MTG: Museum is rich source of activity and inspiration

Children enjoying one of the dress up spots in the museum.

Over the last few months we've worked hard to develop a series of interesting and engaging activities at the museum, many of which are free.

These include monthly art lessons, gallery tours, behind the scene tours, floor talks and more.

Some of the activities we offer are clearly visible such as gallery tours, floor talks, and interactives in gallery or public spaces. But much of our programming happens 'out of sight' with evening art classes, tours off site at the cemetery and at the off-site collection store.

As we develop programmes and activities we ensure we provide things for different ages, groups and interests.

We also aim for programmes that link to exhibitions, collections and the broader subject of general arts and culture. Activities for children include the Drop-In-Zone, activity sheets for use in the galleries and our holiday programmes.

Other offerings are aimed at a more adult audience such as evening art classes and collection storage tours, but many work for a variety of ages – tours, interactives in gallery spaces, films and floor talks. We also have other activities and events that are designed in collaboration with special interest groups such as iwi, Friends of the Museum, archaeologists, and so on.

We've some more exciting hands-on school holiday programmes on offer this month. There'll be folk art rock painting, mosaic making and upcycling plastic, as well as animation and virtual reality experiences. We hope children enjoyed the previous holiday programmes and we welcome feedback and ideas for future programme development.

Much of the programme we've developed will be ongoing such as gallery and off-site tours with changing content depending on exhibitions, community events or milestones and other factors.

Given the popularity of uptake we've had we can see people are enjoying these and undoubtedly wanting more.

Over the next three months we cover a broad range of topics with our programmes including; architecture, sharks, art, digital animation, upcycling, Art Deco and more.

Your museum is a rich source of activity and inspiration so we hope you'll come and enjoy some of the programmes we have on offer as well as our exhibitions. Keep an eye on our website for current and upcoming events.

If you haven't yet taken the opportunity to experience one of our cemetery tours I can highly recommend them. Gail Pope, social history curator, takes people on a two-hour tour through the beautiful setting of the historic cemetery on Napier Hill, sharing a wealth of knowledge about the people who rest there. I've done these tours before and intend to do another one this year – every time I learn something new!

Last chance to view the FAFSWAG: code switch exhibition which closes this Sunday, January 13. Free entry

Public Art Guided Tour with art curator Jess Mio. Thursday, January 17, at 12pm, meet in the MTG front foyer. Free event, all welcome.

PPV Growing Opera Stars. Join Polish soprano Anna Patalong and Pavarotti-trained Kiwi tenor Shaun Dixon for an evening of solos, duets and trios with gifted PPV students, both current and graduates. Century Theatre, Saturday, January 19 at 7.30pm. $44.50 tickets can be purchased from Ticketek or at MTG one hour prior to performance

School Holiday Programme - Folk Art, learn about folk art and rock paintings while producing an artwork to take home (ages 5-12). All materials provided, please wear old clothes. Tuesday, January 22, 10am-12pm. $15 Tickets available through Eventfinda or at MTG

School Holiday Programme – Mosaics with Maxine, produce a simple mosaic tile for your garden or bedroom (ages 7-12). All materials provided. Wednesday, January, 23 10am-12pm. $15 Tickets available through Eventfinda or at MTG

Napier Hill Cemetery Tour with Social History Curator Gail Pope. Sunday, January 27. $15 Tickets available through Eventfinda or at MTG.

* Laura Vodanovich is MTG director