Auckland Museum lends support to national exhibition

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Thursday 21 August, 2014

Auckland Museum lends support to national commemorative exhibition

Auckland War Memorial Museum is pleased to be able to make an important contribution to the new national WWI exhibition, led by Sir Peter Jackson, in the form of its own First World War Centenary projects: Cenotaph Online and Cenotaph Community.

“We welcome the idea of a WWI exhibition in the capital, using the fine old Dominion Museum buildings adjacent to the War Memorial. We have pledged to partner in this fitting commemoration and are thrilled Sir Peter Jackson has committed his passion and expertise to bring this to life”, says Auckland War Memorial Museum Director Roy Clare.

Auckland Museum has been successful in attracting a very generous grant from the NZ Lottery Grants Board, a $3.8million investment that will enhance the way in which the public can access and contribute to knowledge about its War Memorial collections digitally and onsite.

Cenotaph Community, an outreach programme to launch in January 2015, will encourage the community to share letters, diaries and other war memorabilia from their own collections. This project complements Online Cenotaph, an interactive online hub for New Zealand soldiers’ stories, which is currently being upgraded, and will re-launch in November. The Ministry of Culture and Heritage is one of the partners who have generously contributed funding towards this national resource.

Sir Peter Jackson comments “working alongside Auckland Museum to utilise their existing resources in Online Cenotaph and expertise via the Community project, will help us to connect with more New Zealanders, which is what we’re aiming to achieve in Wellington. It’s a natural partnership.”

Former Chief of Defence and Project Lead, Rhys Jones says:” The Wellington exhibition is designed to complement the raft of commemorations taking place around the country, so it’s fitting that Auckland Museum are pledging their support, with their expertise and collection items.”

Together with Auckland Council, Auckland Museum has already embarked on a significant five year programme to commemorate the WWI Centenary both onsite and into the wider community. Under the banner ‘He toa taumata rau: Courage has many resting places’ the programme has begun with the exhibition Entangled Islands: Samoa, New Zealand and the First World War.

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