The blog is where we'll post news, updates, information about objects in our collection, #betterworkstories, profiles of staff members and visitors, pictures and videos, and really anything we think you'd find interesting. We hope you enjoy.
If there's a topic you'd like us to do a post about, or a post that you think needs a sequel, just let us know!
Creative Pasifika showcase: ocean shells and swells
Shells have a special allure. In many Pacific cultures they are transformed into beautiful objects of adornment. For Creative Pasifika 2017, a selection is featured in a special exhibition on the Museum’s Atrium Level 1. The display includes a pearl shell nelo (nose ornament) from the Santa Cruz Islands, given to the Museum by the Reverend George West.
A day in the life of a Natural Science Curator
To celebrate International Museum Day 2017, we take a look behind the scenes at the Otago Museum to see what a random day in the office looks like. Thanks to Emma Burns, Curator Natural Science, for sharing a snapshot of her working day.
Three Cups of Tea – Karen Taylor O’Neill and Elise Johnston, inspired
Our latest exhibition, Current, features nine creatives and their works inspired by items in the Museum’s textile collection. In a series of blog interviews we introduce the artists.
Egyptian exoticism
While fashion is subject to rapid and continual change, it doesn’t always look straight ahead. Fashion’s ongoing dialogue with its own past leads to the seeking out of what is perceived to be new, novel and sometimes exotic from other time periods and cultures...
Southern ceramic spotlight
In with the new! We have shifted the median date of the pottery on display in our Southern Land Southern People gallery into the 20th century! The wonderful work made by craftspeople at Milton Potteries and the Benhar factory is still on show...
Some changes in the Southern Land, Southern People gallery
If you have visited recently, you may have noticed that one of our permanent galleries, Southern Land, Southern People, looks a bit different. Over the past few months we have been giving the gallery a bit of a makeover – no dramatic changes, but little modifications to make it more welcoming...
Kelly O'Shea, inspired...
Our latest exhibition, Current, features nine creatives and their works inspired by items in the Museum’s textile collection. In a series of blog interviews we introduce the artists.
Recent Southern sunfish stranding on Aramoana salt marshes
On Wednesday 18 January Otago Museum was notified by the Department of Conservation about a dead Southern Ocean sunfish (Mola ramsayi) found on the Aramoana salt marshes...
An Adam Smith skirt – bespoke fashion for a well-dressed 1950s working woman
The Museum has recently been given a skirt made by the well-known 20th century Dunedin tailor, Adam Smith. For about four decades Smith operated his business from premises in Moray Place; mostly from an address now occupied by another much-loved Dunedin institution: the Asian restaurant.
Tiny new type specimen added to collection
Otago Museum has recently received its first specimen classed as a new category of type specimen, called a hologenophore. The honour goes to a species of parasite collected near the Catlins! It was donated to us by Dr Bronwen Presswell, a parasitologist at the University of Otago.
About
Our blog aims to keep you informed of the latest happenings at the Otago Museum, through posts about our collections, our people and our work.
Disclaimer
The views expressed here are those of our individual contributors, and are not the views of the Otago Museum.
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All content of this blog is Copyright Otago Museum, 2017. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the Otago Museum, except for the purposes of private study, research, criticism, review, or education, as provided for in the New Zealand Copyright Act 1994.