KMA Mineral Collection #85280
Rock Show
temporary exhibit | second floor
Rock Show, the KMA Rocks and Minerals Collection is the newest exhibition at the Kamloops Museum and Archives, designed for anyone who loves to explore. You do not need to be a geology fan to enjoy this exhibition. You just need curiosity and a willingness to see the world a little differently.
This exhibition brings together the full scope of the museum’s geological collection, including local specimens, specimens gathered from across BC and Canada, and minerals collected from around the world. Some of these minerals glow under black light, some reveal rare patterns or colours, and some carry stories that reach far beyond their physical form.
Live cataloguing stations let visitors watch as museum staff and local researchers from Thompson Rivers University study each specimen in real time. You can see how geologists identify minerals, how museum records are created, and how a collection like this grows into a lasting resource for the community.
A Collection With Range
Visitors will be able to:
- Watch live cataloguing and see how museum records are created
- Experience our look & touch collection
- View local and global specimens spanning a wide range of geological origins
- Explore a black-light display of fluorescent minerals
- Learn from TRU researchers and local geologists
- Follow cultural teachings and community stories about rocks and minerals
- Discover how science and culture meet through land-based knowledge
Everything is presented in a way that lets people explore at their own pace. You can spend time with one specimen or wander through the full range of materials on display.
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Admission By Donation Suggested
$1 per child & $3 per adult.
Frequently Asked Questions -
Museum Hours
Tuesday - Saturday: 9:30am - 4:30pm
Sunday & Monday: Closed -
Archive Hours
Tuesday - Friday: 1:15pm - 4:00pm
Saturday: By Appointment
Sunday & Monday: Closed -
Please Note:
The admissions desk may ask that you check your bags and any food and beverages upon entry.
We encourage you to talk in our galleries, have fun, and discuss the content and artifacts you see as you make your way around the building. Laugh, cry, and remember that we like hearing our galleries active!
Plan your visit
Rock Show runs until May 16 at the Kamloops Museum and Archives at 207 Seymour Street.
The Land Remembers – We Walk Among Stories runs from Oct 27, 2025 to May 18, 2026 at the Secwepemc Museum and Heritage Park, 200–330 Chief Alex Thomas Way.
A Few of Our Rock Stars
(More specimens will be added each week)
Shared Exhibition
Rock Show is presented in partnership with the Secwepemc Museum and Heritage Park. Their companion exhibition, The Land Remembers, explores Secwépemc understandings of rocks, minerals, and fossils, along with the impacts of collecting practices, repatriation, and continued relationships with the land.
Visitors are encouraged to experience both exhibitions for a fuller understanding of the stories held within the land.
Secwépemc Museum and Heritage Park
The exhibition explores Secwépemc understandings and stories of rocks, minerals, and fossils, and the roles they have held before contact, after contact, and in the present day. The Land Remembers reflects on the long history of collecting, including generations in which minerals, fossils, belongings, stone tools, grave goods, and ancestral remains were taken without consent and dispersed into private and institutional collections.
By placing these histories alongside current policies and laws related to First Nations ancestral territories, the exhibition supports ongoing work in reconciliation and repatriation. Visitors are encouraged to look beyond Western concepts of minerals, stones, and fossils, and to consider how the Secwépemc understand them as living parts of the land, woven into stories, culture, and identity. The exhibition acknowledges that the land, in all its elements, continues to hold and express memory today.
Exhibition Opening Event
Rock Show, The KMA Rocks and Minerals Collection: Friday, October 24, 4:30–7pm
PLEASE JOIN US FOR THE OPENING RECEPTION OF ROCK SHOW, a free event hosted by the Kamloops Museum and Archives that will feature the Museum’s extensive Geological Specimens collection.
We invite you to join us for an evening of lively rock music, fun and insightful hands-on activities with opportunities to engage in the sparkling world of rocks, music, and light refreshments. This is a free event open to the public at Kamloops Museum and Archives, 4:30– 7pm.
No need to register or RSVP, if you have any questions please email [email protected], or call 250-828-3577.
