Museum update

The Canterbury Museum’s redevelopment has been given a $10 million funding boost through the Government’s Regional Culture and Heritage Fund.

The museum will use the funding to build the base-isolated basement and storerooms which house the collections of regional, national, and international importance.

The contribution means that the museum has now secured more than $160 million of the $175 million needed for the construction phase of the redevelopment. This means it can finance construction through to 2026, giving space to raise the remaining $15 million to complete the building construction and fit out and a further $28 to $30 million for the new exhibitions and displays.

Further funding for the five-year redevelopment will be sourced through grants, philanthropic giving, and community fundraising.
The museum is being built in several overlapping phases, with a timeline to reopen at Rolleston Avenue towards the end of 2028.

Image: Atrium of the redeveloped Museum with the blue whale skeleton suspended from the ceiling.