Tag: museum shops

Museum shops of the Clare Valley

On By Liz BarrIn australia, shops about things

But first, a brief Aussie activist announcement

We are obviously unsurprised yet disappointed and angry that Malcolm Turnbull has refused to denounce the US #MuslimBan, and Scott “remember that time I oversaw the militarisation of Australian Customs and Immigration?” Morrison has claimed credit for inspiring it.

Dismantling Australia’s policies and rhetoric around asylum seekers is a big job with a lot of facets, and it often feels overwhelming — at least to me. But here is something we can do right now:

A thirty-seven year old Kuwaiti woman detained on Nauru is in the final weeks of an incredibly dangerous pregnancy, and doctors are pleading for her to be airlifted to an Australian hospital.

Call Peter Dutton’s electorate office on (07) 3205 9977, or the Ministerial office on (02) 6277 7860, or email him at minister@border.gov.au and peter.dutton.mp@aph.gov.au to ask him to stop faffing around and bring the woman to Australia.

UPDATE 11:54 Tuesday 31 January: Pregnant Nauru asylum seeker in critical condition flown to Australia: Doctor. Hooray!

Back to your regularly scheduled museum adventures…

I visited my father and stepmother in Adelaide the other week, and Dad took me out to visit the Clare Valley wine region. This is quite close to the better-known Barossa, but whereas the Barossa is a land of giant industrial vineyards, the Clare Valley is full of family-owned and boutique wineries.

I visited Martindale Hall, an historic mansion, and Sevenhills Cellars, which isn’t so much a museum with a shop as a shop (well, a cellar door) that happens to have a small museum attached. WORTH IT THOUGH.

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museums of the world: Peranakan Museum

On By StephanieIn shops about things

The Peranakan Museum in Singapore is small but really lovely and interesting. Steph visited at 7:30 on a Friday night (half price Friday nights! That all museums would do such a thing).

Post is mostly about crockery and needlework, but does include some discussions of death (ooh ominous)  and musings on religion.

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museum shops of the world: national maritime museum in gdansk

On By StephanieIn shops about things

IMG_2942I know you’re wondering, will Steph ever finish this endless tour of museums and/or museum shops? No, because she’s moving to Singapore in four weeks where her job is literally ‘do science-based art’, so you’re looking at another few months. Settle in, quokkas.

[Also, Liz still has a couple of Brisvegas museum shops up her sleeve. Somehow we found ourselves with a backlog!]

This week on museum shops of the world: National Maritime Museum in Gdansk, Poland.

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Museum Shops of the World: Museum of Brisbane

On By Liz BarrIn shops about things1 Comment

1Instead of posting last week’s linkspam on Friday, I was in Brisbane, visiting the museum shops of my youth.

Back in the day — which is to say, the early to mid 2000s — the Museum of Brisbane was a funny little museum in a basement below City Hall.

(Steph interjects: a basement in a city that floods is a TERRIBLE place for a museum, Brisbane, wth.)

(Liz adds: City Hall is above the flood zone!)

It contained your standard local history exhibits, covering Indigenous cultures, the convict era and the 1972 floods, but sometimes it also featured totally whackadoo art instalments. My favourite was the film of a guy humping a mud puddle — sans pants — and apologising over and over again to the planet.

My favourite part of the Museum of Brisbane was the shop — in fact, it was the very first museum shop I fell in love with. It carried your usual doodads and whatnots, but it also had local history books that you couldn’t get anywhere else.

I was excited to revisit the museum and its delightful little shop last week.

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Museum shops of the world: the Chinese Museum

On By Liz BarrIn history

The Chinese Museum is one of my favourite places in Melbourne. Located beside Her Majesty’s Theatre, in a building which used to hold overflow from the theatre’s wardrobe, it contains four floors of Chinese-Australian history, from the gold rush to the end of the White Australia Policy.

I visited the Museum itself a few months back, but I didn’t have a chance to look closely at the shop that day.  Finally, I’ve had a chance to rectify that serious omission.

(Steph interjects: WITHOUT ME, I CANNOT BELIEVE IT)

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museum shops of the world: sovereign hill

On By StephanieIn shops about things
J asked
J asked “is this all Henry?” because I accidentally convinced him all the steam engine parts were the inside of Henry from Thomas the Tank Engine. Sodor truly is a dystopia.

Stephanie went on a family excursion with four year old nibling J to Sovereign Hill on Monday. It was hilarious! She took a day off work, caught the V/Line, wandered through a mine, oohed and ahhed over steam engines and made fun of old books. She also has very, very strong feelings about their gift shop.

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