Open Museums, Open Minds
Maitland is home to a number of collections of items that reveal aspects of our past, present and future. Open Museums, Open Minds documents the nature and content of these collections, and how residents and visitors can engage with them. It also documents the resources they have and use, and the resources they need.
The proposal is for an innovative regional museum that has central gateways and a central storehouse and that invites visitors and residents to engage with sites, collections and experiences across the city.
Our vision is to see Maitland as an inviting and inspiring place with a well-publicised network of experiences that introduce and extend engagements with the locality and its unique history and identity.
Our digital collections
Our cultural collections tell us so much about our City, our region and our place in the world through historic objects, archives and through the eyes of artists.
You can explore some of those collections by visiting the Maitland Digital Collections website.
The items are spread across facilities and sites within the City and include Maitland Regional Art Gallery, Maitland Library, Maitland Gaol, Morpeth Museum and the old Maitland Hospital.
Collection funding
Thanks to an extensive digitisation project, supported by the NSW Government Regional Cultural Fund, thousands of items from the collections of Maitland Library, Maitland Gaol, Maitland Hospital, Maitland Regional Art Gallery and Morpeth Museum will also be available Maitland's cultural collections website.
Storyplace
Many of our historical highlights also feature on Storyplace, a Museums & Galleries of NSW project that features culturally significant stories from around the state, including dozens from here in Maitland.