President's Column

President’s Column: October 2021

Museum curators have to think carefully about items for a collection. In doing so they collect items which have ‘weight’. T

Read more |September 27, 2021

President’s Column: September 2021

Research is integral to the way museums operate. Each item in a collection is there with background research behind it so that the item can be a source of increased understanding.

Read more |August 25, 2021

President’s Column: August 2021

What being in lockdown in whatever level has shown us is how important the arts are to us. We can do without quite a lot. A walk is important but, after a while, doing without live theatre, live music and Te Papa narrows us

Read more |July 30, 2021

President’s Column – July 2021

Behind every art work hanging in a gallery or museum is a story, not just of the work’s provenance as such, but of exactly who it was that owned it and how they acquired it.

Read more |July 1, 2021

President’s Column – June 2021

As a national museum can’t do everything New Zealand is lucky in having many museums. Any idea how many?

Read more |May 27, 2021

President’s Column – May 2021

Does Te Papa have a place in preserving the ‘how to’s’ such as waka building, traditional Maori carving, and how to play knucklebones? Should Te Papa keep such ‘how to’ knowledge alive? They are taonga too.

Read more |April 27, 2021

President’s Column – April 2021

Open-air museums – what does one do for a whole town?

Read more |March 24, 2021

President’s Column – March 2021

What stories should a museum tell?

Read more |February 25, 2021

President’s Column: February 2021

We are Friends of Te Papa which means we are friends of a building as well as what is in it and what goes on within it. Coming in to Wellington Harbour, you see Te Papa from the water, as a set of shapes and colours.

Read more |February 3, 2021

President’s Column: December 2020

This being the beginning of December and so the last President’s column for the eventful year of 2020, I wish you all and all your whanau very best wishes for the festive season.  

Read more |December 2, 2020