Otago Museum Visit

On Tuesday 16th of August, Room 13 and Room 14 went to Otago Museum to visit their exhibitions and learn some tips and tricks on how to make a great exhibition.

First we went to the lecture theatre where we learnt about to what makes a great exhibition. Chris from the Museum showed us some popular exhibitions that have been shown and we analysed what makes them successful. Some key things we took away were how to engage your audience, ways to make your exhibition interactive, ways to make a cohesive design and how to harness your own interests into research projects. 

We then moved into some of the different exhibition rooms. 

We looked at 'The Pounamu Trail' This tells the story of this most precious of stones, its significance to Māori, and its enduring value from ancient times until today. Showing outstanding examples of traditional toki (tools), hei tiki, and mere, with some of the oldest thought to originate from early settlement times, around 700 – 800 years ago. Featuring a beautiful hei tiki wall and large pounamu touchstones, the largest of which, ‘Te Hurika’, weighs 170kg; this is an exhibition not to be missed.

The 'Code Break' displayed games in the exhibition which have all been created by New Zealand and Australian women, and each maker reflects on the sometimes-challenging journey they’ve made into this male-dominated industry, revealing the human stories behind their games via a custom-built exhibition audio tour

Pacifica Cultures; New Zealand has strong links, both past and present, with the peoples and cultures of Polynesia, Micronesia and Melanesia. This gallery celebrates these links through a significant collection of objects, including the only moai statue from Rapa Nui (Easter Island) in New Zealand.

Tāngata Whenua - The gallery tells the story of Māori arrival, ancestry and achievement. Taoka on display include whakairo, or finely worked objects in wood, rei puta, or whale ivory, and pounamu (greenstone), some of them heirlooms on loan from Kāi Tahu families.

When then discussed the pros and cons of each exhibit and what we thought made it engaging and interactive as the audience. This trip has given us a lot to think about and take away for our learning and creating of our exhibitions based on Dunedin's history.