After 11 years of planning, three years of construction, two parliamentary inquiries, four NSW premiers and a bill of $1 billion, Powerhouse Parramatta, the city’s newest cultural landmark, has opened to the public, with the NSW government declaring the museum Sydney’s answer to The Smithsonian and London’s British Museum. Long-running controversies over the project’s location, costs, focus and collection were set aside as the vertiginous Moreau Kusonski and Genton-designed building with its striking exoskeleton drew a wave of excitement and wonderment from a crush of curious visitors, just some of the 20,000 people who were expected to cross the threshold over its opening weekend. Without exception, visitors were taken aback by the ambition and spectacle of the marquee opening exhibition: Task Eternal, an exploration of space and flight in four chapters. Queues were longest in the museum’s only dedicated children’s show, The Dark, with its meteor tunnel, night forest and spaceship, for Es Devlin’s The Turning which has timed entry. The only slight grizzle at The Dark was that phones had to be placed out of sight in a sealed pouch to encourage sensory engagement. Delighted children paddled bare-footed in the shallow pond of the Indigenous show, Overflow, while panoramic views from the CBD to the Blue Mountains through the soaring glass windows drew onlookers and selfies. Most visitors said they would be back. It was former premier Mike Baird who announced bombshell plans to relocate the Powerhouse in the state’s most populous region weeks out from the 2015 election. But it was Labor Premier Chris Minns who cut the ribbon on the monumental project – after a Coalition backflip on closure of its Ultimo home – with help from 18 visiting students of Menindee Central School, the museum’s first overnighting students. Minns declared the museum “open for business” shortly after 10am, later admitting that Labor’s historic opposition to the project had been “wrong” and the museum would be “city shaping”. “I think it’s important that I acknowledge that at different points over the last few years, when we were in opposition, we were sceptical about this project. We wanted a cultural institution in western Sydney, but we did criticise this project. We were wrong. This is fantastic. This is going to be great for western Sydney. It’s going to be great for NSW.” Arts minister John Graham acknowledged the role of the museum’s absent chief executive – Lisa Havilah, who was stood down 72 days ago pending the outcome of a formal misconduct investigation – prompting cheers from members of the audience. Appointed in 2019 and a critical force in the building’s design, fitout and shows, Havilah was not invited to the event. “There’s an investigation taking place, and we need to make sure that’s done,” Minns later said. “But I think that you can do two things at the same time. You can pay tribute to the enormous work that Lisa and others have put into the institution while respecting the need for an independent investigation.” Asked if the inquiry would be resolved quickly, Graham said: “One of the issues with that process is people have got a right to be able to contribute more material and ask for more time. We will not short-circuit that process.” The museum is staging five shows, all of which are free except for Task Eternal, where visitors aged over 16 pay $30. Accessing James Turrell’s Shangri La (Over the Hump) within that exhibition will cost an additional $10. After weeks of prevarication, the museum’s open hours for exhibition shows from November 30 were confirmed as 10am to 5pm, with Friday late entry, a retreat on original plans to run the Powerhouse as a 24-hour museum, with nightly events, overnight stays and apartments for visiting artists and scientists. The opening of 30 serviced apartments built on the top floor of the Powerhouse Parramatta and fitted out at a cost of more than $3 million has been delayed. These are to cater for visit
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