On Sunday 13 March, Robbin Murphy wrote:

>Appelbaum and Associates is one of the most aggresive firms working in
that
>space between the museum and Disney (The Holocaust Museum in Washington,
>D.C., the Museum of New Zealand, The Motown Museum, etc). I believe he
has
>good intentions but, frankly, he frightens me because of that.

Actually, I don't believe anybody from Appelbaum & Co. have been in New
Zealand in the last four years.  While that firm did some important
early conceptual work for our Museum, Te Papa's exhibition designs were
done here in New Zealand.  And while the Museum of New Zealand is not an
Appelbaum design; we are still very much on the entertaining, engaging
side of the spectrum.  

Te Papa is an extremely ambitious project.  For it to succeed financially
this Museum must significantly broaden its base of support. The
exhibitions in the one-month-old Te Papa are designed to be engaging
(and yes, entertaining) to a very wide range of visitors.  I'd like to
think that people in the Appelbaum and Disney audience  -- and the more
traditional museum audience -- would all enjoy and learn something about
New Zealand from a visit to Te Papa.  For us the operative word is
"and."  We must retain the traditional audience AND grow a new audience;
to do this we try to provide enjoyment AND a learning experience.   

Disney and Appelbaum are both very good storytellers; we hope Te Papa is
telling some great stories too.


Robin Parkinson

Head of Design, 
The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa 

    And starting 30 March, freelance exhibition designer based in New
York City -- (212-924-2083)