MUSEUM TO OPEN IN MAY

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27920, 17 March 1956, Page 5

MUSEUM TO OPEN IN MAY

SCHOOL SERVICE TO RESUME BY WINTER

“I think we might risk announcing that the museum will be re-opened by the May school holidays,” said the director (Dr. Roger Duff) at a meeting of the Canterbury Museum Trust Board on Thursday. School classes, which formed such an important part of the museum’s work, would begin again in the winter term, whether or not the museum had been re-opened to the public, he said. Although the programme of renovations to the present building was well on towards completion, the staff would need about a month to prepare galleries for public admission, after the contractors hSd finished. The central area of the mammal room had been cleared, and would be handed over to the school service officers for their exclusive use as headquarters for school lessons until permanent quarters were completed in the centennial wing, he said. In this room there was enough space to provide an alcove for formal lectures, slide and film projection and accommodation for student teachers. Classes would be marshalled in this room for the introductory lecture to visits to the public galleries. A variety of show cases and material laid out on tables could be used to supplement the introduction in a more effective way than in the past. “The date on which school classes can be admitted depends on the completion of the public lavatories, work on which has been commenced, but Mr Beaumont and Mr Griffiths, the school service officers, should be recalled to their posts at the museum as soon as possible to prepare the room for the full-scale resumption of their work in the winter term,” Dr. Duff said.

The Fine Arts Hall had been repainted by the museum staff and the task of clearing show cases had been carried out. Certain old cases had been demolished and would be replaced by more modern ones. Dr. Duff also reported to the board progress of work being done in the foyer and on the stairway, the Edgar Stead Hall of New Zealand Birds. Hall of Folk Culture and the corridor.