Mariana Mace wrote:

> I've just been struck by a perhaps insurmountable opportunity - to
> make a case for a combined library/museum facility as a new building.
> I need some quick information on any such facility (snip)

Orange Regional Gallery is a purpose built contemporary Art Museum built
in 1986 as part of a complex including the regional public library. The
building won an important Australian prize for architecture, and
certainly has many good points as both exhibiting art museum and joint
"cultural facility".

However, we have found that being attached physically to the Library
does not  give the flow on traffic that we had hoped for. We are very
keen to develop strategies that will instil the "habit" of visiting both
places  - I would much appreciate any advice from the list as to ways to
do this.

Public libraries certainly attract more users than art museums, at least
in smaller cities,(Orange serves a population of 100,000)but the
interests of the library visitors may be very different to the gallery
visitors.Even though our entrance is  only 30 metres from the Library
entrance, most visitors to the library will not visit us at the time of
their visit, and vice-versa.

If the buildings are erected by the same governmental body, as in our
case, we also have had problems with our joint political masters wishing
to make us share facilities such as office equipment, communications
gear etc.

Also, we share the same power/air conditioning systems, and it has
proved difficult to separate out accurate allocation of costs/usage.

Alan Sisley
Orange Regional Gallery
Orange,NSW, Australia