The South Bank institution, which turns 50 this year, has hit a financial iceberg due to COVID-19 and is pinning its hopes on a sell-out of tickets to this weekend’s trial re-opening to keep the attraction afloat.So far only 25 per cent of the available tickets have been sold.A spokeswoman for the museum said pre-bookings were not at the same level as it had for a planned trial reopening on January 9 and 10, which was cancelled when Brisbane was forced into a snap lockdown.The museum CEO Emma Di Muzio and board chair Kasper Kuiper are still in discussions with the State Government over the museum’s future.“Currently, with no guaranteed funding or investment opportunities (despite much work on these to date), QMM is facing an unknown future,” Ms Di Muzio told museum members earlier this month.
The museum was closed between March and September due to the initial COVID-19 outbreak.After a brief reopening in late September and early October, it was forced to close again in November to save funds.The costs of opening its doors – including power, water and cleaning – were more than it gets in entrance fees, which is its main source of income. CEO Emma Di Muzio said at the time it was saving more than $20,000 each month by being closed, and that it would be “financially irresponsible” to open with this imbalance.She says a museum of its size needed an operational budget of $1.2 million a year and a staff of the equivalent of nine-and-a-half full-time members.At the end of last year the museum made its operations manager redundant due to a lack of funds.Meanwhile, a change.org petition asking the State Government to make the museum part of the Queensland Museum Network currently has more than 13,600 signatures.A group of former volunteers and museum members have also raised concerns about the state of major attractions such as HMAS Diamantina and Ella’s Pink Lady An AGM for the museum, to discuss its future, will be held at the end of February.
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