Toka Tū Ake EQC Renews Quake City Sponsorship, Supports Free Entry Weekend

Toka Tū Ake EQC has renewed its sponsorship support for Quake City – Canterbury Museum’s special exhibition telling stories from the Canterbury earthquakes – for a further 3 years.

Toka Tū Ake EQC support means that the Museum can bring back the popular annual free entry weekend at the attraction this year (12 & 13 August) and expand its education programmes.

The agreement, through the Toka Tū Ake EQC public education programme of work, comes as the organisation marks a decade of support for Quake City, since the attraction first opened in February 2013. The exhibition was developed by the Museum in response to interest from tourism and community groups in retaining knowledge about the Canterbury earthquakes.

Museum Director Anthony Wright says that the last few years have been really challenging for museums and galleries across the motu and around the world.

“Sponsorship from Toka Tū Ake EQC played a vital role in keeping Quake City open through the significant challenges of Covid-19 lockdowns and restrictions on international travel. We’re now seeing strong signs of recovery in tourism and are confident that Quake City will continue to be popular with locals and out-of-town visitors.

“Before Covid-19 our free entry weekends were very popular with Cantabrians and it’s great we can restart this initiative, thanks to Toka Tū Aka EQC.

“We’re thrilled that our strong partnership with Toka Tū Ake EQC is continuing and that it’s supporting the work of our Museum educators. With our Rolleston Avenue buildings closed for redevelopment for the next 5 years, the team are now on the road delivering education programmes to schools across Waitaha Canterbury.”

The Quake City education programme looks at the impacts and incredible human response to the Canterbury earthquakes in a guided tour of the special exhibition. A second programme introduced this term, which Museum educators deliver in schools, explores the causes and impacts of earthquakes and other natural disasters like the recent Cyclone Gabrielle.

Connecting as many people as possible with the story of the Canterbury earthquakes is an important goal for Toka Tū Ake EQC, says Public Education Manager Hamish Armstrong.

“We’re really pleased that Quake City will be able to expand the exhibition’s audience as a result of our sponsorship,” says Armstrong. “With it now approaching 13 years since the first of the Canterbury earthquakes, there’s a generation of school children who were not born at the time of the events. It is so important that we continue to share the science behind the quakes as well as the stories and lessons that came from them.”

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