There's a korowai in this gallery where people can leave messages to loved ones and we've noticed this week just how many of them start with Dear Grandma, Nana, Poppa, Granddad and so on.
The changing nature of our world with less hands-on crafts, skills and tactile activities to one based on digital technology has also changed the relationship between these two parties.
Where once grandparents would lead the way, showing children how to make and fix things, now grandchildren are racing ahead in the digital world.
Museums play a role in supporting real exchange between these two age groups - one where kaumatua can take the lead and explain objects, different times and share personal or family stories.
Museums let the cups in grandma's china cabinet take on a new life as items that are precious enough to be shown in a museum.
I've no doubt, based on snippets of conversations I've overheard, that the Thermette is a special item in the Time For Tea display that fosters an opportunity to lead and explain how it works or share some great memories of when and where they were used.
Museum displays can allow each party to take their turn at leading, with grandchildren showing their grandparents how to use and navigate digital technology in gallery spaces.
And these experiences and moments are something that museums help foster.
A place where grandparents' storytelling brings to life the things they are seeing in front of them, which doesn't often happen in the same way in any other environment such as school or home.
Things that are foreign concepts to the younger generation, such as formal tea parties, may well be a nostalgic real-life memory for their elders.
And with the global move away from plastics, perhaps a simple school lunchbox will be the same thing for younger generations when they become the grandparents.
This is a design challenge in museums - thinking about how our galleries and displays can work across generations.
These two groups can have very different expectations about what museums should be and offer.
Generalising terribly, older groups often expect museums to be reverent spaces for quiet contemplation and learning, with a general understanding of behaviour around objects and collections, eg no touching. Younger people expect noise, life and colour, to touch and play with everything.
Our challenge is trying to knit these expectations together and create an experience that works across the generations.
• F.A.W.C! Electrolux Masterclasses, Saturday, November 4, Century Theatre. Tickets available from Eventfinda.
• New acquisitions, two series of works by artists Jono Rotman and Brett Graham, recently acquired into the Hawke's Bay Museums Trust. On display until Monday, October 23.
•Kids Drop-in-Zone, craft activities, colouring and a story corner available every weekend and during school holidays.
• Laura Vodanovich is the director of the Museum Theatre Gallery (MTG) Hawke's Bay.
