From 1956 artist and photographer Eric Lee-Johnson began photographing the night sky near his Northland home of Waimamaku. He generally used time exposures, where the shutter is held open from anywhere between seconds to hours. With longer exposures the stars show up as trails formed by the rotating motion ofRead more

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James Brown, Writer On 12 and 13 May, writer and artist Gregory O’Brien gave a series of workshops to school groups about collaborations between artists and writers, and the ongoing conversation between art and text. I sat in on one. I work at Te Papa as part of the WritingRead more

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If you watched late night television towards the end of the 1960s you might remember the following theatrically pronounced lines: For [architect David Vincent] it began one lost night on a lonely country road, looking for a shortcut that he never found. It began with a closed deserted diner, andRead more

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I don’t much like having my portrait taken. The longer the process goes on, and the more expectant I am of a good result, the worse it seems to get. So how much do you have to know about being photographed to get a good portrait? How many times do youRead more

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China Lecture and Symposium, Thu 15 May, 2pm–8pm, Te Papa Face to face with Shi Lu Working on the exhibition Shi Lu: A revolution in paint has been a revelation for me. Ever since my Uncle traveled to China in the 1980s, bringing back memorabilia from the Friendship shops, teachingRead more

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Over the summer, Sharon Taylor-Offord completed an internship at Te Papa cataloguing the drawings in a number of sketchbooks of the Dutch-New Zealand artist, Petrus van der Velden.  This was undertaken as part of a new internship course for Bachelor of Arts students run by the Faculty of Humanities &Read more

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In 1901 the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall & York, the future King George V and Queen Mary (for more on this royal couple see Mark Stocker’s post from last week), toured the Southern Hemisphere to thank commonwealth countries for sending troops to support Britain in the Boer War. AsRead more

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Image of Te Papa from Wellington Harbour

It is with sadness that we farewell the distinguished architect Ivan Mercep who died this week.  As part of the original Jasmax concept group, he contributed extensively to the design of Te Papa that opened on Wellington’s waterfront in 1998. The new building, a major construction project,  was to houseRead more

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Continuing our series of blogs to mark the visit of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge to New Zealand, I thought I would touch on one of the lesser known royal visits of the past, that of William’s grandfather, the Duke of Edinburgh, in December 1956. The relative obscurity ofRead more

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Famous stamp collectors in history range from King George V to Queen vocalist Freddie Mercury. The 1943 New Zealand Health stamps feature prominently in the latter’s carefully arranged schoolboy album. Their triangular shapes carry novelty appeal, while their subject matter is charmingly distinctive: Princess Elizabeth, later Queen Elizabeth II (agedRead more

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In celebration of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s first Royal Tour of New Zealand, we have decided to dedicate a ‘Royal Tour’ length blog series to items in the collection which somehow relate to the Royal family and their relationship to New Zealand. I was going to start the week’s blogRead more

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  With the visit of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge to New Zealand, it’s the perfect moment to ask what some of Te Papa’s treasures tell us about our feelings towards royalty.  Lorde’s critical and irreverent take on the ‘Royals’ of her mega-hit song runs counter to the overwhelmingRead more

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