Throughout 2018, the History Services Unit of the Library, Museum & Gallery Team’s goal has been to make our local heritage accessible to everyone. Whether it be digitally through this Blog, Facebook and our Museum Newsletter – subscribe here or view back issues through Trove here; or tangibly through our museum.
Coffs Harbour Regional Museum’s varied and interesting exhibitions this year have included:
- Rime of the Ancient Mariner paintings by Geoff Mould and the associated sea themed open mic session on World Poetry Day.
- Created from a Dream: A Gift of Calligraphy, which presented the beautiful handmade book “The North Coast Regional Botanic Garden – Created from a Dream”
- Submerged: Stories of Australia’s Shipwrecks which included a very popular after dark event.
- The Tasma Theatre: Coffs Harbour’s Jewel (currently on display)
- Bananas to Beautizone: Coffs’ Changing Summers (currently on display)
Over the last 12 months there has been exciting and significant grants won by two talented members of our team that will ultimately have a great impact on public access to our local historical information, these were:
- A grant for $510,000 grant to digitise museum, gallery and library local heritage and arts collections won by our digitisation coordinator Debbie Campbell.
- A grant for $5,500 to fund a significance assessment of the museum’s collection won by our curator Jo Besley in addition to an $8,710 grant from Museums & Galleries NSW for the Overwintering Project which will include local artists, schools, NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service and other community groups.
We would like to acknowledge and thank our museum and library volunteers, as well as the community for all of the considerable assistance they have contributed this year and wish everybody a Merry Christmas and a Happy and Healthy 2019.
I wonder whether Rene and Flo McCristal preparing Christmas dinner at the Pier Hotel, Coffs Harbour, 25 December Circa 1910, would have preferred to have put a prawn on the barbie? Picture Coffs Harbour Collection, mus07-1572
