The Ashburton Art Gallery and Museum’s autumn exhibition From the Hills: Exploring our Agates will take visitors on a local journey that spans millions of years.

People with an interest in our district’s natural history will be able to learn more about how agates are formed, where they are found in Mid Canterbury and how they are cut and polished.

Various agates from the Ashburton Museum’s collection will be on display, in addition to several that are on loan from Malcolm Luxton’s Agate Orphanage in Tinwald.

The museum has over 100 agates in its collection and Mr Luxton has over 4000 in the Agate Orphanage.

The new exhibition will include agates on display, photographs of agates, a vinyl ‘hashtag’ wall of agates that people can take photos in front of, an interactive map of Mid Canterbury where people can see what types of agates have been found where, and a quiz and selection of ‘fun facts’ for kids to discover.

There will also be a video of Mr Luxton talking about how he cuts and polishes agates.
The exhibition will be officially opened on Sunday 6 March at 2pm and people are welcome to come along then, or view the exhibition any time until Sunday 5 June.