A New Museum for WA
0 Page | Created 11 May 2012
The Western Australian Museum is about to embark on the most exciting development in our 121 year history.
Join us on this incredible journey...
The State Government of Western Australia has made a significant financial commitment to build a new museum within the revitalised Perth Cultural Centre.
Over the next seven years, the WA Museum will be transformed as we deliver a new state-of-the-art museum showcasing to the world the importance of Western Australia; of our heritage, history and incredible biodiversity.
Our new museum will be the flagship museum for Western Australia where visitors will explore their identity, culture and sense of place.
Together we will share our individual and collective stories that have shaped us as people and a State.
From the First Peoples of Western Australia, to contemporary society, from our environment and biodiversity to our role in the region as a major trading partner, the new museum will look at what it means to be Western Australian, explore Western Australia and discover our role in the world.
Our new museum will be a museum not only for everyone, but by everyone, and we want to hear from you about the stories, objects and ideas you want to see in your museum.
One object that Western Australians have told us they want to see return is the Blue Whale skeleton and our staff will begin preparing it to be the centerpiece of the new museum.
In the coming years we will be asking you to contribute your ideas for the stories and objects in the new museum. We want to encourage discussion, debate and a diversity of opinions to make this truly a museum for everyone.
We look forward to sharing this incredible journey with you.
Western Australia is an extraordinary place – its history, its environment and its people. Our State Government has recognised the importance of developing the cultural infrastructure of our State both as a resource for all Western Australians but also a major attraction for WA.
The personal commitment of our Minister for Culture and the Arts, the Hon. John Day and our Premier, the Hon. Colin Barnett have been critical in developing this vision. Everyone who has been involved, and will be involved with the Museum, should be incredibly proud; not only will this be the most ambitious museum development in the southern hemisphere at the present time, but it will represent a significant moment in the history of our State.
Our challenge, now, is to create a museum worthy of this great State.
Alec Coles, Chief Executive Officer, WA Museum
The decision by the Western Australian Government to invest in a new State Museum in Perth is great news not just for Australia, but for the world.
Not only is Perth one of the great cities of the Indian Ocean: Western Australia contains some of the oldest evidence of life on Earth, one of the World’s oldest settled indigenous civilizations, a richly diverse and rapidly diversifying population and one of the most bio-diverse places on the planet. What a basis for an incredible new museum!
At the British Museum, we look forward to a long and productive relationship with the WA Museum as it embarks on one of the most significant Museum developments in the World now.
Neil MacGregor, Director of the British Museum
