Southland museum and art gallery

The Southland Museum and Art Gallery is located in Gala Street, Invercargill. It is Southland's largest cultural and heritage institution, and contains a wide variety of the region's art, history and natural history collections.

History of the Museum

Southland Museum and Art Gallery, Niho o te Taniwha (the tooth of the taniwha), has grown from a small collection first exhibited in 1869 by Andrew McKenzie in his Invercargill "Scotch Pie House and Museum". The collection was purchased by the Invercargill Athenaeum in 1876 and transferred to the Southland Technical College by 1912.

Although a museum board was formed in 1915, the museum remained under the control of the Southland Education Board until it was constituted under the Southland Museum Board (Inc) in 1939. The original building at the entrance to Queen's Park was built as Southland's New Zealand Centennial memorial and opened in 1942, but without an art gallery, due to insufficient funds. There have been many extensions to the original structure with the art gallery opening in 1960, the additional of an observatory in 1972, extensions to the building in 1977 and 1984, and a total redevelopment in 1990. This 1990 redevelopment enclosed the previous building in a 27m tall pyramid, the largest in the southern hemisphere, added dedicated art gallery spaces, a Tuatarium Gallery for the captive Tuatara breeding programme, and retailing spaces for the Artworks Cafe, Museum Shop 'Memento' and Invercargill Visitor Information Centre [http://www.invercargill.org.nz/Contact-Us/default.asp] . The opening of the new pyramid was marked by a night laser display and video projected onto the roof.

The museum has a Māori Gallery that emphasizes the everyday aspects of pre-contact life in Murihiku. The natural history gallery presents many aspects of nature in the province, including an emphasis on rare and endangered species such as the Kakapo and Takahe, as well as sub-fossil bones of extinct birds such as Moa. This gallery also covers the topics of geology and sea life. "Beyond the Roaring 40's Gallery", interprets the unique and vulnerable Subantarctic themes and was developed utilising both museum and Department of Conservation expertise. "Space in Southland" illustrates the part the Southland-based Awarua radio satellite station plays in the international space station.

The art galleries feature regular contemporary and historical art exhibitions, both travelling shows and works from permanent collections, often with a regional emphasis which includes Stewart Island and the Subantarctic Islands. The museum has a significant collection of art, photography, ceramics and craft all of which are shown regularly. Of special note is the work by William Hodges " A Maori before a waterfall in Dusky Bay'(c1773), and Te Mauri, the large pounamu boulder that travelled to America as part of the Te Maori Exhibition in 1984.

A fossil forest of petrified wood exists at Curio Bay on the southeast coast of Southland. A reconstruction of this, where visitors can walk among the stumps and tree sections of petrified wood 130 million years old, is to be found in front of the museum and where there is also a two-metre bronze Tuatara sculpture.

Hours and Admission

The Southland Museum and Art Gallery is open every day, excluding Christmas Day. Museum hours are weekdays 9.00 a.m. - 5.00 p.m. and weekends and public holidays 10.00 a.m. - 5.00 p.m. There is no admission fee to the Southland Museum and Art Gallery.

Building

The building is the largest pyramid in the southern hemisphere. It has a floor space of 5000m2. Its dimensions are 45 x 52 x 27m high.

External links

* [http://www.southlandmuseum.com/ Museum website]