Museum of New Zealand
Te Papa ("Our Place"), The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
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 Location in Wellington
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| Established | 1992 (current building opened in 1998) |
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| Location | Cable Street, Wellington, New Zealand 41°17′26″S 174°46′56″E / 41.290589°S 174.782154°E |
| Coordinates | 41°17′26″S 174°46′56″E / 41.290589°S 174.782154°E |
| Visitors | 1 million/year |
| Director | Arapata Hakiwai (acting) |
| Website | Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa official website |
The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa is the national museum and art gallery of New Zealand, located in Wellington. It is branded and commonly known as Te Papa and Our Place; "Te Papa Tongarewa" is broadly translatable as "the place of treasures of this land".
The museum's principles incorporate the concepts of unified collections; the narratives of culture and place; the idea of forum; the bicultural partnership between indigenous people (Tangata Whenua) and non-indigenous people (Tangata Tiriti); and an emphasis on diversity and multidisciplinary collaboration.
In January 2013 Te Papa management announced the museum would be split into two parts – one operating much as it has in the past, and the other focusing on the future.
The first predecessor of Te Papa was the Colonial Museum, founded in 1865, with James Hector as founding director. It was built on Museum Street. Halfway through the 1930s the museum moved to the new Dominion Museum building in Buckle Street, where the National Art Gallery of New Zealand was also housed.
The National Art Gallery was opened in 1936 and occupied the first floor of the National Art Gallery and Dominion Museum building on Buckle Street, Wellington. It was originally populated with a collection donated by Academy of Fine Arts. The Gallery was formed with the passing of the National Art Gallery and Dominion Museum Act (1930). Both the Dominion Museum and Gallery were overseen by a single board of trustees. The official opening was by the Governor General in 1934.
The early holding consisted largely of donations and bequests, including those from Sir Harold Beauchamp, T. Lindsay Buick, Archdeacon Smythe, N. Chevalier, J. C. Richmond, William Swainson, Bishop Monrad, Sir John Ilott, and Rex Nan Kivell.
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