On 11 April we closed the doors of our Rolleston Avenue building to the public.
The relocation of the collection and staff to offsite storage and offices has impacted many of the services that we usually offer. When we started to decant the collection in September 2022 we had expected that we’d be able to resume most of our services, with some limitations, by May this year.
In hindsight this was a little optimistic. We still have a bit of work to do rehousing the collection in its new home. This means it will be the end of August before we can start to resume most of our services. We’re sorry if this causes you any inconvenience
ENQUIRIES: We will respond to public enquiries that we receive through info@canterburymuseum.com or our Contact Us page as soon as possible. However if we need to physically access the collection to answer your enquiry, we will not be able to do this until the end of August 2023.
IMAGE SERVICE: This service will be generally unavailable until the end of August 2023 while we complete the move out of the Museum into temporary storage and offices. However we may be able to offer a limited service for images that have already been digitised. Email us at images@canterburymuseum.com
LOAN REQUESTS: We are not able to meet loan requests until the end of August 2023. After this, there may still be limitations on what we are able to loan out as the collection may not be as immediately accessible.
TAONGA MĀORI ACCESS: We will not be able to provide access to taonga or loans until the end of August 2023. After this there may still be limitations as some of the collection may not be immediately accessible. The Museum will continue to assess found taonga Māori (taonga tūturu). See here for more details of what to do if you find taonga tūturu.
OBJECT DONATIONS: We can't currently accept in-person donations. Instead, please email our curators on info@canterburymuseum.com with a picture of the item/s and any related information.
RESEARCH ACCESS: In-person research access to the collection will be unavailable until we complete the move out into temporary storage and offices. We hope to resume some research access from the end of August 2023 via monthly, bookable research sessions. We will update this on the website in early 2023.
LOANED ITEMS: Access to items that have been loaned to the Museum is not available until the end of August 2023. We continue to take very good care of these taonga.