Queensland celebrates International Museum Day

Science enthusiasts helped Queensland smash a new attendance record this year, with figures showing more than 200,000 people attended this year’s World Science Festival Brisbane.

To mark International Museum Day today, Minister for Science and the Arts Leeanne Enoch announced the third year of the festival, held earlier this year, attracted 200,512 people.

“That figure is up from 182,225 in 2017, a jump of 10 per cent,” she said.

“This year’s festival delivered more than 100 events across six locations – Gladstone, Chinchilla, Toowoomba, Ipswich, Brisbane and Townsville – and involved hundreds of festival participants from across the globe.

“Brisbane’s Cultural Precinct attracted an incredible 92,000 visitors across two days of free, interactive, hands-on fun at festival favourite, Street Science, which grew by 53 per cent on the previous year,” Ms Enoch said.

“Regional Queenslanders embraced the festival with 11,155 attendees to the events, which was a 75 per cent increase compared to 2017.”

Ms Enoch said International Museum Day was a great chance for Queenslanders to explore their local institutions, with free entry and activities on offer at all campuses of the Queensland Museum Network, and at the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA).

“There will be free entry to the Perception Deception exhibition at Queensland Museum at South Bank, star gazing at The Workshops Rail Museum, and behind-the-scenes tours and a paleontology talk at the Museum of Tropical Queensland in Townsville,” she said.

“At QAGOMA, Assistant Curator of International Art Abigail Bernal will take visitors on a reflective journey, looking at a single artwork in QAGOMA’s collection, Simryn Gill’s Forking Tongues,” Ms Enoch said.

Minister Enoch said it had been a great year for Queensland arts institutions, with QAGOMA setting a new visitor number record of 2.17 million, exceeding its previous calendar-year record of 1.8 million in 2010.

“The Queensland Museum Network also recently welcomed its two millionth visitor for the financial year, which again shows the impact of the World Science Festival Brisbane.

“It’s incredible to see how Queenslanders have a growing passion for science, and it’s exciting that we have secured the Festival for another three years.”

In Townsville, the Museum of Tropical Queensland hit a record for daily visitation with 1757 people coming along to the community day, while in Chinchilla, almost half the population of the town attended the festivities.

Minister for Tourism Industry Development Kate Jones said this year’s World Science Festival Brisbane had proved to be a huge success, attracting thousands of visitors from all over the globe to discover the wonders of science.

“Hosting the World Science Festival Brisbane is another big win for Queensland, injecting millions of dollars into our economy, and confirms our position as a leading events and tourism destination,” she said.

“This Festival has cemented its place as a major event on the 2018 It’s Live in Queensland events calendar.”

Acting CEO and Director of Queensland Museum, Dr Jim Thompson said the festival was continuing to get bigger, better and brighter. 

“The purpose built Hatchery continues to be one of the most popular festival events, with 7572 people flocking to see loggerhead turtles emerge from their eggs in a display of live science.

“We also delivered our largest regional festival program in 2018 - across the five regions of Gladstone, Chinchilla, Toowoomba, Ipswich and Townsville.”

For more information on Queensland Museum Network activities: www.qm.qld.gov.au

For details on the free QAGOMA talk: www.qagoma.qld.gov.au   

To explore your local museums: www.magsq.com.au

Media contact: 0437 859 987