The Whanganui Regional Museum has been in its temporary home at 62 Ridgway Street since September 26.
The Museum on Ridgway has been set up to enable the Regional Museum to stay connected with the community during the closure of its Queens Park buildings for earthquake strengthening and refurbishment. It houses the Museum Shop and Gallery, as well as an exhibition celebrating the 125 year history of the Museum.
The exhibition, called Te Matapihi: Looking into the Museum features many of the Museum's best-known objects, including a river waka, a moa skeleton, stuffed birds, fossils and shells, insect collections, photographs from the Partington Collection and paintings by Gottfried Lindauer. Together they tell the story of the museum's growth from Samuel Drew's parlour to the current institution with a collection of more than 350,000 items.
Opening hours at the Museum on Ridgway are from Monday to Saturday, 10am to 4.30pm. This location will also host a variety of activities, including the museum's education and school holiday programmes. A bumper line-up of 20 different animal-themed activities is planned for the spring school holidays. For more information on what programmes are available visit wrm.org.nz/calendar or phone 06 349 1110.
The Museum Archives also will remain open at Queens Park while staff work on the refurbishment of storage and display areas in conjunction with the Council's seismic strengthening project. The museum is scheduled to reopen with restored and improved displays in early 2018.
