Children sink teeth into exhibition
Extended run for much-loved museum display will finish at the weekend
Apopular exhibition of animals at Whanganui Regional Museum will close at the end of this month. Teeth, Talons and Taxidermy is an exhibition of selected items from the thousands of zoological objects that are held in the museum collection, including historically and scientifically significant specimens across a range of mammals, birds, and reptiles.
Designed especially with children in mind, the exhibition opened in July 2020 and was scheduled to be open for a year. However, unprecedented demand has had the show remaining open for a further eighteen months beyond that first year.
Senior curator Libby Sharpe said the exhibition featured animals from all around the world, including rare creatures such as the extinct
Tasmanian tiger, a snow leopard from Asia, and penguins from Antarctica.
“I’ve always thought that in this day and age, our natural history collections are under-utilised,” she said. “We had all these animals in storage, and I thought about displaying them within a framework of information and indications of conservation but making them newly accessible. The last time they would have been on display would have been back in the 1950s and 1960s.
“The exhibition has been a wonderful platform to open up discussion about biodiversity, extinction, and the impact of humans on animals
around the world.” Museum educator Margie Beautrais said children of all ages have enjoyed the exhibition through preschool and school visits, and holiday programmes.
“It has been great. Every school group that comes into the museum, no matter what topic they’ve come in for, the kids always want to go into that exhibition.
“It has been lovely having it here. There are two things that are the highlight of children’s museum visits; one is going into the Māori court, and the other is Teeth, Talons and Taxidermy. Those are the two big things that they enjoy the most.”
The animal exhibition will be dismantled to make way for a touring exhibition of artworks from the Kiingi Tuheitia Portraiture Award, a competition that encourages emerging Māori artists to create portraits of their tūpuna (ancestors) in any medium. It is hosted, toured and administered by the New Zealand Portrait Gallery Te Pūkenga Whakaata.
Teeth, Talons, and Taxidermy has been a huge success and Whanganui Regional Museum acknowledges the support from Arthur Wheeler Leedstown Trust, and PAUA Print, Whanganui. The final day for viewing is Sunday.