In 2014 we’ll be running our Standards program in the Mid-north coast area, encompassing Coffs Harbour, Dorrigo, Bowraville, Macksville, Bellingen and Kempsey. Last week we visited 11 museums and galleries in the region to explain the program and encourage them to join with the program.

This is the first in a series of blogs about our visits, and we start with Coffs Harbour Regional Museum. The museum has been closed since 2009 following extensive flooding, but the paid staff and volunteers have been very active preparing for much anticipated re-opening in the old police station and courthouse in 2014.

The collection is packed and stored in temporary premises awaiting renovation of the building. During the closure of the Museum, the staff and volunteers have been focusing on collection care and management, entering information about the objects into the database to make it easier to track objects when they are relocated to the new premises. They’ve been busy packing and labelling to protect the collection during the moves.

We’re really impressed with the resilience of this organisation. Being without a museum building for so long is far from ideal. In order to reassure local residents that the collection was in good condition and that their history was intact and was being managed in a responsible way, the staff and volunteers came up with the idea of Museum Pop Up– this one in the local shopping centre.

We eagerly await the news that the building work is underway and can’t wait to visit when it’s up and running and open to the public again. We want to see to see new displays in their new setting.

Stay tuned for our visit to beautiful Bellingen!