s clear the previous government continually turned a blind eye to major issues affecting our state’s museum and art gallery. I’m not in favor of the early closing or for shutting TMAG one day a week, but at least Minister Goodwin has gone after an experienced real world museum professional in appointing ex director of the Royal Museum of Ontario Janet Carding to run TMAG. This is the first professional museum directorship for the institution in over a decade. Let’s hope TMAG can begin to reach its incredible potential at last.
• Paul Taranto, in Comments: Dear Hag, I have found other locations that also qualify as “Hicksville”. .London – Museum of London, Paris. – Musee d’Orsay, Florence – Uffizi Gallery, Athens – New Acropolis Museum and Byzantine Museum, Los Angeles – The Getty, Barcelona – Museum di Picasso, Museau d’Historia, Munich – BMW Museum, Prague – City of Prague Museum, Dvorak Museum……. All closed on Monday!
