The Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery has been transformed into the unlikely setting for a new ABC comedy quiz show that sees celebrities compete amongst priceless artefacts.
Tonight at the Museum, hosted by Alex Lee, filmed all eight episodes in TMAG’s central gallery and is now being shown on ABC TV on Wednesday nights.
The central gallery was converted into a television studio for nearly a fortnight, with filming taking place after visitors went home each day.
“It was a pretty wild idea for the team at TMAG,” Dr Jody Steele, head of cultural heritage at the museum, told Pulse.
“We were sort of shocked and surprised that the production company came to us.”
Steele said she thought the production company chose TMAG over other Australian museums due to its combination of natural history, cultural heritage and contemporary art collections.
“A lot of museums are just museums and a lot of art galleries are just art galleries. We have the combination of both,” Steele said.
“We know that our museum is both, you know, historically and contemporarily beautiful, but I think being able to see it sort of through the eyes of a viewer is pretty special.”
Each episode features comedian guests navigating the museum’s collections to win the ultimate prize, having their own “treasured” artefact displayed in the museum.
The set features a dramatic backdrop by Tasmanian artist Valerie Sparks and objects carefully selected by TMAG’s team.
Each Thursday, following each episode, the museum will reveal a new exhibition case containing objects featured in the show alongside the winning contestant’s artefact.
“It’s the first time we’ve done a slow reveal on an exhibition,” Steele said.
“Usually we spend all of these weeks building an exhibition and then open up the entire thing, so it’s a little bit fun and interesting to sort of have an eight-week slow reveal of an exhibition so that we don’t give away any spoilers.”
Steele said it was interesting to see the museum’s artefacts through the eyes of comedians.
“It’s kind of a combination of weird and bizarre, fun and interesting facts through the eyes of comedians which is not the way you generally get to see a museum and the museum objects,” Steele said.
“So it’s kind of a quirky spin and they really did do a deep dive into a lot of the sort of awe-inspiring stories that Tassie’s got to offer.”
Tonight at the Museum airs on ABC TV on Wednesdays at 8pm.
