Furniture can reveal personal stories that unfold through acquisition history. A particular pair of modernist chairs originally owned by artist E. Mervyn Taylor and his family tell a fascinating story.
Read more |April 28, 2020
Te Papa bird curator Colin Miskelly describes a recent (pre-COVID lockdown!) attempt to solve a mystery that he has pursued in several remote parts of Fiordland over the past four years. The Friends of Te Papa partly supported Colin’s research and we’ll be enjoying a full talk from Colin later in the year on what he discovered.
Read more |April 20, 2020
What if researchers investigate how pollination and pollinator communities have changed over decades by identifying pollen from historical insect samples, sourced from museum collections? The aims are to explore the complex pollination networks across time and space understanding which pollen sources are used by NZ insects.
Read more |April 14, 2020
Approximately 80 People have contacted Te Papa and asked about more information and how they can help with the Hudson Research project over the years. Of those people 20 have contributed enormously to our crowd sourcing project. Some have deciphered one of Hudson’s note and transferred this information into an excel spread sheet, which is great because every entry counts.
Read more |April 14, 2020
We asked our curators to write a light-hearted blog about Te Papa’s collections. Instead we got this rather dark blog from history curator Stephanie Gibson about objects that were made for events that never happened.
Read more |April 6, 2020
In September 2019 the Friends ran two tours to Egypt and Jordan, in association with Innovative Travel, whose Cairo-based director is Elhamy Elzayat MNZM, CEO of Emeco Travel, Egypt’s leading travel and destination management organisation. At all times we felt completely safe, accompanied by Emeco staff, local guides and security, as well as Rene Wilson
Read more |January 27, 2020
A big crowd turned out to hear British archaeologist Tony O’Connor give two richly illustrated lectures about the ancient Mediterranean world.
Read more |July 24, 2019
Over 480 Friends of Te Papa were treated to a special evening on Thursday 27 June. For the very first time Te Papa extended its opening hours to allow Friends exclusive access to all areas of the museum with special talks, peeks behind the scenes and talks by curators and museum staff.
Read more |July 6, 2019
After reading so much about the famous terracotta warriors, I am eagerly looking forward to seeing some of them with my own eyes. Eight of these life-size guardians, from the thousands at the tomb of the emperor Qin Shi Huang, will visit Te Papa in December – along with exquisite pieces of gold, jade and […]
Read more |October 26, 2018
GNS and Te Papa resident geologist Dr Hamish Campbell and his colleague Dr Chris Adams have been visiting the Chatham Island for over 15 years and many members of the Friends have enjoyed their famed geological excursions.
Read more |October 9, 2018
Learn more about Te Papa from the inside. As a Friend, you’ll enjoy exclusive exhibition previews, discounts, special events, and more.