Small branch pot; Circa 1975, by Juliet Peter; Te Papa.

Juliet Peter, painter, printmaker, potter and designer died in Wellington on 12 January, aged 94. Earlier this week several Te Papa staff attended her funeral. An early practitioner of studio ceramics in New Zealand, Juliet’s work was stylish and individual. Her commitment to clay led to her close association withRead more

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A Garden by Paul Cullen has recently opened on the Sculpture Terrace’s Outer Terrace. The project draws on Paul’s interest in the history and practice of garden design and also his ongoing interest in the methods and models of science. The work was installed over a two week period beginningRead more

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Installation shots from Toi Te Papa exhibition: Henry Lamb’s painting Death of a peasant, 1911. At left, framing by Te Papa about 1970; at right, frame put on by the artist in 1911, and now returned to the painting. © Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa

Staging the show I rest my eye for a moment on the frame, taking a break from the work of looking hard at the painting I have come to see. Then, returning to the work at hand, I become conscious, if only just, of an adjustment to my perception; thatRead more

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Takitimu marae, before the pōwhiri

On the 23-26 October 2009, fellow work colleague Hokimate Harwood and I attended one of the biggest events on the arts calendar of Māori weaving-the Te Roopu Raranga Whatu o Aotearoa Weavers National Hui. A biennial event, the first inaugural hui was called by Ngoingoi Pewhairangi of Te Whānau-a-Ruataupare, aRead more

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Fans of art and TV on demand may already know about the great series New Artland hosted by musician Chris Knox on freeview TVNZ 7, and available online. The programme invites artists to make a new work involving a community. Series two has recently been uploaded, and they are alreadyRead more

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It’s been really heartening to see how NZ has dug deep to aid Samoa after the recent tsunami.  TVNZ’s Good Morning programme broadcast live from Te Papa and other main centres on Wednesday to support the Red Cross’s appeal.  In total, they raised $165,000 in just three hours! Online givingRead more

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As you know from my previous post, Tales from Te Papa went live on TVNZ6 on 1 September.  Over the coming weeks, we’ll post the mini-documentaries to the blog with more information – the stuff our staff weren’t able to fit into the Tales from Te Papa format and usefulRead more

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  Last Friday I was in Hamilton for the opening of the 2009 Trust Waikato National Contemporary Art Awards at the Waikato Museum. I was there as this year’s judge of the awards and the winner was announced at the opening on Friday night. The winning entry was a workRead more

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This is my opening post in a series to discuss approaches to the framing of paintings. This first one is a response to William McAloon’s post: Freedom to act and takes his blog post as a point of departure. I look at some of the issues involving the sympathetic framingRead more

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Many people at Te Papa were saddened to learn of the death this morning of Julian Dashper. Julian had suffered serious illness over the past few years. He fought cheerfully and bravely, all the while continuing to make and exhibit new work. Our deepest sympathies go out to Julian’s family.Read more

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Jill Trevelyan’s biography, Rita Angus: An Artist’s Life was proclaimed winner of the Montana Medal for Non-Fiction last night, as well as category winner for the Biography section of the 2009 Montana New Zealand Book Awards. Congratulations Jill! Everyone here at Te Papa who worked with Jill on the exhibition RitaRead more

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Avid art blog followers will now be familiar with Creative New Zealand’s NZ at Venice blog site. The project curators of Judy Millar’s Giraffe-Bottle-Gun and Francis Upritchard’s Save Yourself, and the venue attendants have been blogging regularly since the beginning of the installation period. Posts are coming in thick and fastRead more

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To celebrate Te Papa’s  tenth anniversary, the Friends of Te Papa commissioned artist Humphrey Ikin to create a lectern for Rongomaraeroa, Te Papa’s contemporary meeting house on Level 4.  Humphrey Ikin is an artist working in wood already represented in Te Papa’s collection.   ‘Red Stave Chair’ is currently on display inRead more

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Jim Barr and Mary Barr asked a good question about digitisation priorities in their blog. There are 3 parts to digitising Te Papa’s Collection. Information about the artwork or object – information about all the art collection was released on Collections Online last year Photography – do we have a digital photograph? CopyrightRead more

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  The other night we hung the two McCahons we bought last year – Scared and Mondrian’s last chrysanthemum. They’ve gone up in Toi Te Papa. In the mid-1970s Colin McCahon did a lot of paintings on a thick high quality paper called Steinbach. Legend has it that McCahon’s dealerRead more

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