Tessa (10) opens her own museum in Phalaborwa
Gr 5 Kingfisher learner, Tessa Young, opened her own museum featuring fossils, minerals, and a 4.6-billion-year-old meteorite after a visit to the Foskor Museum.
PHALABORWA – At just 10 years old, Tessa Young is already the proud owner and curator of her very own museum.
Tessa’s passion for rocks began at a young age, but her dream of running a museum was sparked after a visit to the Foskor Museum.
She declared that one day she wanted to become a museum curator, a dream that quickly became a reality.
Tessa was gifted boxes filled with fossils, rocks, minerals, and crystals, as well as a 4.6-billion-year-old meteorite, a tektite, and Stone Age and Iron Age artefacts, among other unique items.
At the age of eight, she began assembling her collection into a museum, an effort that took several months to organise.
One of the highlights of her museum is the galaxy room, which features striking space photographs and globes of Mars, Venus, and the moon.
The museum officially opened nearly three years ago, on Saturday, October 21, 2023. Tessa celebrated the occasion with her best friend, Sophia Munroe, and six other special guests.
Today, the museum showcases an impressive range of rocks, fossils, gemstones, and fossil artwork. Tessa says she hopes to grow her museum even further.
“In the next five years, I would like it to become a proper museum, with everything displayed in showcases,” she told the Herald. “I have a particularly large collection of glossopteris tree fossils, which are about 250 million years old, and my collection keeps growing.”
Tessa is currently in Gr 5 and follows the CambriLearn British curriculum. She will be attending Kingfisher Private School next term.
Her favourite subjects are maths and science, and she enjoys reading both fiction and non-fiction.
Outside of class, Tessa is an active and curious child. She loves nature and animals and enjoys visiting the Kruger National Park. Her hobbies include fishing, painting, drawing, karate, swimming, and tennis.
Her museum is open to the public by appointment, with an entrance fee of R10. The proceeds are being saved towards purchasing a rock tumbler to enhance her collection.
For more information or to book a visit, go to www.tessasmuseum.co.za or call 082 584 6580.
