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Exhibition Curation Page 

We are recommending six topics (which would only change after a significant amount of time), which would have monthly changing themes. The examples we have created are (topic: theme):

Technology: Space

Iconic: On the World Stage

Let’s get political: Climate Change

Multi-Cultural Society: Maori Fashion

New Zealand Place: Otago

Your Story: Christchurch Earthquake

These topics would be up for an approx. 2 weekly submission period, and then a 2 week voting period, after which the most popular of each category would be showcased at Te Papa for the following month, while the next cycle of themes began. To be clear this would mean 1st-16th May, users can submit exhibitions, 17th-31st May, users can vote on what exhibition they want to see, and 1st of June the exhibits with the most votes are shown, and on that same day another set of themes (listed below) starts the submission period. The rotation of themes allows for a wide range of interests and stories to be connected to, meaning a larger group of users will be motivated to create/engage. Also by keeping these topics/themes fairly broad, it gives the user a prompt to start creating from, but still allows a range of voices and opinions to be spoken. Te Papa can also set the topics to try and match artifact they have in their collections, to encourage the users to connect with these. 

Sample June Topic/Themes: 

Technology: The Phone

Iconic: Kiwiana

Let’s get political: Health Care

Multi-Cultural Society: First Gen Kiwis

New Zealand Place: Hamilton

Your Story: Student Loans

These exhibits created would also be saved to the user/creators profile. 

These screenshots demonstrate the process a user follows when creating an exhibition through our app. 

They start with essentially a blank canvas, however we provide some parameters for the post to give the users direction. Before they get to this creation screen, they must choose from one of the monthly changing themes (keeping this dynamic and sustainable). They must add at least one feature photo, a title, and then have options for adding either text, photos or videos, or adding items from Te Papa’s archives as they please. With the photos they can again connect these to Te Papa’s archives through a detail tag and search function. The photos/videos can be added either uploaded from the users device or from web links, allowing greater personalisation, as the users have the option to add their own personal images to the stories/exhibitions they are telling. 

This exhibition curation meets Te Papa’s goals, our goals and the macro-trends identified earlier in the blog. It gives the user control and authority over their own stories, and over what stories they want to see. The users gains connectedness with the community and with Te Papa, through the sharing and reading of each others stories, and through connecting those stories to the collections that Te Papa possesses. It is personalised through, again, the telling of peoples own stories, and control over creation of an exhibit that user is interested in. Through the availability to everyone, and also especially the Multi-Cultural Society topic, this aims to represent and appeal to a diverse audience, with different cultures, interests and knowledges, and to share and connect those people with others both alike and unlike them. The broadness of the topic/theme prompts allows for a wider range of debate and discussion, especially with the “Let’s get political” topic, by creating a prompt that lets users interpret it and tell their perspectives, we would expect a wider range of opinions to be shared, facilitating conversation and debate. We also link the past, present, and future, through asking users to tell their own stories and share their own perspectives, and in this asking them to connect those stories with Te Papa. 

A visual of the full functions is available in the linked PDF below. 

Functions detailed here

A major tension to note with this, is the information/images being put up by the users being inaccurate or inappropriate. Our solution to this would be moderation from Te Papa before any exhibit is published. This would however affect the real-time expectation from users (as identified in the macro-trends post), so would need to be regularly checked - or maybe the stories are not available for the user to see until voting, and then all moderated for content before the voting goes live, allowing a less intensive monitoring process. 

A quick note for us to reflect on the presentation.

Price General admission to the majority of the museum is free. There are guided tours available, with a price range of $6-11 for children and $12-18 for adults (16+ years) depending on which tour is chosen. There are non-permanent and touring exhibitions that often charge for entry; the recent Bug Lab charged $5 for children, $15 for adults, and $10 concession charge for students, SuperGold Cardholders, etc. 

Te Papa also offers a membership program called “Friends of Te Papa” (7) which has a range of prices from $20/yr for a student living outside of Wellington, through to $65/yr for a family of four. The “Friends of Te Papa” benefits includes discounts in many areas of the museum, including in the Te Papa stores, the cafés, and discounted entry to the paid exhibitions, as well as invitations to exclusive events and private exhibition viewings, and parking privileges (8). 

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Promotion Te Papa promotions are largely for the non-permanent and touring exhibitions. The current ‘Gallipoli: The Scale of Our War’ exhibit was initially advertised through billboards and posters around the Wellington area, but the promotion was fundamentally based on media coverage. Te Papa is also promoted through word-of-mouth of the users, and their reputation amongst the national and international community. 

