On Mon, 1 Sep 1997 09:14:47 +1200, Stuart Park
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>
>TE PAPA, the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, is developing a
>new national museum for New Zealand, to be opened in six months time.
>We are all very busy working on the thousands of tasks that are needed
>for Day One, from exhibition installation, to setting up the shop, to
>making signs for the car park. =20
>
>Yet in all of this, we are still very mindful of a basic value of the
>Museum, that all we do and communicate to our publics must be based on
>the highest quality of scholarship and, in our bicultural society,
>m=E4tauranga M=E4ori, the knowledge and learning systems of the M=E4ori =
>of New
>Zealand.
>
>A strategy document "Speaking with Authority" (1996) set out our
>approach to these responsibilities, developing four major themes around
>which all our research endeavours are now focussed.  The outcomes for
*snip*

Very interesting, Stuart.  I think many of us are awaiting with
interest your museum's opening. I sure wish I could be there for it.
Since you volunteered the announcement, I'll volunteer some feedback
(you didn't ask for any, true, but  there you go).
On the face of it, your announcement seems contradictory. 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. The audiences
you mention are all described tautologically, e.g., 'visitors to our
museum and readers of our publications', making me doubt that you
could use these targets in a marketing or communication plan. And the
mention of *your* needs, internal teams working on procedures and
guidelines, and peer review by other museum experts sure sounds
involuted to me. Finally, the title 'Speaking With Authority', just
about sums it up. I'm fighting the urge to be sarcastic here, but
doesn't it all seem a little one-sided?
On the other hand--I have not read your strategic document, so this
may very well be the best course for your enterprise. If there are a
lot of cultural attractions in New Zealand, all pretending to be
expert sources, but failing through amateurism, poor scholarship and
plain shoddiness (Niagara Falls just popped into my head, isn't that
odd?), and the public is crying out for an authoritative museum that
can tell them the truth, why, then, establishing a position of
authority would be crucial. It also makes sense that a fledgling
institution might worry about its reputation and try to establish
itself as an authority.
On the gripping hand, however, 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