Te Papa
Categories: Wellington Region | New Zealand culture | History of New Zealand | Buildings and structures in New Zealand
The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, branded and commonly known as Te Papa and Our Place (broadly translatable as "The exhibition of treasures") is the national museum of New Zealand.
It is located on the waterfront in Wellington in a striking $NZ300 million building of 36,000 square metres floor area. The museum also incorporates outdoor environments with caves, native bush and wetlands.
Te Papa opened on 14 February 1998 and achieved 1 million visits within five months, and has achieved between 1 and 1.3 million visits in each subsequent year.
The founding concept incorporates the concepts of unified collections, the narratives of culture and place, the idea of forum, the bicultural partnership between Tangata Whenua and Tangata Tiriti, and a multidisciplinary approach to delivering a national museum for diverse audiences.
The building has not been without its controversial side. The siting of the nation's most important collection of historical artefacts at the water's edge on reclaimed land next to one of the world's most active earthquake fault lines has occasioned no small amount of concern. There has been criticism of the 'sideshow' nature of some exhibits (primarily the Time Warp section). There was also criticism that some exhibits were not given due reverence - for example a major work by Colin McCahon was at one stage juxtaposed with a 1950s refrigerator in a New Zealand culture exhibition.
In 2004 more space was devoted to exhibiting works from the New Zealand art collection in a long-term art exhibition called Toi Te Papa: Art of the Nation.
Te Papa in fact consists of two buildings. In addition to the building on Cable Street, which is open to the public, there is also a building at the Basin Reserve end of Tory Street for the archives, collection services staff and the natural history collection.
In 2005, the New Zealand Defence Industry Association held their annual conference at Te Papa for the third time in a row. Protesters blockaded the front entrance of the museum. 20 people were arrested.
Trivia
- The site was previously occupied by a modern four-storey hotel. This was jacked off its foundations onto numerous rail bogies and transported 200 metres down and across the road to a new site, where it is now the Museum Hotel de Wheels.
- The museum's logo - a thumbprint - caused considerable controversy when it was publicised that its development had cost $300,000 - in reality the cost of the entire branding.
- Earthquake strengthening of the Cable Street building was achieved through the revolutionary technology of base isolation - essentially seating the entire building on rubber supports that slow down the effect of an earthquake.