Monday, October 19, 2015

Te Papa North goes South

Looks like the sorry tale of Te Papa North has finally come to an end. Of course in PR speak this comes out as 'We are very committed to it. I would hope – as does the board – that we will be successful in a future budget bid.' But as the request rejected by Government was only a capital cost of $40 million (about as much it takes to run the Te Papa Mothership for little over nine months), it’s a fair bet that Te Papa North as an idea has slunk out of the building. 

Someone else who has left the building is the Project Director for Te Papa North. Te Papa told media she was only on a one year contract which sounds odd in itself for what was going to be a major Te Papa initiative over at least three or four years. 

And what about the pressing storage requirements and the dramatic threat of Wellington (and Te Papa's collections) being leveled by an earthquake? The CE of Te Papa told the media that 'there was no pressing need for additional storage in the next 2-3 years' and the talk of Wellington as earthquake central seems to have abated (which is nice). In fact, looking back at the sorry two year life cycle of Te Papa North, you have to ask whether it was ever a serious proposition in the first place. 


Anyway now that CE Rick Ellis has announced more of his plans to service the whole country via digital technology all this talk of bricks and mortar could hardly be more off brand. So let’s see how that plays out.