Scent Memory Workshop with Perfume Playground

The Dowse Art Museum is a free public gallery for people to enjoy contemporary art and culture.With constantly changing exhibitions, a welcoming family lounge and delightful store a visit to The Dowse Art Museum is the perfect way to upgrade your day. After you’ve feasted your eyes on the extraordinary art and attended one of our events you can have enjoy kai and kōrero with friends and whānau at Bellbird Eatery.

The Dowse Art Museum

Join us for this sensory journey to explore synesthesia, perfume blending and create your own signature scent to capture a memory.

Of all our senses, smell triggers the most intense memory response in the human brain.
Join the fine folk from Perfume Playground in this sensory journey to explore synesthesia, learn the art and science of perfume blending and create your own signature scent to capture a memory worth holding onto.

In our current exhibition, The Truth Is Out There, American artist Joe Merrell’s artwork Abduction (2016) attempts to answer the simple question: what does a UFO smell like? In collaboration with scent-designer Saskia Wilson-Brown, Merrell developed a scent based on odours that alien abductees report smelling during their abduction experiences.


Perfume Playground specialises in designing natural, cruelty-free fragrance for brands, people and places who share a passion for scents ability to inspire, connect and be wholly life-enhancing.

This workshop runs in connection with The Truth Is Out There, an exhibition featuring the works of Ronnie Van Hout, Joe Merrell, Peter Stichbury, Nayda Collazo-Llorens, Caryline Boreham, Brett Graham + Rachael Rakena, Emil McAvoy and Hany Armanious. The Truth Is Out There will take you on a journey to outer space, passing by the mysterious Kaikoura lights, crop circles in the UK and the hypnosis couch of abductees Betty and Barney Hill. On until 14 August 2022.

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