Ballarat’s Museum of Australian Democracy at Eureka will close its doors to the public on Thursday, March 29, and reopens under new management on April 1.
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While the official date the museum ceases operation as M.A.D.E is March 31, it will be closed on Easter Friday and Saturday. After that, the museum comes under City of Ballarat management.
Chief executive officer Rebecca MacFarling said the museum’s board was focused on making the transition as smooth as possible.
“We are working through the transition right now, some staff will stay and some won’t,” she said.
But the CEO was “super pleased” to hear the City of Ballarat had decided to keep the museum’s “highly regarded” education program and display the Eureka flag.
She said front of house, flag and education staff would all remain, while visitors would still be able to access the exhibits and cafe when the museum reopens.
Ms MacFarling said the museum had achieved its highest recorded weekly schools visitation this month after developing three new programs in 2017, and no school groups would be affected by the changes.
“We will continue to deliver all of these programs as promised,” she said. “The Ballarat community won’t notice any difference in the interim, it will be business as usual for the public... rebranding takes time, it will happen over months.”
While all events run by M.A.D.E. have been cancelled, venue hire bookings are set to go ahead as normal.
Ms MacFarling said while she was sad M.A.D.E would no longer exist, she remained optimistic about the future.
