Gallery works at TMAG

Thylacine and This Too Shall Pass galleries

Over the coming weeks, works to improve conditions for collection items and visitors will be taking place in the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery’s (TMAG) gallery spaces.

From Tuesday 9 November 2021, the Thylacine Gallery will be closed periodically while the museum improves the way it cares for its precious and fragile thylacine specimens.

TMAG staff will be moving the thylacines into anoxic display cases, which protect the objects inside by providing a sealed, oxygen-free environment.

Oxygen promotes the deterioration of organic materials such as animal skin, and this deterioration can often be visible as yellowing, embrittlement and colour fading.

If the gallery doors are shut, staff will be inside doing particularly delicate work and will reopen the area once they are done. The works are due to be completed by Christmas 2021.

Also over the coming weeks, TMAG will be installing a new heating and ventilation system throughout the Henry Hunter galleries.

These works will not only make each space more comfortable for visitors and staff but also provide TMAG with a more equal climate condition for the museum’s collection and visiting exhibitions.

This will mean that some galleries will be closed for short periods while the works are completed, in order to ensure the safety of both visitors and collection items.

Works will begin upstairs in the Henry Hunter galleries, with the This Too Shall Pass exhibition closed from Tuesday 9 November, reopening on Tuesday 22 November.

The Not So Easy: Australian Design and Identity Since Federation exhibition will be closed from Thursday 18 November, reopening Tuesday 30 November.

On the ground floor, the Tasmania: Earth and Life gallery will be closed from Friday 26 November, reopening Tuesday 7 December, and the ningina tunapri gallery will be closed from Tuesday 7 December, reopening Saturday 11 December.

Works will take place in the Dispossessions and Possessions art gallery, upstairs in the Henry Hunter building, early in 2022. The gallery will be closed for six weeks from Monday 24 January, reopening on Monday 7 March.

TMAG apologises to all visitors for any inconvenience, and encourages them to still come and make a visit to the museum with popular galleries including mapiya lumi | around here, Islands to Ice and the Bond Store exhibitions remaining open throughout this period.

Visitors can also enjoy TMAG’s major summer exhibition, the National Gallery of Australia touring exhibition Sidney Nolan’s Ned Kelly series, in the Argyle Galleries.

Image details: The Thylacine Gallery (left) and the This Too Shall Pass exhibition (right)