Chau Chak Wing Museum presents the ‘Pop-Up’ Museum, The University of Sydney, April 2026
The CCWM ‘Pop-Up’ Museum is where curators and researchers bring real museum objects, craft replicas, activities and giveaways into the heart of communities who might not otherwise have the opportunity to visit the Museum, or access our research.
We deliver regular ‘Pop-Ups’ in surprising venues across Western Sydney, including shopping centres, hardware stores, public thoroughfares, clubs and a hospital.
Through this project, we aim to connect with communities where our collections originate and share in a two-way knowledge exchange.
Venues – coming soon:
Westfield Parramatta
Wednesday 30 April 2026 from 11am-4pm
Past pop ups
Orange Regional Museum and Art Gallery
Wednesday 18 March 2026
Multicultural Eid Festival and Fair – Fairfield Showground, Prairiewood
Sunday 22 March 2026
Welcome Week, University of Sydney
Wednesday 18 February – Friday 20 February 2026
Westfield Parramatta
Thursday 22 January 2026
Westfield Parramatta
Thursday 23 October 2025
Mana and Duruwan shelters, Paramatta Park
Saturday 13 September 2025
Westfield Parramatta
Thursday 28 August 2025
Westfield Parramatta
Thursday 24 July, 2025
Westfield Parramatta
Thursday 26 June 2025
Lidcombe Shopping Centre
Monday 14 July 2025
Westmead Children’s Hospital
Thursday 29 May 2025
Karabi Community Centre, Wentworthville
Tuesday 29 April 2025
Fairfield Bring it On Youth Festival
13 April 2025
Westfield Parramatta
27 March 2025
Westfield Parramatta
26 February 2025
Bunnings Northmead
15 December 2024
Westfield Parramatta
5 December 2024
Westmead Children’s Hospital
Tuesday 29 October 2024
Westfield Parramatta
Thursday 24 October 2024
Westfield Parramatta
Wednesday 16 October 2024
PHIVE
Wednesday 9 October 2024
Wentworth Point Community Centre and Library
Thursday 3 October 2024
Lidcombe Shopping Centre
Thursday 10 October 2024
Club Parramatta
Friday 20 September 2024
Bunnings Northmead
Saturday 14 September 2024
Westfield Parramatta
Wednesday 11 September 2024
Westfield Parramatta
Saturday 10 August 2024
Bunnings Northmead
20 July 2024
Westfield Parramatta
18 July 2024
Auburn Community Centre
18 October 2023
Auburn Library
11 October 2023
Bankstown Central Shopping Centre
18 November 2022
Museum research and ‘Pop-Up’ themes
Ancient Egyptian stelae
This ‘Pop-Up’ focuses on the way in which ancient Egyptian stelae were made and decorated from the way in which they were quarried and carved to the different types of pigments and paintbrushes used in their decoration.
For this ‘Pop-Up’ we will be bringing the c. 2000-year-old stela of Wasnefer called Paes-shy from the Ptolemaic Period (NM95.12), and craft replica tools including tin bronze chisels, a mallet, bow drill, try square, and saw modelled from original surviving examples.
We will also offer an activity where you can paint like an ancient Egyptian by making your own paintbrush from plant fibres and paint using original pigments.
Repair, reuse, recycle
To understand the history of reuse and recycling practices we are re-investigating the Museum collections for patterns of multiple use wear and examining how objects are modified to accommodate secondary (and more) uses.
This ‘Pop-Up’ illustrates the way in which the practice of repairing, recycling, and reusing materials and objects has its roots in antiquity, and is a phenomenon known throughout human history and across cultures. Among the objects travelling in this ‘Pop-Up’ are a life-sized Bronze thumb from ancient Greece left over from metal recycling, a green glass hunting implement made from a reused bottle fragment (from the Kimberley region, Western Australia, during the late 19th-early 20th century), and an ornate silver box, made with reused porcelain pottery fragments in 19th century China.
