What’s up with Wētā?
All New Zealanders know the wētā, whether from meeting one up close, seeing one on TV, or because our largest exporter of digital effects is named after one. There are a whopping 70 species...
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Roaches rule, OK
Cockroaches don’t have a lot of good press. They’re regarded as dirty and invasive. Even the scientific name for their order, Blattodea, feels like it’s getting grubby footprint
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A very Westie spider
The Avondale spider is our only eight-legged guest in BUGS! Our Backyard Heroes. Wētā are easy to look after because you can just give them some veges – and cockroaches will eat any old...
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Collecting after Covid
Every year Te Manawa adds dozens of items to its collections. Artworks to the art collection; artifacts of our society, past and present, to the heritage collection. Long before anyone...
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From Shed to Santa’s Cave
The smell of friction-scorched wood fills the air inside the Menz Shed on Racecourse Road. Conversation tries to rise above the buzz of power tools. It’s almost exactly like Santa’s...
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Towards past and future
A new exhibition now open at the Te Manawa Art Gallery celebrates the enduring importance of Māori visual arts education in Te Papaioea. “Toioho XXV – Ki Mua, Ki Muri” marks the...
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Warding off the march of time
The digitisation of artworks in the Te Manawa collection has passed another milestone. All the unglazed large works – more than three hundred of them, living on racks in the collection...
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Finding common ground
by Carly Thomas A new exhibition at Te Manawa has stepped away from conventionality and stepped into a collection of Covid-19 bubbles. Common … Pause is a digitally projected...
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Welcome to Tamariki
Visitors to Te Manawa in May and June will be greeted by an unusual sight. The normally bright and open façade of the KidsTM space has been boarded up, and from behind the hoardings comes the...
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Becoming Dementia Friendly
As a museum without boundaries, Te Manawa welcomes everyone in our community. Most of the time a friendly greeting is enough, but some days we need to do a bit more for our visitors. For...
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Remembering Kiwis at war
Before Covid-19 and the lockdown, Te Manawa had a small but important Anzac-related exhibition about to open. Ngā Toa - Many Warriors tells the stories of two local men who served during the...
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Wool-gather with us
Do you feel a warmth towards wool? Are you in touch with textiles? The Fibre Festival at Te Manawa on 8 March will be for you. Combining retail stalls with demonstrations of technique and...
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