03 Magazine: March 01, 2023

24 Magazine | Feature
Our former ‘Asian Arts’, ‘Living Canterbury’,
‘Geology’ and ‘Early European’ galleries are also all
places regular visitors will be familiar with, but they
might struggle to recognise them now! A big part of
Living Canterbury has been given a spooky makeover
by Jacob Yikes, while Asian Arts is home to three huge
murals by Margarita Vovna, Component and Ross Liew.
Geology now resembles a skate park.
“Probably the most exciting are
the former storerooms – because
they housed valuable objects,
we had to be careful with who we let
in. Now that they’re empty, they’re
open for visitors to explore.”
And then there are some spaces the public have
never been in?
Yes, lots! Probably the most exciting are the former
storerooms – because they housed valuable objects,
we had to be careful with who we let in. Now that
they’re empty, they’re open for visitors to explore.
We really wanted SHIFT to give Cantabrians a chance
to farewell the Museum complex in its current iteration,
so it was important to showcase both the familiar
spaces and some they might not have known existed.
I get a real thrill from visiting the basement, where
we previously stored large objects like waka and
furniture – it’s definitely not what you picture when
you imagine a museum storeroom!
How many visitors are you expecting?
RISE, the precursor to SHIFT, attracted 250,000 people
in just over three months. Our goal is to beat that.
You’ve only got until April 11 to help us achieve it!