'Pop-Up' Museum

Connecting with communities throughout Western Sydney
The Chau Chak Wing Museum is bringing current research and real objects from its collections into the heart of diverse communities across Western Sydney.

The CCWM ‘Pop-Up’ Museum is where curators and researchers bring real museum objects, craft replicas, activities and giveaways into the heart of communities who might not otherwise have the opportunity to visit the Museum, or access our current research.

We are rolling out twice-monthly ‘Pop-Ups’ in surprising venues across Western Sydney, including shopping centres, hardware stores, public thoroughfares, clubs and a hospital.

Through this project, we aim to connect with communities where our collections originate and share in a two-way knowledge exchange.
 

Venues

A visitor at the Pop-Up Museum

Westfield Parramatta
Thursday 5 December
11am-3:30pm

2025 dates coming soon.

Children's activities at the Pop-Up MuseumWestmead Children's Hospital
Tuesday 29 October

Westfield Parramatta
Thursday 24 October

Westfield Parramatta
Wednesday 16 October

PHIVE
Wednesday 9 October

Wentworth Point Community Centre and Library
Thursday 3 October

Lidcombe Shopping Centre
Thursday 10 October

Club Parramatta
Friday 20 September

Bunnings Northmead
Saturday 14 September

Westfield Parramatta
Wednesday 11 September

Westfield Parramatta
Saturday 10 August 2024

Bunnings Northmead
20 July 2024

Westfield Parramatta
18 July 2024

Auburn Community Centre
18 October 2023

Auburn Library
11 October 2023

Bankstown Central Shopping Centre
18 November 2022


Museum research and 'Pop-Up' themes

Egyptian stela

This ‘Pop-Up’ focuses on the way in which ancient Egyptian stelae were made and decorated from the way in which they were quarried and carved to the different types of pigments and paintbrushes used in their decoration.

For this ‘Pop-Up’ we will be bringing the c. 2000-year-old stela of Wasnefer called Paes-shy from the Ptolemaic Period (NM95.12), and craft replica tools including tin bronze chisels, a mallet, bow drill, try square, and saw modelled from original surviving examples.

We will also offer an activity where you can paint like an ancient Egyptian by making your own paintbrush from plant fibres and paint using original pigments.

Bronze thumb

To understand the history of reuse and recycling practices we are re-investigating the Museum collections for patterns of multiple use wear and examining how objects are modified to accommodate secondary (and more) uses.

This 'Pop-Up' illustrates the way in which the practice of repairing, recycling, and reusing materials and objects has its roots in antiquity, and is a phenomenon known throughout human history and across cultures. Among the objects travelling in this 'Pop-Up' are a life-sized Bronze thumb from ancient Greece left over from metal recycling, a green glass hunting implement made from a reused bottle fragment (from the Kimberley region, Western Australia, during the late 19th-early 20th century), and an ornate silver box, made with reused porcelain pottery fragments in 19th century China.

In this ‘Pop-Up’ Museum we have partnered with Anney Bounpraseuth for an enriching making activity to up-cycle textile waste into new toys or personalised soft sculptures. Anney Bounpraseuth is a multidisciplinary artist working mainly in drawing, painting, and textiles and has been a dedicated recreational community art educator across Sydney for 20 years, with 10 years of experience in art event and education programming. Learn more about Anney's art practices.


Contact

To find out more about the ‘Pop-Up’ Museum, or enquire about having us visit you, please contact Melanie Pitkin, Project Coordinator: melanie.pitkin@sydney.edu.au or Ali Ibrahim, Museum Conservator, Western Sydney: ali.ibrahim@sydney.edu.au