Ten years after Te Papa’s opening, it seems hard to recall what the fuss was about. Well, yes, critics claimed the design was like a Stalinist mausoleum. It was a $320 million earthquake risk liable to collapse in the Big One. It was more like a theme park than a museum, and what about the national art collection? Its Saatchi thumbprint logo was an expensive absurdity. And the name. The Dominion refused to call it Te Papa for years, insisting on “the Museum of New Zealand” with the same dogmatism that saw it call the tangata whenua “Maoris” when all other media had long before dropped the ‘s’.
Today, Te Papa is just there. It is part of Wellington, and what a marvellous part it is. Yes, there is a touch of Stalinism about its stark grey squatness, but can you imagine anything else on that waterfront site? The “paua shell ashtray” design that the Evening Post flogged as its preferred alternative, maybe? Of course not.
If success is measured by the number of visitors, Te Papa is the most successful museum in New Zealand, with more than 1.2 million visitors every year, almost three times the Wellington region’s population. Many are of course from out of town and overseas, but Wellingtonians love the place and keep going back. My teenage daughter seems never to lose interest, going there many times a year. Fortunately, she has graduated from the rides, which cost me a small fortune when she was younger and wanted to go on them at every visit.
I enjoy Te Papa for the ever-changing exhibitions, like the whales at present, the Egyptian mummies last summer and of course the Lord of the Rings, which was so successful it was staged again, bigger the second time. I enjoy the constant buzz of the place, the quirky little corners where you find an oddity like the car made from corrugated iron, the shaking earthquake house just to remind us where we live, the come-alive junk shop with the video window that looks down the lane to the Boat Shed, the psychedelic marae, the lectures, functions, shows and other events that are staged there regularly that make Te Papa much more than a museum.
Tomorrow, Te Papa will celebrate 10 years with 12 hours of action starting at 10am. Entertainment includes Indonesian, samba and blues dancers and musicians, the NZ Symphony Orchestra, kung fu from the Shaolin monks, a Bollywood performance, a drag queen pageant and much, much more, culminating in a fireworks show over the Te Papa waterfront at 10pm. A day to enjoy, after 10 wonderful years.
5 Comments
February 15, 2008 at 9:32 am
While I think that Te Papa was a missed opportunity to create a really special building, I’m not as down on it as some people. In terms of the style and content, I think the high-cultural Mandarins have almost enjoyed the chance to act outraged: virtually all of the complaints about it have come from the visual arts sector. I’ve yet to hear a complaint from a geologist or zoologist about how natural history is displayed, but I guess the sciences don’t have the same cultural capital or get the same access to politicians.
I think there is still a case for a separate National Art Gallery, but I don’t mind the way that art works mingle among the other exhibits: not only does it allow for different contexts, but it brings art to people who’d otherwise shy away from a “gallery”. As for a McCahon next to a fridge: hell, I’d love to have a McCahon next to mine, and McCahon himself even painted on kitchen furniture!
“Yes, there is a touch of Stalinism about its stark grey squatness, but can you imagine anything else on that waterfront site?”
Actually, Stalin was more in favour of monumental classicism, so the old museum is more “Stalinist” than the new. I can actually imagine plenty of other things there. Either a truly beautiful memorable building (and the much vaunted Athfield/Gehry/Rewi entry wouldn’t have been that either) or something entirely different from a single monolithic museum: a musuem precinct consisting of art gallery, history/culture musuem, science centre and perhaps others, joined by proper public streets.
For me, Te Papa’s greatest failing is its refusal to engage with either the street or the water, except for one stingy entrance. This could eventually be remedied, via the UN Studio extension between there and Waitangi Park, opening up the gates by Bush City, creating something like a cafe between the pool and the promenade, and building over the Cable St carparks to bring back a street edge. But whether Te Papa even wants to do that is another story.
February 15, 2008 at 9:37 am
Actually, Stalin was more in favour of monumental classicism, so the old museum is more “Stalinist” than the new.
I almost wrote “neo-Stalinism,” though it was intended as light-hearted. Thanks for posting such insightful comments.
February 15, 2008 at 12:21 pm
I have a three year-old daughter. Te Papa is, quite simply, her favourite place in the world. Every Saturday morning I ask her what she’d like to do that day. “Te Papa!” she yells. Now she’s progressed to the stage of taking her other relatives to miniature guided tours to her favourite bits. So say what you like, I know at least one person who’s going to grow up with incredibly fond childhood memories of visiting a museum.
February 15, 2008 at 11:42 pm
RE: the architecture,
Wasn’t the lack of engagement with the waterfront due to the double-lane boulevard having to be preserved for the V8 supercar races? Or am I miss-informed?
February 16, 2008 at 5:16 pm
This speech by Michael King makes me wary of Te Papa (I haven’t been there yet):
“There is another issue which falls within the context of Jack Lasenby’s quote about the respective balance between valuing and devaluing our major cultures. And it is exemplified most emphatically, I believe, by the behaviour of our National Museum, Te Papa….”
http://sof.wellington.net.nz/origins.htm