School holiday programmes on offer at Whanganui Regional Museum

Works from Frances Stachl feature in the exhibition Whanganui Mūmū - Whanganui By Design. Photo / Karen Hughes

The Whanganui Regional Museum is offering a breather for busy caregivers ahead of the Christmas shopping squeeze.

For three days in the week leading up to Christmas, caregivers are invited to drop their charges off to the museum for a two-hour session of supervised Christmas creativity.

The programme offers five different activities for children to choose from, with the same activity options repeated each day.

Education team leader Margie Beautrais said the programme was aimed at children aged 5-10-years-old who are able to be left with staff at the museum.

The museum is bringing back educator Kay Benseman especially to lead the activities.

“This opportunity is ideal for whānau who need a couple of hours of child-free time to get ready for the holidays, and it gives the tamariki something fun to do as well,” Benseman said.

The activities have been arranged to complement the museum’s newly-opened exhibition Whanganui Mūmū - Whanganui By Design, which celebrates design and creativity in the Whanganui region and includes examples of work from local makers, such as hand-made jewellery pieces from Ngaire Swinburne and Frances Stachl.

“As a group we will explore the new exhibition Whanganui Mūmū - Whanganui By Design for inspiration, then we will be making our own creations,” Benseman said.

Examples of some of the items that children will make on the Christmas activity programme. Photo / Kay Benseman

“Each day we will make jewellery, miniatures and trinkets from polymer clay and use glitter foam board to create native flowers of Aotearoa decorations. These will be beautiful for Christmas or Summer Solstice gifts to koha at this time of Hine Raumati.”

Public programmes presenter Lisa Reweti will support the activities with her storytelling.

Each session is two hours long, 10am-12pm with a nominal fee of $20 per child, which includes the craft materials.

Spaces are limited to 15 participants per day and those spots are confirmed by pre-payment a day before attending.

Caregivers can secure a spot via Eftpos in the museum, or details for direct credit payments are on the programme information.

The full schedule of activities and booking information can be found on the museum’s website and Facebook page.