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
Chief Executive Officer, Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa 2003–2009. ‘What I’ve enjoyed most is developing the relevance of what happens inside the museum for the public.’ (Dr Bennington, 2003) E te Rangatira Seddon – He Poroporoaki He reo noa ka kore e rongohia e tangi ana i rotoRead more
Joan Wiffen, who found hard evidence that dinosaurs had inhabited New Zealand, died this month aged 87. I’m not a scientist, but I do have an interest in the history of science, and even I can see that Wiffen made historically significant and far-reaching contributions to scientific thinking. First findings In 1975, WiffenRead more
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
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 with ‘Red Stave Chair‘. The lectern representsRead more
Aside from ferns, my main research interest is the group of trees known as Pseudopanax, for which I collaborate with Lara Shepherd from the Allan Wilson Centre. Pseudopanax includes the lancewoods and five-fingers. Several of the species are popular in cultivation, including fierce lancewood (Pseudopanax ferox). This species is soRead more
When making exhibitions here at Te Papa, teams have to install a wide variety of objects. You, the visitor, generally only get to see the polished final product – everything all beautifully laid out, ready for viewing. Have you ever wondered how we get the big stuff in? All IRead more
Te Papa’s collections have been built over nearly 150 years and range from miniscule lice and molluscs through to caravans, 22m long artworks and colossal squid. The collection is estimated to be approximately 2 million artworks, photographs, objects and specimens. Headaches A collection this diverse can create a number ofRead more
New Zealand’s plants have a bit of a reputation for pronounced promiscuity. There is supposedly a high rate of hybridisation, or individuals of one species breeding with individuals of a different species. I’m not entirely sure that this reputation is nationally deserved. Nevertheless, a striking example of hybridisation occurs inRead more
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
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
Collections Online now features more images of artworks from Te Papa’s Collection. In the past six weeks over 200 more images have been uploaded for you to view. But have you ever wondered about how we get these images online? One of the main challenges for Te Papa is copyright.Read more
An infestation of a giant horsetail, Equisetum hyemale, has been found near Levin. It was spotted by eagle-eyed Department of Conservation staff. They gave us a specimen for Te Papa’s herbarium collection of dried plants. No horsetail species occur naturally in New Zealand, but several have been purposefully orRead more
One of my previous posts discussed a recent study on New Zealand’s only endemic spider regarded as dangerous to people, the katipo. I thought readers might be interested to learn a little more about what’s behind the bad reputation of katipo and its’ close relatives. As I said then, katipoRead more
Are you growing a hen & chickens fern at home? If so, chances are it’s a fake, unless you dug it out of the bush.Read more
