The Manchester Museum opens its doors again for the first time in nearly two years this weekend, complete with a brand new extension, new permanent galleries, golden mummies and its famous dinosaurs.
The museum, part of Manchester University, closed for the huge £15 million refurbishment - and the pandemic - in the summer of 2021. Since then, it’s been transformed with a huge two storey wing being built to house the brand new South Asia and Chinese Heritage Galleries, which are co-curated by the British Museum.
Of course, the established attractions remain too, including the historic Fossils Gallery, complete with a new exhibit - a 100 million-year-old tenontosauraus, called April, and Stan the tyrannosaurus rex. The vivarium will also be back open too, with its huge array of exotic amphibians and reptiles.
The Golden Mummies of Egypt exhibition will also be returning to the museum after having toured through the US and China over the past two years.
The museum will also have a new entrance facing directly onto Oxford Road, a picnic area, a new gift shop, prayer rooms and a new cafe. The upstairs floors of the new wing, which extends into what was the museum’s courtyard, house both the Lee Kai Hung Chinese Culture Gallery and the South Asia Gallery.
The Chinese Culture gallery draws on both the historical and contemporary links between Manchester and China, as well as objects from the Qing Dynasty and a stunning 20-metre scroll from the 18th century, depicting Emperor Kangxi’s birthday procession through the streets of Beijing.
Next door, the South Asia Gallery is a co-curation project with the British Museum and the South Asian community of Greater Manchester. A consortium of 30 community leaders, artists and educators joined together to tell stories drawing on stories from migration to empire.
Lead curator Nusrat Ahmed said: “As a first-generation British-born South Asian person, it is really exciting to be part of such a groundbreaking project. The co-curated South Asia Gallery envisages a collaborative, iterative space that will generate new perspectives and connections.
“We hope to engage further diaspora communities on its opening and support its continual evolution. This personalised approach humanises the gallery, telling stories about real people and their objects.”
Speaking to the Manchester Evening News, the museum’s director Esme Ward added: “What I hope is that [these galleries] bring people in who love the museum to come and discover more, but I also hope they bring new audiences, that it brings new people to the museum and they feel that this is somewhere they belong. And then they engage with it, and they bring their families.
“Ultimately, museums are extraordinary places of learning. We’re at the heart of the University of Manchester, learning and research is in our DNA. It’s not just somewhere to go and discover new things but maybe encourage you to come in and explore your own history and your own background.
“We want people to come in and love it, and if they don’t, tell us! We want to get more people involved in thinking about what a museum like this needs to be in a city like Manchester.”
The Manchester Museum reopens to the public on February 18.
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