In an online resource from the Te Papa website (1) they recommend working closely with the media, saying “An ongoing relationship with the media based on respect and integrity will stand your museum in good stead and help raise your public profile”, and “media coverage can draw visitors to your museum - and prove to be cost effective as a marketing tool”. In another of their resources (2), Te Papa speaks on handling users complaints and how this can affect word-of-mouth: “Customers who feel their complaints were badly handled will tell an average of twelve to twenty other people. Customers who are pleased with the way their complaints were handled will tell an average of four to six other people” and that if the complaint is handled well “[you can] turn a complaining customer into an advocate for your museum or cultural organisation”. 

Other examples of advertising used by Te Papa include a mail-out brochure, direct marketing presenting to the target audience, attendance at external events, a website page on a particular area, internal promotion - regular staff training; including a specific area within a generic Te Papa promotions; brochures and posters in Te Papa @ the info desk/in bathrooms/in discovery centres/etc, directional signage to area; PR - developing and maintaining relationships with relevant media outlets, providing them with information and images (3). 

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Product Te Papa provides education and entertainment through a range of exhibits surrounding many topics. These exhibits are highly informative and have many areas where interactive learning is used to create a more effectual experience. There are five main topic areas currently - Art, History, Taonga Māori, Pacific Cultures, Natural History. 

The main missions according to the 1992 act (4+5) is to create a place where:

New Zealand’s stories are told ­in an interdisciplinary way, using a range of media and art forms.

They facilitate, connect, and create a partnership between Tangata Whenua (Māori, the indigenous people of New Zealand) and Tangata Tiriti (people in New Zealand by right of the Treaty of Waitangi).

New Zealand and international information/history is presented and preserved with authority and integrity.

New Zealand’s increasingly diverse society is represented.

Discussion, debate, involvement, and celebration is facilitated.

The past, present, and future is connected.

A Statement of Intent released in 2014 (6), also considers their strategic intentions for the following four years. These intentions (quoted) are:

Access all Areas: Te Papa will share its collections, skills and knowledge with the diverse communities across Aotearoa New Zealand and overseas.

Connecting with People: Te Papa will be a waharoa (entranceway) making learning a playful and entertaining experience. Te Papa will set the highest possible standards for an integrated experience. 

Housing the Treasures: Taonga (treasures) within the guardianship of Te Papa will be at the heart of the Museum’s activities.

Sharing Authority | Mana Taonga: Te Papa will share decision-making with iwi (tribes), communities and individuals with respect to management and understanding of their taonga (treasures).

Being a Forum for the Future: As a cultural and intellectual leader Te Papa will signpost pathways to the future by initiating, hosting and engaging in debates that explore a wide range of contemporary issues.

Saving the Planet: Te Papa will engage and excite by conducting leading edge research and by modelling environmentally responsible practices that are smart, accessible, and inspiring.

Te Papa offers a lot of programs aimed at children and families, such as the Discovery Centres, School Holiday Programs, regular school tours and accessible resources for educators to organise those tours. 

The two stores in Te Papa offer a more tangible product for users to purchase as souvenirs/symbolic reminders of their visit to Te Papa, and these stores offer a very wide range of items from Kiwiana-themed cushions, to biographies from Gallipoli, to Wellington branded tote-bags. 

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Place (In the market + physically) Te Papa Tongarewa is the National Museum of New Zealand, so in terms of cultural institutions, this immediately places Te Papa as an incredibly important site. On tripadvisor, Te Papa ranks #1 ‘thing to do’ in Wellington, and in New Zealand, with almost 10,000 reviews and over 8,000 of those rating their experience there as ‘very good’ or ‘excellent’ (9). 

In Te Papa’s 2015/16 Annual Report (10), the 16-24 year old age group made up 17% of the visitors, while 25-34 year olds made up 14%. This is fairly close to the New Zealand population statistics - 16-24yr olds are 16%, 25-34yr olds are 16%, but this year has also been noted as a year with record visitor numbers, thanks to the opening of the Gallipoli exhibit (11). 

All of this places Te Papa as a highly prestigious, trusted, and powerful institution within New Zealand culture. 

Other nearby cultural institutions (Te Papa’s ‘competition’) include: Zealandia, Space Place, Weta Cave, Wellington Museum, and Wellington Zoo. Other recreational activities that compete for people’s time include: trail walks up Mount Vic and around the town belt, Galleries such as { Suite }, Kura Gallery, Page Blackie Gallery or New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts, tours of Parliament, etc. Te Papa has a point of difference from many of these other cultural institutions, because it is mostly free, and also the range of exhibits and information inside is larger, creating wider educational/entertainment possibilities, so it is therefore appealing to more users tastes and interests. 

