Sydney's $641m Powerhouse Museum Opens 7 November Amid Crisis

Sydney's new A$915m ($641m) Powerhouse museum opens on 7 November without the chief executive who built it, and with more than 750 arts figures demanding her reinstatement. Lisa Havilah stepped down in August over misconduct allegations she denies, five months before the launch of the institution New South Wales calls its biggest cultural investment since the Opera House.

Havilah had led the Powerhouse development at Parramatta, in Sydney's multicultural western suburbs, since 2019. Kon Gouriotis, editor of Artist Profile magazine, launched a petition on 27 October calling for her immediate return. Signatories include artist Ben Quilty, architect and patron Penelope Seidler, gallerist Anna Schwartz, and Lucy Turnbull, Sydney's lord mayor from 2003 to 2004 and wife of former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull (2015-18).

What does the leadership crisis change?

Plenty. Arts minister John Graham has confirmed chief operating officer Mark Wilsdon is on leave while Sydney law firm Lander & Rogers investigates allegations brought by a whistleblower concerning, in Graham's words, "governance and procurement." The allegations have not been publicly detailed. Graham's office did not respond before press time on whether the inquiry's findings will be published.

Abbie Galvin, the New South Wales government architect, is interim chief executive. Former Sydney Opera House CEO Louise Herron joined as strategic adviser. Treasury executive Cassandra Wilkinson took Wilsdon's role in July, amid constant media reports of cost blowouts.

A funding scandal behind the departure

The Sydney Morning Herald reported in August that more than A$70m ($46.2m) went on the run-up to the grand opening. That includes A$10m ($7m) for LED screens, staging and backdrop for an immersive work by British artist Es Devlin.

Havilah's five-year "artistic associates" programme — A$2.6m ($1.8m) to bring in external experts — drew union criticism. The Public Service Association said it sidelined long-serving curators in favour of outsider non-specialists. A state treasury review led to the programme being scrapped in May.

A collection scattered

Powerhouse belongs to the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences, which also runs the Ultimo site, a Castle Hill storage and discovery centre, and the Sydney Observatory. Ultimo housed the Powerhouse Museum and its half a million objects from 1893 until the government moved to spread cultural assets across the population. Parramatta, about 20km west of central Sydney, was chosen in 2015.

Ultimo closed in 2024 for a A$300m ($210m) heritage revitalisation. A public petition now seeks to save it after a newspaper report that the government is secretly weighing a partial sale to cover the new building's cost.

Heritage expert and former trustee Kylie Winkworth calls the closure a "tragedy" and "a globally unprecedented museum demolition." Key treasures — the 1785 Boulton & Watt steam engine, 1855 Locomotive No.1 and the Strasburg Clock model — will not appear at Parramatta. Most of the collection sits off-site at Castle Hill, open only on weekends. Winkworth says the collections are "dismembered" and argues the new building was "never intended to be a museum" at all, but a function and performance centre boosting the nighttime economy.

Floods, milk crates and the opening lineup

Designed by Franco-Japanese practice Moreau Kusunoki with Australian firm Genton, the riverside building offers more than 18,000 sq. m of exhibition space across seven column-free galleries, plus a rooftop garden and temporary accommodation for students, artists and scientists. Locals have dubbed it "the milk crate" for its steel criss-cross facade — mild next to the 1970s "scrum of nuns" label pinned on the Opera House.

Experts warned a parliamentary inquiry the riverfront undercroft would flood; the design changed. Havilah said in June that "the whole of Parramatta would be under water" before the Powerhouse flooded. Winkworth still fears for people inside during overland flooding.

Five shows open on 7 November:

• Task Eternal — aviation and space history, with the Smithsonian and the British Museum. Over-16s pay A$30 ($21).
• Es Devlin: The Turning — five major works by the artist and stage designer.
• The Dark — children's show with interactive storytelling, a crystal tunnel and 100 borrowed toys.
• Overflow — care of Australia's salt and freshwater ecosystems.
• The Mall — western Sydney's pioneering role in global shopping-mall culture.

General admission is free. James Turrell's light installation Shangri La (Over the Hump) costs from A$10 ($7). A 23-day opening festival runs 179 events, most free, including astronaut Charles Bolden on leadership in space. Whether the institution outgrows its scandals — and whether the inquiry's findings ever surface — will shape its first year.