The hypothesis that the Ming Dynasty defines our popular image of Chinese civilisation.
A dynasty with a period of remarkable creativity - Ming Porcelain & links to the Hall of Oriental arts at the Christchurch Museum
The framework for the lecture is the rise and collapse of the Ming dynasty which has a disturbing familiarity to the world we live in today. Organiser: Alan Blackburn

The Christchurch Foundation is an organisation that is set up to ensure that philanthropy in Canterbury could operate in a coercive and effective way that has impact. One of its many projects is the "Tui Corridor". This is a project to plant a corridor of correct food for nectar feeding birds to encourage them into the city and suburbs. Amy will talk about the research and efforts that have gone into this project. Organiser: Peter Moody

I will give a brief introduction to the history and facilities at the UC Mt John Observatory near Lake Tekapo. The Observatory lies at the heart of the Aoraki Mackenzie International Dark Sky reserve, so I will show some time lapse movies from this dark sky site. I will present some of the recent research projects that I (and my students) have been involved in using Mt John, including working out the orbits of a quadruple star system, measuring explosions from the surface of a white dwarf star and observing evaporating comets in a nearby star system. Organiser: Barrie Greenwood

Sarah will give an illustrated talk about the Museum’s major redevelopment of its Rolleston Avenue site. She will discuss the evolution of the Museum’s building complex over the last 150 plus years, the numerous reasons behind the need for the redevelopment, and the massive project to move the collection and staff to offsite storage and offices in the space of just 8 months. The talk will conclude with some sneak peeks at what the new Museum will look like when it reopens in 2028. Organiser: Hilary Talbot