The museum’s fifth Director became our second knight. Te Papa turned 150 years old on 8 December 2015. To celebrate 150 years since the opening of the Colonial Museum in Wellington, the exhibition ‘You called me WHAT?!’ is open on Level 3 until the end of 2016. The exhibition, and this series of blogs, explore… Read more »
Posts categorized as behind the scenes
Allan Thomson and the Cenozoic brachiopods
Our national museum’s third director was New Zealand’s first Rhodes Scholar, but was cut down in his prime. Te Papa turned 150 years old on 8 December 2015. To celebrate 150 years since the opening of the Colonial Museum in Wellington, the exhibition ‘You called me WHAT?!’ is open on Level 3 until the end… Read more »
Augustus Hamilton and the gold-spangled butterfly
Our national museum’s second director was an ethnologist with broad interests in natural sciences. Te Papa turned 150 years old on 8 December 2015. To celebrate 150 years since the opening of the Colonial Museum in Wellington, the exhibition ‘You called me WHAT?!’ is open on Level 3 until the end of 2016. The exhibition,… Read more »
Hosting in Nga Toi in summer
Working in Ngā Toi over summer was interesting because it was so vibrant. Swarms of visitors off buses, cruise ships and from different backgrounds suddenly appeared. Having an art gallery located within the museum certainly attracts those who may not normally visit! It was hectic introducing the feast of art on display, giving out I SPY art trails, Art Detective Kits and audio guides to families, as well as keeping the Whare Toi (art… Read more »
Te Papa’s new look website
Today we launch an updated version of our website. In a weird kind of way, we hope it’s not that big a deal to you. It’s a website, you come to it when you need it, and you hope you find the information you need. Like a lot of things, you only notice it when… Read more »
Faking Rembrandt: Copies in the collection
Copies of prints have never been easier to identify than they are today. More and more museums (including Te Papa) are making high-resolution images of their collections available online, so that we can compare the prints in our collection with their counterparts across the world. This makes it possible even for students like myself (a… Read more »
Very rare indeed: a Malawian dance garment
Witchy tale In 1936, the Dominion Museum was given a gift so rare and strange that it made the news. Described in the Auckland Star and in museum records as a “witch doctor’s outfit”, the garment was subsequently displayed for many years in the Buckle St building that opened that same year. During an… Read more »
Pacific Cultures: Our Year in Numbers and Storeroom Selfies!
It has been another busy year for the Pacific Cultures team. This year as part of Ngā Toi Arts Te Papa we opened Tīvaevae: Out of the Glory Box, Te Papa’s first exhibition of Cook Islands tīvaevae. We have also worked to have have more of our collection available online and in person through exhibitions such… Read more »
Art at work
Do you have that end-of-the-year feeling? Everything compressing and accelerating towards a sense of an ending? I love walking through Te Papa’s art galleries on Level 5, especially at this time of the year. Ngā Toi | Arts Te Papa is an escape from the everyday, from schedules and deadlines into a world where art… Read more »
Being a botanist: Q&A with students from South Wellington Intermediate School
Last week I was invited to give a talk at my son’s class at South Wellington Intermediate School (SWIS) about what it is like to be a botanist at Te Papa. To help me prepare, the students wrote down questions they had about botany or being a botanist. Their questions got me thinking about how… Read more »