Draft Architectural Plans

Last year the Council changed direction and moved away from building a brand new Cultural Centre (North West Museum and Art Gallery) to instead use the funding that has been secured to refurbish the existing Burnie Arts and Function Centre. 

This decision was made for financial reasons because the additional expense the community would need to incur each year (around $600,000 per year in depreciation) is more than the community can afford to pay.  By investing our funding into an existing building means that the vast majority of this expense is already budgeted for each year saving in the order of half a million dollars each year.

The vision for the new Centre was created taking account of feedback provided by the community through the first consultation process in 2021.  Our vision is ultimately to create a centre that is multi-faceted showcasing museum objects and history, art exhibitions, performing arts and artistic creativity and development within one building.  Our vision is for our centre to be frequently changing so that it is a place that not only has something to inspire or entice our whole Burnie demographic – but it regularly evolves and has different offerings that keep you coming back time and time again.

This is a centre for Burnie.  That tells stories about Burnie, its history and past, about its people and the things that are important to its community, and about the prosperous future that lies ahead.  Our focus is to get this centre right for the people of Burnie – and that if we succeed in this goal, then others from the broader region and visitors from abroad will naturally be drawn to our Centre too.

We have been working hard to create the draft architectural plans for the new Centre with the assistance of our partners Xsquared Architects.  We have been fortunate throughout this journey to have had the expertise of a number of key local community members who have held long associations with the Museum and Art Gallery.  We want to thank Tich Ferencz and Eleanor Austin who’s contributions and guidance in co-creating these plans has been extremely valuable, and very much appreciated.

Now we want to hear from you – this is the vision we have for the building.  The Civic Plaza and the surrounding precinct will be considered in time, but not right at this point.  We are focussed on getting the building right, as a means of enabling the experience we are aspiring to create.