In this ‘Pop-Up’ Museum we have partnered with Anney Bounpraseuth for an enriching making activity to up-cycle textile waste into new toys or personalised soft sculptures. Anney Bounpraseuth is a multidisciplinary artist working mainly in drawing, painting, and textiles and has been a dedicated recreational community art educator across Sydney for 20 years, with 10 years of experience in art event and education programming. Learn more about Anney’s art practices.
Fish bones
For our resident ichthyologist (fish scientist), bones are essential for his studies of evolutionary relationships and how fish work. For this ‘Pop-up’ we will be bringing fish skeletons, a fish fossil, a reproduction of what might be the first X-ray image made in Sydney, and a unique slide rule used to help practitioners obtain high-quality radiographs.
We will also offer an exciting free activity, developed by artist and art educator Anney Bounpraseuth. Anney is a multidisciplinary artist working mainly in drawing, painting, and textiles and has been a dedicated recreational community art educator across Sydney for 20 years.
Learn more about Anney’s art practices.
Artist activity | ‘Water wonderful world’
Using an array of sea-themed objects including shells, driftwood, and sea sponges, participants will form an abstract fishbone model to draw from. After designing the model with wax, watercolour techniques will reveal a unique fish x-ray.
Suitable for all ages. Children must be accompanied by an adult. All materials supplied.
Middle Eastern ties
In this ‘Pop-Up’ Museum collaboration between the Chau Chak Wing Museum, University of Sydney and the Think +DO Tank Foundation, we explore the ancient cultures of the Middle East and their cultural links to the present through artefacts and language.
Think +DO Tank collaborates with members from the community in a vibrant multilingual exchange exploring stories, sharing knowledge and language. These interactions are essential for many communities from the diaspora, connecting them to each other and to new friends.
Think +DO Tank works to explore and champion Australian multilingualism. As part of its ongoing work with women with an experience of displacement and migration, the objects for this ‘Pop-Up’ were selected by migrant and newly arrived communities in Western Sydney, TDTF team and community participants. The objects, selected from the Chau Chak Wing Museum collection represent the homelands of the communities with whom the Think +DO Tank work (eg. Iraq, Syria, Palestine, Lebanon, Egypt, Kurdistan, Iran, Afghanistan). They hold history and culture and a special connection to their land of origin.
Participants are invited to contemplate these objects and imagine a time when these objects were part of everyday society. What are some of the stories and memories they hold? There is also the opportunity to take part in a clay tablet making activity in which participants inscribe in contemporary and ancient languages, helping to build up a multilingual word bank developed by Think +DO Tank.
Threads of connection
Join with us to learn more about Australia-Papua New Guinea relations and histories, with this ‘Pop-Up’ celebrating 50 years of Papua New Guinean independence through a focus on women’s work with fibre. Internationally recognised, bags known as bilum are made in ways unique to the peoples of New Guinea. Neither crochet nor knitting, bilum makers achieve style and variety with twine looped and knotted into patterns with a variety of naturally harvested and internationally sourced materials.
For this ‘Pop-Up’ we will bring examples of bilum, each reflecting the styles, materials, histories, and patterns of their region, in addition to an activity led by Papua New Guinean bilum maker, Joyce Arosame Robertson, where you can learn to roll and twist threads into a neckpiece to take home.
Iraq: living history
Many everyday objects that you find inside your home have their beginnings thousands of years ago – from indoor lights and ceramic vessels to makeup and jewellery. The past is often closer than we think.
This ‘Pop-Up’ highlights artefacts from ancient Iraq, including the sites of Babylon, Ninevah and Ur, to connect audiences with everyday items that have their roots in the ancient world. Join us to explore these living histories and find cultural connections within our homes.
Accompanying this ‘Pop-Up’ will be a bead making activity led by local Iraqi jeweller, Noor Alsalami, where participants can design their own jewellery and prayer beads.