Touch the pictures and get an earful you'll enjoy

HANDS ON: Campbell Burns (left) recorded evocative sounds that were matched with Richard Brimer's photographs to give museum-goers a different experience.

Opinion

Precious objects make up the vast majority of museum collections, and much of the art and items we borrow to display too.

Which is why there's something quite refreshing about artworks that aren't precious, fragile or financially valuable - that can be touched without fear of compromising them.

Public art is like that, as are many wharenui to those who call them home.

Interactive artworks can be everything that a traditional painting or sculpture can be: meaningful, emotive, funny, alluring, shocking, beautiful - any adjective in the dictionary, really - and varying from viewer to viewer.

But beyond that, they can be more personable and inclusive in ways that precious objects often aren't.

Such is the nature of our latest installation at the museum, called Play Hawke's Bay: sounds of our place.

Visitors are invited to touch, tap, strike or slap four stunning large-scale photographs by Richard Brimer, in order to trigger evocative sounds recorded by Campbell Burns.

Campbell made the recordings at each place captured in Richard's photos, so you'll hear the waves rolling in to the beach at Māhia, the gannets squawking in their colony at Te Kauwae-a-Māui (previously Cape Kidnappers), birdsong and falling water at Maraetōtara, and the bustle of people and trains in Waipukurau.

Adding touch and sound to the regular visual aspect of the artworks gives a deeper sense of the locations, while the spread of these across Hawke's Bay gives an insight into the great range of places to explore in our region.

This installation enlivens the Century Theatre foyer space and I'm sure it'll be enjoyed by a wide range of our visitors.

Artworks in the Century Theatre foyer also help our visitors to transition through the building.

While the building is a single straight line, it is still confusing to navigate, with the Century Theatre foyer, in particular, causing confusion for visitors as they can think they have reached the end of the exhibitions.

Hopefully these works in the foyer will help pull people through to enjoy the rest of the galleries in the museum.

Campbell recently worked with the museum team on the jazz band of touch-activated instruments in He Manu Tīoriori, which has been a hit with our visitors - especially groups, many of whom have fun playing them together and dancing in the gallery.

Adding to the variety of experiences and things to do in the museum is another new interactive feature.

A magnetic wall with large colourful geometric shapes for people to make their own cubist arrangements is now in the upstairs gallery area.

Inspired by the exhibition currently on display from Auckland Art Gallery, Freedom and Structure: Cubism and New Zealand Art 1930-1960, this interactive allows visitors to explore their creative side.

As always, we'd love to hear your suggestions on the type of displays and activities you'd like to experience at MTG Hawke's Bay.

* Bach-A-Thon, Twenty five pianists play five-minute performance pieces of Bach throughout the day surrounded by the cubist paintings in the gallery, Sunday, July 30, 10:05am - 5pm. Free with museum entry

* Pecha Kucha, Century Theatre, Tuesday 8 August, 6pm. $7 (cash only) door sales

* Kids' Drop-in-zone, open every Saturday and Sunday

* Jessica Mio is art curator of the Museum Theatre Gallery (MTG) Hawke's Bay.