Te Papa is located on Cable St, right on the Wellington Waterfront, which is an ideal central location. This location allows for a great view of the Wellington Harbour from the roof, and relatively easy access from the ferry terminals and train station nearby. There are also plenty of buses around and walking to Te Papa is fairly simple and fast from much of the accommodation in central Wellington. Being easily accessible, especially through public transport, is essential for Te Papa as many of the visitors will be from outside of Wellington - 72% in 2015 (10) - and relying on these systems (or walking) to get around. 

Resource Links:

(1) https://www.tepapa.govt.nz/sites/default/files/1-working-with-the-media_0.pdf

(2) https://www.tepapa.govt.nz/sites/default/files/25-customer-service.pdf

(3) https://www.tepapa.govt.nz/sites/default/files/19-developing-a-marketing-plan_0.pdf

(4) http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1992/0019/latest/dlm260204.html

(5) https://www.tepapa.govt.nz/about/what-we-do/our-history

(6) https://www.tepapa.govt.nz/sites/default/files/statement_of_intent_2014-18.pdf

(7) https://www.friendsoftepapa.org.nz/

(8) https://www.friendsoftepapa.org.nz/join-friends/

(9) https://www.tripadvisor.co.nz/Attraction_Review-g255115-d257133-Reviews-Museum_of_New_Zealand_Te_Papa_Tongarewa-Wellington_Greater_Wellington_North_Island.html

(10) https://www.tepapa.govt.nz/sites/default/files/te_papa_annual_report_2015-16_web-full.pdf

Thinking through the Exhibition Curation page and the idea is changing a little. Instead of a 3D creation, we want to make it more accessible and easy to use on a flat screen. And instead of the top exhibitions being actually created in a room somewhere, we are thinking the user-created pages can be displayed in a series of screens, which again would be more accessible and visible to many visitors, as we are thinking these would be placed near the second floor info desk.

We are now going to create a series of six screens, which correspond to six main topics that are the options for the users. These topics might change periodically over a larger timeline (maybe once a year or two), but currently thinking they would be semi-permanent, but with monthly themes to keep it dynamic, interesting for the users to keep coming back to regularly, and also good for a lot of different user interests as there is always something different giving more opportunity for a subject they are interested in to arrive. 

The topic ideas (and theme ideas) for now are: 

 - Technology (Space)

 - Iconic New Zealand (People - On the world stage) (Another example could be iconic childhood memories - ie buzzy-bee, what now, etc)

 - Political Issues (Climate Change)

 - Maori Culture (Fashion)

 - NZ Place (Otago)

 - Your Story (Christchurch Earthquake)

We have tried to keep the topics near to things that are relevant and interesting to Millennials in particular. The topics are intentionally broad categories, as this allows for a lot of different themes. The themes are also somewhat vague and broad, the intention of which is to allow people to interpret it differently (and personally) and end up with a wider variety of interesting exhibition creations. 

These themes would be on a monthly cycle, allowing for fast rotation and adding a sense of urgency and exclusivity for the users to a) create their exhibition online, and b) go see the winning exhibitions in person. Each month would consist of: theme released on the 1st, 2nd-16th a submission/curation period, 17th-month end voting, and the winners shown at Te Papa on the 1st of the next month for the whole month (and on that same day the next theme cycle begins). 

The sixth topic (your story) is to connect the users again to te papa, and draw all of our site pages/recommendations together as a more cohesive and connected set. We really want ‘our big idea’ to emphasis the thought of sharing users stories with the community and creating connection to Te Papa through this. A tension with this though is that I feel it might be a little unethical to have a popular vote type situation on personal experiences and could create a strain if your story is not valued and seeing the levels compared to other stories. Perhaps a resolution to this would be that this topic is exempt from the voting stage, and Te Papa could select the exhibition to display through some other means. 

Te Papa first opened as the Colonial Museum in 1865, and Sir James Hector - the first director - mainly prioritised scientific collections. In 1907, the Colonial Museum was renamed the Dominion Museum and developed a more national outlook, and an art gallery was opened in the same building shortly after. In 1936, the Dominion Museum and National Art Gallery opened in a new building on Buckle Street, which became the National Museum in 1972. In the 1980s, it was recognised that this building didn’t fully represent the emerging cultural diversity of New Zealand, and in 1992 The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa Act was a significant shift towards representing a more diverse society. 

