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