Southland Museum and Art Gallery

The Southland Museum and Art Gallery is located in Gala Street, Invercargill, New Zealand. It is Southland's largest cultural and heritage institution, and contains a wide variety of the region's art, history and natural history collections.

From April to August, the museum observatory operates every Wednesday night, when Daylight Saving Time is not in effect, operated by members of the Southland Astronomical Society, with school groups often visiting. This is the only public observatory in Southland.

The tuatarium is a popular destination for both tourists and locals. The facility houses over 50 live, individual tuatara ranging from new babies to the famous Henry, who is thought to be over 110 years old. Henry and his girlfriend Mildred produced 11 eggs in the 2009 season. All hatched. Tuatara Curator Lindsay Hazley suggested that the new acrylic roof that allowed ultra violet light through to the tuatara has contributed to 100% egg hatching success and 100% survival success since installation.

The museum has a Māori Gallery that emphasizes the everyday aspects of pre-contact life in Murihiku/(Southland). This includes the processes of adze making, fishing using bone and stone lures, and pastimes and musical instruments.. The natural history gallery presents many aspects of nature in the province, including an emphasis on rare and endangered species such as the kakapo and kiwi, as well as sub-fossil bones of extinct birds such as moa. This gallery also covers subjects such as geology and sea life. "Beyond the Roaring 40's Gallery", interprets the unique and vulnerable Subantarctic themes and was developed utilising both(2) museum and Department of Conservation expertise.

The art galleries feature regular contemporary and historical art exhibitions, both travelling shows and works from permanent collections, often with a regional emphasis which includes Stewart Island and the Subantarctic Islands. The museum has a significant collection of art, photography, ceramics and craft all of which are shown regularly. Of special note is the work by William Hodges " A Maori before a waterfall in Dusky Bay "(1773), and Te Mauri, the large pounamu boulder that travelled to America as part of the Te Maori Exhibition in 1984.

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