Record-breaking summer at the Museum
More than 100,000 people visited Canterbury Museum and its special exhibition Quake City in January, the highest-ever
visitor numbers recorded in a single month, as tourists and locals return to the central city in ever-increasing
numbers.
The record-breaking month (102,527 visitors) was up almost 5% on the 98,012 visitors welcomed in January 2014 when the
previous record for the month of January was set. The Museum is on course to break its annual record of 666,000 visitors
in the 2014/2015 year.
Museum Director, Anthony Wright, says that the Christmas holiday period has been incredibly busy with throngs of people
in the Museum throughout the day. “Our two temporary exhibitions – Da Vinci Mechanics and Corrugations: the Art of Jeff
Thomsonhave proved very popular with visitors of all ages, along with Museum favourites including Fred & Myrtle’s Paua Shell House, the Christchurch Street and Discovery, our natural history centre for children.
“It’s fantastic to see so many people enjoying the Museum and out on the streets in the Cultural Precinct – visiting the
newly-opened Christchurch Art Gallery, enjoying the Botanic Gardens and seeing the progress in restoring the Arts
Centre,” says Mr Wright.
“Quake City, our special exhibition in RE:Start Mall which tells stories from the Canterbury earthquakes, has been very
busy as well with the increased number of tourists in the city.
“The January figures come on top of great visitor numbers in December, when 72,018 people visited, many enjoying the
magic of Christmas at the Museum with our special event, A Victorian Christmas. This was just short of our previous
December record of 73,210 set in 2013 when the RISE! street art exhibition opened.”
ENDS