Current exhibitions at the Nicholson Museum

Classical Fantasies:The Art of South Italy

The re-discovery of Pompeii in 1748 and the publication of Johann Winckelmann’s The History of Ancient Art in 1764 defined art history and archaeology as we know them today. This reawakening of the
Classical Ideal (or Neo-Classicism) was to influence art, literature, architecture, furniture and fashion design as well as people such as Josiah Wedgwood and Goethe.

Classical Fantasies will use the Nicholson Museum’s complete collection of over 200 South Italian figured pots from the 5th–3rd centuries BC as a backdrop to explore this extraordinary period in the development of modern culture.

Nicholson Museum
13 April – December 2008

Shattered Glass: Illuminating the Past
23 June – December 2008

From the Bronze Age furnaces of Mesopotamia to the tables of the Roman Emperor Nero, glass was a prized and magical material. Despite its fragility, many beautiful pieces of glass have survived through the ages, some in tombs, some underwater in
shipwrecked cargoes.

This exhibition features 40 glass objects from the Nicholson collection.

It explores the discovery, working methods and use of glass through the ages – uncovering legends and highlighting archaeological discoveries.

Unearthed Tales #2: A Fascination with Death

The bodies of mummies, the bones of saints, and the statues of gods jostle for attention with Hercules, Agatha Christie, and Oliver Cromwell.

Unearthed tales #2 continues the Nicholson Museum's fascination with the curious and the bizarre. Forty-six objects from fifteen countries covering 7000 years of history are displayed - each with their own unearthed tale tell.

Unearth these stories and others at the Nicholson Museum.

Throughout 2008

Egypt: Life and Death in the Black Land

From the cradle to the grave – and beyond. Statues of pharaohs, painted mummy coffins; amulets and scarabs; artefacts from daily life to the residue of death; the Book of the Dead; the myths, the legends, the gods.




The Nicholson Museum holds the largest collection of Egyptian antiquities in Australia.

Throughout 2008