POST-CONSERVATION EVALUATION (PCE): FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE OF ADAPTIVE REUSE MUSEUMS IN GEORGE TOWN, MALAYSIA

Abstract

Adaptive reuse of historic buildings has become a prominent trend in the scenario of built heritage conservation of Melaka and George Town, UNESCO World Heritage Sites of Malaysia. Such implementation however is questionable since there have been several dilemmas raised in relation to the local museum industry. Among them are stiff competition faced by museums as an attractive cultural product, not appealing to business funders, rarely favoured as a family holiday destination and being perceived as dull and old repositories by the younger generations. As adaptive reuse is known to revive the physical and functional facets of historic building which then contributes to its economic generation, this study attempts to understand the financial impact from such implementations. Post-conservation evaluation (PCE) focusing on financial performance was conducted on adaptive reuse museums in the Core Zone and Buffer Zone of George Town, involving Penang State Museum (PSM), Made in Penang Interactive Museum (MIPIM), Batik Painting Museum (BPM) and Dark Mansion-3D Glow in the Dark Museum (DM) which were shortlisted trough purposive sampling. Key informants’ survey was then carried by engaging key person identified to be resourceful and knowledgeable with the respective museums’ financial background and history. It is found that the adaptive reuse museums have yet to gain a stable return of investment, due to low-income generation from their ticketing sales in relation to higher operational and maintenance costs they require. By conducting PCE on the financial performance of adaptive reuse buildings that are of cultural and historical values, conservation stakeholders may be furnished with better information that aids better decisionmaking in the future.