By Mikayla van Loon
During those colder autumn days taking respite in the Yarra Ranges Regional Museum is a perfect way to learn about the region and experience something new.
For the female gamer, the ACMI touring exhibition Code Breakers: Women in Games may take your fancy as an exhibition trying to break down barriers and shatter stereotypes in the gaming industry.
Visitors can play an array of video games made by women directors, programmers, developers, digital artists, writers, producers and designers within the interactive and immersive displays highlighting the gaming world.
It’s hoped visitors to the Yarra Ranges exhibit will be inspired to see where their passions and career can lead them. The exhibition closes Sunday 15 May.
Bringing together the history of the Yarra Ranges through the lens of the Power and the People, explore the stories of how important pillars in the shire came to be.
Celebrating the 150th anniversary of local government in Lilydale and the rest of the shire, 18 history groups tell the stories of how the community and the local power worked collaboratively to achieve a wonderful outcome for their town.
Museum program director Megan Sheehy said stories from the Save the Dandenongs League tell of the environment protection efforts, while another story focuses on the Oonah Belonging Place in Healesville.
“The interesting part of it is that there’s all these amazing community facilities and different stories from history that are from all across the region,” she said.
“There are 55 townships across the region and there’s only 18 stories, so it doesn’t cover every specific township but it does give you a really good feel for that breadth of the identity of different parts of the region.”
Power and the People can be found in the Chambers Gallery, as a nod to the first council chambers in the Shire of Lilydale, from Saturday 21 May to Sunday 31 July.
In the Box Gallery, witness the Newcastle Museum touring exhibition 1X4, a display of objects that invites viewers to project their own interpretation onto the item, whether social, economic or cultural.
“So each object in the exhibition tells four distinct stories and you can listen to or read each of the stories or just look at the objects,” Ms Sheehy said.
“But the point of it is that it’s really giving people an insight into how important historical collections are, but also how important they can be in telling very, very different stories.”
1X4 asks the audience to step into the role of the curator and question their own objectivity.
Yarra Ranges Regional Museum will provide opportunities to discuss these interpretations in floor talks and fascinating conversations throughout the exhibition running Thursday 26 May to Sunday 11 September.
To contact the Museum call 03 9294 6511 or email boxoffice@yarraranges.vic.gov.au. Entry is free.
