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Western Sydney business representatives have called on the NSW Government to stick to its original plan to relocate the Powerhouse Museum to Parramatta amid concerns its collection of more than half a million objects could be split between two sites.
The State Government announced its plan to relocate the arts and science museum to the banks of the Parramatta River in 2015, but on Wednesday said it might consider keeping "some Powerhouse presence at the current site in Ultimo".
The Powerhouse at Ultimo is the major branch for the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences, which also has two other sites at Castle Hill and Millers Point.
Western Sydney director of the Sydney Business Chamber David Borger said he was concerned the Government was "back peddling" on its promise of a move to Parramatta.
"We don't want to see this being undermined and becoming a 50-50 situation down the track," he said.
Mr Borger said despite representing one in 10 Australians, western Sydney only received 1 per cent of Commonwealth arts program funding, and 5.5 per cent of the state's arts funding.
"Every year, we know that most of the taxes that our community pays going towards arts and culture is spent in the Sydney CBD," he said.
"For people in western Sydney it is actually very difficult to get in for performances and events so that's why when the Powerhouse was announced, we thought, 'terrific this is the first time in frankly 200 years one of these tier one cultural institutions will be located [outside of the CBD]."
The State Government is waiting on a business case to be released later this year before making its final decision on the move.
Government believes western Sydney needs cultural spaces
Arts Minister Don Harwin said the Government would consider retaining the current building at Ultimo as a "cultural space".
He said the Government was committed to delivering a museum for western Sydney but selling the current site was not essential to funding the Parramatta development.
"We've managed the state's finances carefully, we've recycled state assets so we've got some money to reinvest in infrastructure and arts and culture is not missing out," he said.
Mr Harwin did not rule out Parramatta becoming the fourth site and the "flagship campus" for the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences.
"Our core commitment is to move the Museum of Arts and Applied Sciences and have its headquarters, its staff, located there at Parramatta.
"That is the right option.
"This Government believes very strongly in the need to grow cultural infrastructure in western Sydney."
The City of Parramatta Council said it was "confident" the business case would prove moving the museum to western Sydney was the right financial and logistical move.
The council's general manager, Greg Dyer, said he felt assured the museum's key collections and administrative capabilities would be moved to the new site.
"We heard a very strong commitment to the core of the museum being in Parramatta and for the Parramatta museum to be a world-class institution," he said.
The Government will soon begin public consultation on the plans.
Topics: arts-and-entertainment, library-museum-and-gallery, parramatta-2150
First posted