Southland museum and art gallery
Encyclopedia
Invercargill
Invercargill is the southernmost and westernmost city in New Zealand, and one of the southernmost cities in the world. It is the commercial centre of the Southland region. It lies in the heart of the wide expanse of the Southland Plains on the Oreti or New River some 18 km north of Bluff,...
, New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
. It is Southland
Southland Region
Southland is New Zealand's southernmost region and is also a district within that region. It consists mainly of the southwestern portion of the South Island and Stewart Island / Rakiura...
's largest cultural and heritage institution, and contains a wide variety of the region's art, history and natural history collections.
Observatory
From April to August, the museum observatory operates every Wednesday night with school groups often visiting. This is the only public observatory in southland, however the obsevatory is planned to be relocated as the Museum Renovations do not accommodate for the observatory in the museums future. it has been suggested that the observatory be shifted into the interior of Queens Park, of which the museum currently borders.Tuatara
Tuatara
The tuatara is a reptile endemic to New Zealand which, though it resembles most lizards, is actually part of a distinct lineage, order Sphenodontia. The two species of tuatara are the only surviving members of its order, which flourished around 200 million years ago. Their most recent common...
ranging from new babies to the famous Henry , who is thought to be over 110 years old. Henry and his girlfriend Mildred produced 11 eggs in the 2009 season. All hatched. Tuatara Curator Lindsay Hazley suggested that the new acrylic roof that allowed ultra violet light through to the tuatara has contributed to 100% egg hatching success and 100% survival success since installation.
Galleries
The museum has a Māori Gallery that emphasizes the everyday aspects of pre-contact life in MurihikuMurihiku
Murihiku is a Māori name describing a region of the South Island in New Zealand. Traditionally it was used to describe the portion of the South Island below the Waitaki River, but now is mostly used to describe the province of Southland. The name means "the tail end of the land" in...
/(Southland
Southland Region
Southland is New Zealand's southernmost region and is also a district within that region. It consists mainly of the southwestern portion of the South Island and Stewart Island / Rakiura...
). This includes the processes of adze making, fishing
Fishing
Fishing is the activity of trying to catch wild fish. Fish are normally caught in the wild. Techniques for catching fish include hand gathering, spearing, netting, angling and trapping....
using bone and stone lures, and pastimes and musical instruments..
The natural history gallery presents many aspects of nature in the province, including an emphasis on rare and endangered species such as the Kakapo
Kakapo
The Kakapo , Strigops habroptila , also called owl parrot, is a species of large, flightless nocturnal parrot endemic to New Zealand...
and Kiwi
Kiwi
Kiwi are flightless birds endemic to New Zealand, in the genus Apteryx and family Apterygidae.At around the size of a domestic chicken, kiwi are by far the smallest living ratites and lay the largest egg in relation to their body size of any species of bird in the world...
, as well as sub-fossil bones of extinct birds such as Moa
Moa
The moa were eleven species of flightless birds endemic to New Zealand. The two largest species, Dinornis robustus and Dinornis novaezelandiae, reached about in height with neck outstretched, and weighed about ....
. This gallery also covers subjects such as geology
Geology
Geology is the science comprising the study of solid Earth, the rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which it evolves. Geology gives insight into the history of the Earth, as it provides the primary evidence for plate tectonics, the evolutionary history of life, and past climates...
and sea life.
"Beyond the Roaring 40's Gallery", interprets the unique and vulnerable Subantarctic themes and was developed utilising both(2) museum and Department of Conservation expertise. "Sport in Southland" illustrates heritage, diversity and changes over time of many of the sports played in the region and includes a the shell of Burt Munro
Burt Munro
Herbert James "Burt" Munro was a New Zealand motorcycle racer, famous for setting an under-1,000 cc world record, at Bonneville, 26 August 1967. This record still stands today...
's bike and Roger Donaldson
Roger Donaldson
Roger Donaldson is an Australian-born New Zealand film producer, director and writer who has made numerous successful movies. He was a co-founder of the New Zealand Film Commission.-Life and career:...
's documentary film about Burt.
Art
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 HodgesWilliam Hodges
William Hodges RA was an English painter. He was a member of James Cook's second voyage to the Pacific Ocean, and is best known for the sketches and paintings of locations he visited on that voyage, including Table Bay, Tahiti, Easter Island, and the Antarctic.Hodges was born in London. He was a...
" A Maori before a waterfall in Dusky Bay "(1773), 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
Petrified wood
Petrified wood is the name given to a special type of fossilized remains of terrestrial vegetation. It is the result of a tree having turned completely into stone by the process of permineralization...
exists at Curio Bay
Curio Bay
Located near the southern end of New Zealand's South Island, Curio Bay is a coastal embayment best known as the site of a petrified forest some 180 million years old. It also hosts a yellow-eyed penguin colony, arguably the rarest of penguin species, with approximately 1600 breeding pairs in the...
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.
History of the Museum
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
Queen's Park, Invercargill
Queen's Park is a tourist attraction in Invercargill, New Zealand, and was part of the original plan when Invercargill was founded in 1856. The park is in extent...
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 the Southland Astronomical Society Observatory
Southland Astronomical Society Observatory
Southland Astronomical Society Observatory in Invercargill is New Zealand's southernmost observatory. Operated by Southland Astronomical Society but owned by the Southland Museum and Art Gallery, it is situated on the western side of the museum building....
in 1972, extensions to the building in 1977 and 1984, a total redevelopment in 1990, and a proposed extension for 2010-2015.
The period of redevelopment from the 1970s to the 1990s was credited to the leadership of Museum Director, Russell Beck, and Chairman of the Southland Museum & Art Gallery Trust Board, Dr Alfred Philip (Alf) Poole (1922–2005).
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
Tuatara
The tuatara is a reptile endemic to New Zealand which, though it resembles most lizards, is actually part of a distinct lineage, order Sphenodontia. The two species of tuatara are the only surviving members of its order, which flourished around 200 million years ago. Their most recent common...
breeding programme, and retailing spaces for the Artworks Cafe, Museum Shop 'Momento' and iSite Invercargill Visitor Information Centre http://www.invercargill.org.nz/Contact-Us/default.asp.
The current proposed extension to the museum is planned to take place in over the next few years. The new design (plans available for viewing at the museum) will almost double the interior space available for exhibitions and storage.
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 but a donation is welcomed.Building
