Talks After Noon

Talks - afternoon

Free afternoon talks
Level 2
Sundays 2.00–3.00pm
Join us for a fresh program of weekly talks that take you behind the scenes of the Museum and explore the issues of the day. Our Sunday illustrated lecture series features a great variety of topics and passionate speakers.
Free with Museum admission.

Dr Dawn Casey,

Sunday 18 May
International Museum Day
Dr Dawn Casey, Director, Powerhouse Museum
The future of a museum as an institution has never been more unpredictable and uncertain. Join new Powerhouse Museum Director Dawn Casey on International Museum Day as she reflects on the changing role of Museums in the 21st century. With many years experience on the international scene and in the Australian Public Service - as the Director of the National Museum of Australia, CEO of the Western Australian Museum and in the management of Indigenous and cultural heritage policy issues - Dr Casey will share her thoughts on the need for museums. In this thought-provoking illustrated talk, discover and discuss how international cultural institutions - from Paris to Bilbao, Munich to Canberra - act as social and sustainable entities, foster dialogue and promote civic engagement and cohesion. International Museum Day has been celebrated all over the world since 1977.

Sunday 25 May
Space mission from the ashes: NASA's Phoenix Mars mission 
Kerrie Dougherty, Curator, Space Technology
On May 26 (Australian time) NASA’s latest Mars mission, Phoenix, is scheduled to touch down in the northern polar regions of Mars. This mission will begin the exploration of the polar regions of Mars, a program abruptly terminated in 1999 when the ill-fated Mars Polar Lander mission crash-landed in Mars’ southern polar region, due to a software error. The aptly-named Phoenix mission, the first in NASA’s Mars Scout program, was developed using components from previous Mars projects: several of its instruments were originally built as back-ups for the Mars Polar Lander, while the body of the spacecraft is actually the modified Mars Surveyor 2001 Lander, which was cancelled in 2000 and kept in storage! This re-born spacecraft will explore the water-ice-rich Martian northern polar regions, searching for environments suitable for microbial life and seeking to establish the history of water in that location. Kerrie Dougherty will outline the history of the Mars Phoenix mission and look at what the researchers hope to find when the spacecraft arrives on Mars. This talk is also part of Sydney Writers’ Festival program.