Avirtual fight at the museum
Museums love rare art artefacts.
But in Nelson, staff at the provincial museum are going a virtual step further by trying to lure some rare augmented reality creatures, and their youthful hunters through its doors.
Capitalising on the popularity of Poke´mon Go, museum staff will drop lures every half hour from today to Sunday in a bid to attract rare poke´mon and a growing community of poke´mon trainers to its historic galleries.
Charging stations will be provided for those who use up their phone batteries and a photo competition will award a $100 Prezzy card to whoever snaps the best pic- ture of a poke´mon inside the museum.
Museum chief executive Lucinda Blackley-Jimson said the competition was part of a strategy to better engage youth.
‘‘Museums have a tendency to lose teenagers after high school but we have some fantastic content that we would love for people to have to opportunity to see.
‘‘[Poke´mon Go] is really good for families, and for people with special needs and autism it’s really fantastic in terms of interacting with the community.’’
She estimated Nelson had a Poke´mon Go community of around 1000 people who could be interested in the event.
‘‘Groups are interested in engaging like this and it’s good for us as part of the community to break down barriers,’’ she said.
Snap-happy trainers can upload their screengrabs to the museum’s Facebook, Instagram or Twitter with the hashtag #NelsonPokemonMuseum.
Blackley-Jimson said a good photo entry would strike the right balance between an interesting background and actually catching the elusive poke´mon in question.
Part of the museum’s regional gallery will be a poke´mon no-go area due to photography restrictions but visitors can still enjoy the game within the Matariki, Murders at Maungatapu and Vital Statistics exhibitions.
Pokemon Go was launched in July and had a huge worldwide uptake.