Our Business Case was developed to support the development and five year operation of a Museum Of Chinese Australians in Australia (MOCA). Our Business Case was used to support an Expression of Interest to utilise the Haymarket Library, Chinatown, owned by the City of Sydney. The proponents subsequently won the EoI process, leveraged start up capital from donors, won a $2.2M grant from the NSW government and are now implementing the project.
Our consultative research and gap analysis identified that the residents and business people of Haymarket wanted a place to connect and meet in Haymarket, beyond cafes and restaurants. In addition to providing more to do in Chinatown (beyond restaurants and some retail), we identified an unmet demand for programming rather than conventional museums and exhibitions alone – this means that people want more social and interactive ways to learn about culture, and they want it to talk in a contemporary manner.
The Business Case addressed these gaps with a centre as a focus for the discovery, preservation and promotion of the history of the Chinese in Australia. The proposal included exhibitions; programming; community spaces (for meetings and events); a library; artist in residence program; multi-cultural café featuring Asian bakery goods, sweets and beverages, and retail outlet.
The Business Case scoped each product element, prepared development staging and costing, forecast visitation and financial performance, and proposed a governance model to integrate the local Chinatown community with the arts and tourism sectors. We also prepared separate governance structures to guide development and then operations.
