>Doug Hoy wrote:
>
>The statements you make about targets and strategy and cost effectiveness are
>all very well and good, but the actions you describe sound like those of an
>introspective, self-absorbed institution...[snip]
>
>...I think that the days of people respecting authority are past. Even the
>Pope has admitted that Galileo was right. A museum that relies on authority
>to get its messages across may instead come across as laughingly
>old-fashioned at least, if not arrogant and self-absorbed. People expect
>relevance to their needs, consultation, equality, dialogue, sensitivity,
>transparency, openness, etc. , etc. I didn't pick that up from your
>announcement. Am I wrong?
>
>Doug
>
>Thanks for the feedback, Doug.  Yes, you're wrong, though it's my fault.  In
>a short email communication (in a thread about whether research and
>scholarship in a museum is important or affordable) I failed to convey all
>these complex ideas fully.
>
>Te Papa has made a very substantial commitment to (and has undertaken lots
>of) market research and public evaluation of all the Museum's proposed
>activities and exhibitions, at several stages of our development.  Amongst
>other methods we've used focus groups, structured questionnaires, community
>group consultations, advisory panels, specialist reviews and public open
>days.  In respect of matauranga Maori, our Maori staff work very closely with
>the iwi (tribes) who are the owners and repositories of that knowledge.
>
>The results of all this work fully inform our choices about programme
>activities, and therefore also our research endeavours.  I wasn't in any
>sense suggesting that we think we will (or should) be respected because we
>speak with authority.  We will only be "respected" ( = visited, used,
>supported, enjoyed, returned to) if we provide what people want, like, and
>are prepared to pay for (directly through those activities we will charge
>for, or indirectly through taxation).
>
>"Speaking with authority" means that we believe our customers have the right
>to expect that when we communicate with them, (which we will do in as
>attractive, lively and fun a manner as possible), what we say will be
>accurate, or "correct", precisely because we are a museum.  They might not
>have such an expectation of, say, a fun park or video game parlour.  We must
>underpin what we do with sound scholarship, so that we are confident to stand
>behind what we communicate.  We also have to recognise that one of our
>publics is the specialist, scholarly audience.  Our public programmes are not
>aimed to cater to their specialist needs (there are other ways to do that),
>but they should be able to see that our public programmes are based on sound
>scholarship.
>
>I wrote "correct" in quotes above, because clearly on many issues there is
>debate, discussion, dissent - we see our role very much as a forum to
>encourage such debate.  We won't in any sense be trying to impose a single
>point of view based on our "authority", but we will be trying to ensure that
>the debate develops from a foundation of good scholarship and matauranga
>Maori.
>___________
>
>Stuart Park
>TE PAPA
>Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
>Wellington, New Zealand
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