Tāmaki Paenga Hira Auckland War Memorial Museum today published its Annual Report for 2014/2015 – a year which was marked by significant WWI Centenary commemorative programmes and the celebration of Auckland’s 175th anniversary with a home grown exhibition Taku Tāmaki Auckland Stories.

Auckland Museum Director Roy Clare says that “as we conclude the second year of delivering our long term strategic plan Future Museum, we have continued to deliver public value for the ever growing and increasingly diverse people of Tāmaki Makaurau.”

More people each year are engaging with Auckland Museum onsite, offsite in the community and online.

While overall visitation onsite grew to 854,177 visits, the number of Auckland adults experienced double digit growth of 17%. Increasing numbers of children are visiting the museum, with growth of 16% on prior year. The number of school aged children attending school programmes on site increased by 22%. Over 135,000 visitors attended the WOW® World of WearableArt™ inaugural international touring exhibition. Home-grown exhibition Taku Tāmaki Auckland Stories was launched in May to celebrate Auckland’s 175th Anniversary eliciting high interest from Auckland families – a key exhibition audience. Overall visitor satisfaction for the year was 99%.

The launch of Collections Online in June saw over 1 million collection records made available to the public online which has contributed to a 91% growth in online visitors to aucklandmuseum.com.

He Toa Taumata Rau, the Online Cenotaph was also relaunched as part of the centenary period with 153,636 virtual poppies laid as part of remembrance of New Zealand service people. An estimated 34,000 people attended the ANZAC Day dawn ceremony supported by the Museum in partnership with Auckland Council.

Committed to delivering a sustainable foundation, the Museum produced its best self-generated revenue results in a decade of performance and 26,849 volunteer hours were contributed to deliver a range of both customer facing and behind the scenes activities . Further progress has been made in creating a ‘green’ museum with carbon emissions reduced a further 19% on prior year.

To illustrate the depth and breadth of the activity the Museum undertakes on behalf of the wider Auckland community, this year’s Annual Report invites readers to explore an interactive overview of ‘10 days in the life of Auckland Museum’, highlighting how each of the day’s activities aligns with the Museum’s strategic goals and the aspirations of the city it serves.

The Draft Annual Plan 2016/2017 will be published in November for public submissions.

View the Annual Report.