Sydney’s Powerhouse Museum used public funds to support fashion event

A glittering fashion event hosted in February by Sydney's Powerhouse Museum and attended by models, designers and Foreign Minister Julie Bishop lost nearly $140,000, with NSW taxpayers meeting the cost.

Documents obtained under Freedom of Information laws reveal that the Powerhouse Museum’s MAAS Centre for Fashion Ball, billed as Sydney's answer to New York's Met Gala cost $388,391. Revenue from sponsorship and ticket sales brought in $173,181, leaving a shortfall of $215,210.

FOI documents revealed the museum, which is publicly funded, covered this shortfall from its own budget.

VIP guests on the night donated a total of $1,150 - three gifts of $50 each and one for $1,000. Combined with a portion of ticket sales, the total amount raised was $78,500 but, having had to spend nearly triple that to get it, the public purse $137,000 worse off.

Also detailed in the documents is a breakdown of what event organisers spent money on, including $30,000 for branding, $25,000 for table centrepieces and printing, and $17,000 that was paid to ‘ambassadors and talent’.

In addition to the cash expenses, the party had approximately $200,000 worth of in-kind sponsorship consisting of international airfares, hotel rooms, vodka, wine and French champagne, bringing the total value of the party to nearly $600,000.

The event was meant to raise money to preserve key pieces of Australia's fashion history to add to the Museum's collection.

NSW Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party MP Robert Borsak is chairing an Upper House inquiry into the NSW Government's management of museums and art galleries.

Borsak told the ABC “there's something shonky going on here, something very, very smelly."

"A party for 121 people at the Powerhouse with probably as many hangers-on costing $388,000? Unbelievable. And they seem to have raised only about $78,000 in direct donations. How can you spend $388,000 for a party on one night?"

In March, NSW Minister for the Arts Don Harwin told parliament the so-called MAAS Ball – branded in keeping with the Powerhouse Museum's official name, the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences (MAAS) raised more than $70,000.

With Minister Harwin not advising of the event’s costs, Borsak added “he clearly gave an answer that was meant to mislead me and the public."

Under fire, the Powerhouse Museum confirmed the party was attended by 264 guests, 92 were unpaid and another 52 tickets were given to sponsors. Only 121 guests paid for tickets.

Event organisers flew four people to Sydney return from Dusseldorf, Paris and New York and 10 guests were accommodated in hotels for up to five nights each.

A further $10,000 was spent transporting visitors from interstate and picking up the cost their transport around Sydney.

Designers Akira Isogowa, Jenny Kee, Linda Jackson and Collette Dinnigan mingled with the editors of Vogue and Harpers Bazaar, who, along with MAAS Director Dolla Merrillees, were hosts of the event.

A  spokesperson for the Minister Harwin told the ABC that the NSW Parliament "has at no times been misled", adding “the responses given to parliament were based on advice received from the director of the museum. The MAAS Ball was entirely organised by the MAAS Trust and MAAS staff.”

With Merrillees on leave a MAAS spokeswoman advised "the ball was successful in achieving its objectives by introducing the Centre for Fashion to key stakeholders, building relationships with key corporate, industry and cultural partners, raising funding for the Australian Fashion Fund, increasing MAAS's fashion collection and enhancing the reputation of MAAS as the leading public centre for fashion in Australia."

The Museum posted a $10 million deficit last year.

Image: Attendees at the MAAS Centre for Fashion Ball at Sydney’s Powerhouse Museum in February. Courtesy: MAAS/Facebook.