Alec Coles, the director of Tyne and Wear Archives & Museums (TWAM), is leaving in March to become the director of the Western Australian Museum in Perth.
Coles, who at Tyne and Wear runs eleven museums, moves to a service with six sites across the state of Western Australia.
Coles has spent over 20 years building a career in the North East of England and nearly eight years as director of TWAM.
In his new role, Coles will be working towards making the case for a new museum to become the main museum of Western Australia. He said: “Building a new museum is one of the main drivers [for accepting the job].”
And he continued: “This would be the largest project I would have ever worked on.” He declined to indicate the estimated cost, but said the aspiration was for a new museum to become part of a planned cultural quarter.
Coles who said one of his major achievements was the completion of the Great North Museum: Hancock project that opened in May, said he would not have accepted the Perth job had the Hancock development been incomplete.
Meanwhile, Museums Journal understands that Michael Houlihan, the director general of the National Museum Wales, is in line to be the next chief executive of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. Houlihan’s Wales office said nothing was yet official.
In Houlihan’s blog in November regarding Wales’ repatriation of 12 Maori skeleton remains to Te Papa, he said: “I’m hopeful that this will lay the foundations for future collaborations between Amgueddfa Cymru [National Museum Wales] and Te Papa Museum.”
Mark Taylor, the director of the Museums Association, said: “For some time now we have had people from outside the UK heading up British museums and it’s good to see that museums in other parts of the world think our professionals are worthy of running their museums.”
Mary Kershaw, who was the director of collections at York Museums Trust, left in December to become the director of the New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe.
Coles, who at Tyne and Wear runs eleven museums, moves to a service with six sites across the state of Western Australia.
Coles has spent over 20 years building a career in the North East of England and nearly eight years as director of TWAM.
In his new role, Coles will be working towards making the case for a new museum to become the main museum of Western Australia. He said: “Building a new museum is one of the main drivers [for accepting the job].”
And he continued: “This would be the largest project I would have ever worked on.” He declined to indicate the estimated cost, but said the aspiration was for a new museum to become part of a planned cultural quarter.
Coles who said one of his major achievements was the completion of the Great North Museum: Hancock project that opened in May, said he would not have accepted the Perth job had the Hancock development been incomplete.
Meanwhile, Museums Journal understands that Michael Houlihan, the director general of the National Museum Wales, is in line to be the next chief executive of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. Houlihan’s Wales office said nothing was yet official.
In Houlihan’s blog in November regarding Wales’ repatriation of 12 Maori skeleton remains to Te Papa, he said: “I’m hopeful that this will lay the foundations for future collaborations between Amgueddfa Cymru [National Museum Wales] and Te Papa Museum.”
Mark Taylor, the director of the Museums Association, said: “For some time now we have had people from outside the UK heading up British museums and it’s good to see that museums in other parts of the world think our professionals are worthy of running their museums.”
Mary Kershaw, who was the director of collections at York Museums Trust, left in December to become the director of the New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe.
