The Otago Museum's success in winning three national museum awards is also boosting awareness of Dunedin's overall achievements as a city of culture and science, museum director Dr Ian Griffin says.
The museum's success was acknowledged at the New Zealand Museum Awards in Auckland on Wednesday night.
The museum's new Beautiful Science Gallery, which allows visitors to explore the seasons, landscapes and skies of Otago using world-leading digital technology, was awarded the Metropolitan Science and Technology Award.
This gallery also makes extensive use of Otago Daily Times photographs.
The recently closed Hakui: Women of Kai Tahu exhibition won the Metropolitan Taonga Maori Award.
The planetarium won the Philips Selecon special award.
Dr Griffin was ‘‘delighted'' the museum had ‘‘come away with some of the top awards''.
This was not just a success for the Otago Museum but also highlighted to a national audience the strength of Dunedin's cultural activities and science, he said.
‘‘Hopefully, it [the museum awards] will draw attention to some of the innovative things that are going on in Dunedin.
‘‘Dunedin is doing some really exciting things, and people are excited about what they see.''
It was ‘‘humbling'' for the Otago Museum to be recognised by its peers, and the awards reflected the ‘‘hard work and dedication'' put in by the museum team in delivering these projects, Dr Griffin said.
