Museums • For Kids
Precious
Ahakoa He Iti, He Pounamu
Although it is small, it is jade (that is, precious)
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. If so, a video must be worth about ten thousand, and an object with a powerful story, maybe a million.
Bring them all together and you’ve got “Precious”, a beautiful little exhibition at the National Library in Wellington, co-created by staff from the library and kids from eight Wellington schools in 2020. The students were asked to choose objects that mean a lot to them, and talk about what it is that makes those things so precious.
Client
Location
Completed
National Library
Wellington, New Zealand
2020
The Result
Story Inc assisted on this exhibition by providing 3D spatial design guidance and consultation services to advise on content creation and presentation.
The first incarnation of the exhibition featured Thorndon School and nearby special needs school Kimi Ora. Their precious things include a Winnie the Poo soft toy, a well-worn guitar, a model car, Russian dolls and a highly scuffed soccer ball.
The library used Curio to link the treasures to short videos of the kids explaining the stories behind them. Curator Tanja Schubert-McArthur got the students to tell the stories in short, semi-scripted sound bits: “You could do this with text but video just enriches the experience. At the opening the students were all hogging the iPads to see themselves. It’s a generational thing too that people access information this way rather than by reading.”
Among Tanja’s favourite stories were the ageing guitar (patched with duct tape on the back), handed down from father to son and then to the family’s youngest brother; a simple T-shirt that connected a boy to his admired older brother who had moved away; and a teddy bear in a wheelchair, the prized possession of a young girl who herself gets around in one.
