Titanic: The Artefact Exhibition

Journey back to 1912 and experience the Titanic’s maiden voyage. Explore detailed reconstructions of the ship’s interior including the Grand Staircase and first and third class cabins. Discover how the ‘unsinkable’ ship met its fate and connect with the personal stories of people on board as you view artefacts recovered from the ocean floor. See treasures never before presented in Australia in this Melbourne-only showing.

Date: Until 17 October 2010 (open until 9pm Thursdays)

Cost: Adult $24, Concession $18, Child $16, Family $66 (includes entry into Melbourne Museum)

Titanic: The Artefact Exhibition is presented by Melbourne Museum and Frontier Events in association with RMS Titanic, Inc.

National Science Week 2010

Get involved in Museum Victoria’s science-sational National Science Week program at Melbourne Museum and Scienceworks. Come along and see the weird and wonderful specimens from our natural history collections as we put our Sciences on show at Melbourne Museum, or find out how to best care for your bug from our Live Exhibits staff at Discovery Centre. Try your hand at sketching a specimen or discuss the latest and greatest with a museum expert in the Science & Life and Mind & Body Galleries. For those in regional Victoria, engage with Australia’s biodiversity through art, science and performance as Museum Victoria Discovery Program tours our local regions through the eyes of “William Blandowski” – Museum Victoria’s first director.

For more information visit museumvictoria.com.au/scienceweek

Date: 14–22 August 2010

600 Million Years: Victoria evolves

Melbourne Museum’s newest exhibition in the Science and Life Gallery showcases remarkable fossils, models, rocks and minerals, stunning animatronics and living displays, taking visitors on an extraordinary journey through 600 million years of Victoria’s life and landscapes. 600 Million Years: Victoria evolves tells the story of Victoria’s evolution – of land, geology and species – beginning hundreds of millions of years ago when Australia was part of a super-continent. Through a series of displays featuring prehistoric landscapes and life forms, 600 million years shows how evolution shaped Victoria as we know it today.

Date: New permanent exhibition

Glenn Murcutt: Architecture for Place

Glenn Murcutt is one of Australia’s most internationally recognised architects. Murcutt’s works are at the forefront of contemporary architecture, focusing on the sustainability of the natural environment. Glenn Murcutt: Architecture for Place explores a selection of his buildings through his drawings and working methods. Photographs by Anthony Browell capture the harmony between building and nature that resonates through Murcutt’s designs. The exhibition offers visitor a chance to discover many of Murcutt’s houses, private residences that are not open to visitors.

Date: Until 3 October 2010

Presented by Architecture Foundation Australia with the support of Visions of Australia

Zmood: designing Holdens

The Zmood display celebrates the career and legacy of one of Australia’s most successful designers, Phillip Zmood GM Holden’s first Head of Design. Zmood commenced his career with Holden in 1965 working as staff designer on the HR, HK, HT and HQ range of vehicles. He is credited with creating the major design elements of some of Holden’s most iconic muscle cars. The collection features original sketches of the GTRX and the Torana as well as Zmood’s childhood sketches, studio photographs and product brochures.

Date: Until 8 August 2010

Message Sticks Indigenous Film Festival

Celebrating 11 years, the Message Sticks Indigenous Film Festival returns to Bunjilaka Aboriginal Cultural Centre at Melbourne Museum with a unique selection of exciting and new Indigenous films. Powerful documentaries, including the moving Lani’s Story, about an Aboriginal woman’s journey from victim to victor, and Reel Injun, exploring how Native American Indians are portrayed in Hollywood, will show alongside a series of shorts. Curated by award winning filmmakers Rachel Perkins and Darren Dale from Blackfella Films, Message Sticks Indigenous Film Festival is the only festival in the country that is solely committed to presenting films made by and about Indigenous people and all screenings are free.

Date: 4 – 7 September 2010

The Engine Room

Explore all things Titanic in the Engine Room activity space at Melbourne Museum these school holidays. Create your own toy Titanic model to take home, complete with all four funnels. Use folding and construction skills to make your ship take shape. Travel back to 1912 with characters from the grandest ship in the world.  Let our storytellers take you on a journey of adventure and survival with their true tales of the Titanic. Play a game of “Icebergs” or study the science behind a North Atlantic iceberg and observe the full life cycle of these amazing natural wonders.

Date: 18 September to 3 October

From Little Things Big Things Grow: Fighting for Indigenous Rights 1920-1970

This exhibition tells the story of a group of Australians, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, who worked together to fight for justice for Aboriginal people. It celebrates the people who took part in the struggle and examines some key moments of Aboriginal activism, such as the 1938 Day of Mourning and Protest, the 1965 Freedom Ride, the Gurindji ‘walk-off’, and the 1967 Referendum.

A National Museum of Australia travelling exhibition

Date: Until 7 November 2010

20 Years: Bold. Black. Brilliant – Ilbijerri Theatre Company: A Retrospective.

20 Years: Bold. Black. Brilliant. celebrates the 20th anniversary of the longest running Indigenous theatre company in Australia.“It all started with a group of Indigenous actors sitting around in a backyard saying ‘we need our own theatre company to tell our stories our way’,” says Rachael Maza Long, Ilbijerri’s Artistic Director. From this passion, a professional theatre company was born, whose plays explore a range of complex and controversial issues from a uniquely Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspective. This belief in “the power of black voices telling black stories” still drives the company. The exhibition will feature elements of sets, props and photography from previous productions as well as a behind the scenes look at life in Ilbijerri.
Part of the Bunjilaka Community Exhibitions Program.
Date: Until 7 November 2010

Melbourne Museum, Nicholson Street, Carlton. Open daily 10.00am – 5.00pm. Admission: Adult $8, children and concession FREE. For further details phone 13 11 02 or visit museumvictoria.com.au/melbournemuseum