John Gibb, Sponsor helps museum reach for the stars, Otago Daily Times, 2 October 2015
Statutory trust company Perpetual Guardian has thrown its financial weight behind Otago Museum‘s new $1 million planetarium, gaining naming rights and sponsoring an innovative ”Reach for the Stars” programme.
The blue chip company has provided a ”significant” but undisclosed sponsorship amount for the Perpetual Guardian Planetarium and the programme which will help bring up to 3600 youngsters from rural or low-decile schools to the planetarium each year for five years.
The planetarium, now under construction at the museum, will open to the public on December 5.
The planetarium makes use of a 900kg aluminium dome suspended in a light and soundproofed space at a 12deg angle to enable a 360-degree viewing experience from tilted seats.
It will use a state-of-the-art Sony projection system.
At a briefing yesterday, museum director Ian Griffin and Perpetual Guardian founder Andrew Barnes described a vision through which young people inspired by science at the museum, including the planetarium, would strengthen Dunedin’s future, by ultimately increasing the number of science and technology jobs.
