Interior foyer of Melbourne Museum.
Image: Museum Victoria
Source: Museum Victoria.
It is now eight years since Melbourne Museum first opened its doors – on 21 October 2000.
In that time, the museum has welcomed more than 5, 550, 000 visitors. An additional 3, 800, 000 people saw sessions at the adjoining IMAX cinema.
The museum has housed popular touring exhibitions such as Mummies: Ancient Egypt and the Afterlife, The Italians: Three Centuries of Italian Art and Chinese Dinosaurs. It has also taken its own exhibitions overseas.
In 2004, Museum Victoria celebrated 150 years by collating and showcasing eighty significant and cherished objects – or “treasures” as they were dubbed.
In the life-span of the museum, many exhibition spaces have been refurbished or renewed. Long-term exhibitions currently on show include the latest arrival, The Melbourne Story, which opened in March of this year.
Now, a major redevelopment of the museum’s Science and Life exhibition is planned. The first stage of this project, the Dinosaur Walk, will open to the public in April 2009. The museum’s first Melbourne Winter Masterpieces exhibition, A Day in Pompeii will be launched in June next year.