Exhibition Development
The Museum team is working with exhibition development company Workshop e to create the new long-term exhibitions throughout the building.
This work is drawing on the thousands of pieces of feedback, provided by our local community, iwi and visitors, on what they would like to see and experience when the Museum reopens.
Rotorua Museum Te Whare Taonga o Te Arawa will connect with and honour Te Arawa whakapapa and taonga. The exhibitions will share stories of the unique history, people and environment of Rotorua, underpinned by the dimensions of hauora (well-being), providing visitors a foundation from which to discover, understand and engage with our place and who we are.
Learn more about this engagement process here
Developing exhibitions to Museum standard is complex and time consuming. It requires detailed research for all the hundreds of objects, artworks, taonga and photographs selected to go on display. Conservation work needs to be undertaken, permissions sought, object mounts made, stories and labels written, lighting designed, audiovisuals and interactives developed, cases constructed, and much more.
This exhibition work is all happening in parallel to the strengthening and redevelopment of the building itself.
Exhibition timeline and status:
Masterplanning (Jan – Jun 2023) – Complete
Concept design (Jul 23 – Jul 24) – In progress
Developed design (Aug 24 – Jun 25) – Not started
Detailed design (Jul 25 – Nov 25) – Not started
Production (Dec 26 – Nov 26) – Not started
Installation and commissioning (Oct 26 – Apr 27) – Not started
This timeline assumes no delays between phases, however the team still needs to raise almost $9m in funding to deliver the exhibition project. New stages will not commence until funding for that phase has been sourced.
A major fundraising drive is currently underway.
