![Acting Canberra Museum and Gallery director Anna Wong among items for the new exhibition Canberra: Places and People. Picture by Elesa Kurtz Acting Canberra Museum and Gallery director Anna Wong among items for the new exhibition Canberra: Places and People. Picture by Elesa Kurtz](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/MxhEgQKUJhZgHxwVaKiqcq/ff6238cd-3d64-49f8-8c07-ba3a4953e3cd.jpg/r0_52_3863_2224_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
The arts scene in Canberra has been bouncing back since COVID restrictions eased.
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And Canberra Museum and Gallery is no exception, with a new interactive gallery, new exhibitions and the expansion of its operation to seven days a week in 2023.
Acting director Anna Wong said the ACT government had funded the Cultural Facilities Corporation with about $250,000 to expand CMAG's presence and offerings.
"There will be a new Canberra: Places and People permanent exhibition opening in February," Wong said.
"It's the first permanent exhibition CMAG will have totally dedicated to Canberra's history, people, country and stories."
The exhibition will highlight Indigenous stories and heritage and move chronologically, with a look at how the area was selected as the site of the national capital, the opening of Parliament House in 1913 and the development of Canberra over the decades until today.
"It finishes with a lovely story about the typo in the Chief Minister's media release about 'Ken Berrans.'"
Among the objects included will be a reed necklace from the 1862 made by Ngunnawal women for Minnie Palmer, who lived in Palmerville estate, on the eve of her wedding and the remains of a dishwasher full of dishes from a Duffy house destroyed in the 2003 Canberra bushfires.
![Reed neckace by Ngunnawal people in Canberra Museum and Gallery's new exhibition - Canberra: Places and People. Picture by Elesa Kurtz Reed neckace by Ngunnawal people in Canberra Museum and Gallery's new exhibition - Canberra: Places and People. Picture by Elesa Kurtz](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/MxhEgQKUJhZgHxwVaKiqcq/0cff7e30-0886-474a-8829-8d1901970770.jpg/r0_0_2616_3587_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
The exhibition, which will have rotating items mostly from the CMAG collection, was developed in-house by curators working with the National Film and Sound Archive.
In March as part of Enlighten in the City a new interactive gallery will be launched in the former premises of restaurant Mr Wei.
The first exhibition will be Light, Colour and Humanity by Melbourne industrial designer Ian Wong ("No relation, unfortunately").
Funded by the Alistair Swayn Foundation, it will showcase the legacy of former Canberra chief architect Swayn and other Canberra designers.
There will also be a series of After Dark and children's programs during Enlighten and holograms in Civic Square.
CMAG and its cafe will now be open seven days a week: Monday to Friday 10am to 4pm for the gallery and 8.30am to 3pm for the cafe and on weekends, both the gallery and cafe will be open from noon to 4pm.
Among the upcoming art and social history exhibitions announced for later this year are Settled/Unsettled. exploring refugee and migrant experiences - "It's where social history and visual art intersect" - and Snapping Canberra: Canberra Press Photography as well as the touring exhibition How Cities Work, based on the Lonely Planet pop-up book by James Gulliver Hancock, where visitors can enter an immersive cityscape and discover its workings through tactile and immersive games and digital experiences.
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CMAG played an important role in the Canberra community, showcasing the social history and visual art of the region, Wong said, and things were improving after the COVID-imposed closures.
"Since COVID we've been recovering very well."
After a slow start, visitor numbers increased dramatically last year, particularly during Floriade.
"We had visitors from Perth to Victoria to the UK, a broader range," Wong said.
"We're working to tell the stories of the people who live here and have lived here and to show the work of the vibrant arts community that has developed here and come here."
Canberra Museum and Gallery is on the corner of London Circuit and Civic Square in Canberra City. See: cmag.com.au.