Description¶

This page offers information on how to unlock the different stages of the museum.

Unlocking Blathers¶

To have Blathers come to your island, you will need to donate five creatures to Nook. Each time, Nook will also reward you as thanks for your donations:

When you have donated five creatures, Blathers will call Tom Nook and ask him if he can come study the island fauna for himself! Once the phone call is over, Nook will give you a tent kit so that you can set up Blathers’ research tent for him.

Take care when picking a location for Blathers’ tent, as when you have donated enough creatures to him, it will upgrade into a museum. You will be able to move it at a later date, but it will cost a fair bit. After you’ve chosen the location, head back to Nook to let him know.

Opening a Museum¶

To open a Museum on your island, you need to donate fifteen specimens to Blathers. You can donate bugs, fish or fossils. When you show him your first fossil, Blathers will assess the fossil and identify it. He gives you the option to take back the fossil, but you should most certainly donate it, so that it can be displayed in the museum when it opens. That being said, fossils are sold for a hefty price, so when you get duplicates be sure to sell them to make some bells!

After you have shown Blathers the first fossil, you’ll need to have fossils assessed before you can offer them as a donation. If it is a duplicate, he will give it back but if it isn’t then he will ask for it as a donation to the museum’s fossil exhibition.

Donating the fifteen specimens may take a while as you can only give Blathers one creature/fossil at a time. But, as soon as you have succeeded in giving fifteen different specimens, Blathers will finally be able to open up his museum!

After this, you will no longer be able to donate any further specimens until the museum is constructed. It will take two days for the museum to be built. The day after you have donated fifteen specimens, Blathers will be unavailable because the museum site will be under construction.

Opening an Art Gallery¶

For Blathers to even consider opening an art exhibition, you must have donated 60 different specimens to him. This shouldn’t be too hard at all, because there are ways to ensure you can find lots of new specimens everyday.

Once Blathers has announced that he wishes to begin displaying art in the museum, a suspicious figure named Redd will appear on your island. This will usually happen on the following day to Blathers’ announcement, but this isn’t guaranteed.

When you first encounter Redd, he will be wandering around your island. When you next encounter him, though, he will be in his dodgy boat that he docks up on the secret island on the north coast of your island.

When you meet Redd for the first time, the art he offers you will always be a real art piece. However, in the future, it’ll be important to check the art to see if they’re fake or not. Whenever you buy an art piece from Redd, it’ll cost you 4,980 Bells with the cousin discount that Redd gives you.

Once you’ve bought your first piece of art, you should head over to your museum and donate it to Blathers. Giving over your first piece of art will mean that Blathers can open a new Art exhibition in the museum!

Don’t forget to celebrate each upgrade with your neighbors by holding a ceremony!