The Act has these main goals (quoted from Te Papa website): 

“Unite the National Museum and National Art Gallery as one entity.

Unite the collections of the two institutions so that New Zealand’s stories could be told ­in an interdisciplinary way.

Be a partnership between Tangata Whenua (Māori, the indigenous people of New Zealand) and Tangata Tiriti (people in New Zealand by right of the Treaty of Waitangi).

Speak with authority.

Represent and appeal to New Zealand’s increasingly diverse society.

Be a place for discussion, debate, involvement, and celebration.

Link the past, present, and future.”

In 1998, the current Te Papa building opened on Cable Street.

“Our narrative-based, interdisciplinary, and interactive approach has attracted international attention, as has our commitment to biculturalism.”

The full name “Te Papa Tongerewa” also hold cultural and symbolic significance as explained in this quote: “Our Māori name, ‘Te Papa Tongarewa’, translates literally to ‘container of treasures’. A fuller interpretation is ‘our container of treasured things and people that spring from mother earth here in New Zealand’.” 

This history, and especially the missions from the Act, are incredibly important for us to keep in mind as we continue to develop our big idea. We are aligned with some of these goals already, for instance “represent and appeal to New Zealand’s increasingly diverse society”, we have the aim ourselves of trying to appeal to a more multi-cultural group. 

All of these pages contribute to the macro-trends identified from the earlier posts. 

Personalisation through the profile creation and filtering of information that is relevant to each user. 

Social connectivity through seeing the people connected to the same histories as you, and through the events. 

Social mission through the showcase of many different users voices and stories, connecting people to each other and to ‘our place’. 

Education and entertainment through learning other people’s stories and perspectives on history, through meeting new people, through the conversations and events at Te Papa connecting to community members and topic experts. 

Real-time and authentic through the publishing of one’s own story, could be published fairly quickly (although some sort of moderation would be needed), the users could perhaps see real-time responses from Te Papa and other users, and maybe there could be some sort of verification process (from Te Papa) for the stories, creating an authenticity for the history people are sharing. 

Consumer control through the choice of publishing your story; through choosing what you are interested in, want to know about, and are expert in - the users getting to decide, personalise and filter the information they are receiving. 

Quick map visualization of the site navigation and pages necessary to our idea. 

Starts with a login/sign up page, which will go either to a profile creation page or if already signed up, to a feed page. 

Profile creation has the opportunity for users to select their interests, areas of expertise, their cultural heritage, etc. 

Feed page has two main feeds, one for Te Papa related connections (exhibitions/artifacts/archives relevant to the users chosen interests/histories), one for community related connections (people’s stories/who is connected to the same histories+artifacts, etc). This feed page would also connect to three other pages - your story, te papa events, exhibition curation. 

Your story would prompt/allow the user to share their story related to a specific topic or cultural experience and choose which topics to connect this to. These stories would then be saved and connected to the users profile, and appear back in their feed, and other users feeds who have chosen the relevant interests/histories for their own profiles. 

Te Papa Events is where Te Papa could facilitate events to connect the users in person with each other and incentivise going to Te Papa itself. These events could be created based on the users interests, as an example creating an event around the rugby world cup and it invites everyone who has chosen that they are interested in rugby, or creating an event about the Wahine sinking and the event shows up for everyone who has shown an interest in NZ maritime history and everyone who has a story connected to that event. Users could perhaps have an option to save events, to see all the events that are suggested as connected to them, and to see all the events. This event page is personalised and the events facilitate and create social connectivity. 

Connection is an important part of millennial culture. We want to connect Millennials to each other through their shared interests and histories. 

We are creating a network to go throughout Te Papa and it’s exhibitions. 

The users could login, preferably via Facebook (as this would allow the immediate connection to an already rich amount of data), or create a login (although this would be harder, it would be necessary for users to input their interests/etc themselves). This would immediately connect them to the relevant exhibitions/artifacts/archives/stories that relate to them and their histories. For example if they had Auckland listed as their place of birth on Facebook, this could connect them to any exhibitions connected to Auckland, and show the other people who are listed as born in/connected to Auckland. 

We want to connect to the earlier story idea, and as a part of this will include a place for people to tell their stories as connected to New Zealand/Te Papa/their histories/connections with artifacts and exhibitions in Te Papa. This allows for the users to add information that isn’t on Facebook, and connect further to what they are interested in and to other people. 

The users will have the ability to request information on specific topics or items of interest, either from Te Papa or from other users who have knowledge related to those topics. This gives a two-way interaction towards the information and other people, creating a more reliable, conversational way of accessing information.