Te Haerenga The Journey: Toward Te Whare Taonga o Waikato
5 August - 26 November 2017
Free entry
Thirty years ago this October, a purpose-built museum and art gallery opened in Grantham Street, Hamilton. This event was the culmination of years of planning and community activism. While the journey toward a new museum was long and not always easy, the resulting institution has played a crucial role in promoting the arts and educating the public. Through several name changes and shifts in direction, Waikato Museum has consistently reflected the values and spirit of the community it serves, while exposing Waikato people and visitors to the region to fresh ideas and challenges.
On the occasion of the Museum’s anniversary, this exhibition remembers the obstacles and opportunities involved in setting up the new Museum as well as its forerunner institutions. In doing so, it reclaims the story of a grassroots movement for cultural change receding in public memory as the years pass. Although not a complete history, it also briefly considers some of the many highlights and strengths developed during the Museum’s three decades of operation in its current location, as well as key people and factors involved in establishing the institution.
Education programmes are available for this exhibition.
Image: Waikato Museum Architectural model, c. 1982. Image courtesy of Hamilton City Libraries HCL_M00804.12.
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