So how on earth did Wgtn end up with a concrete gulag, utterly user unfriendly, overrun by uniformed staff who roll their eyes when asked for directions by lost visitors.And lost they are.
You would be shot for having a smoke and the prices in the Cafe are extortionate.
School children and frantic teachers abound, all doing some pc project for whatever passes for examinations this year.

Why would a sensible adult go there?
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…Just went to Christchurch on holiday and was in Auckland earlier this year – both of these museums are so terribly boring! It seems to me that many of the Te Papa haters want traditional, typically uninteresting museums that do not appeal to children at all…

Should museums be like kindergartens, Tim? Does every institution of learning, culture, and knowledge have to be pitched at children? State institutions aimed at children (apart from schools of course) are potentially great tools for various factions to mould society to their political views, of course. The Jesuits did this particularly well for Rome, and communists and the socialists of the right, the fascists, used institutions this way, too.

Many of us believe Te Papa is painting a distorted, leftist, multiculturalist (in the political sense), revisionist, anti-colonial view — and on taxpayer funds. That as well as being state-funded entertainment.

If you find the Auckland and Christchurch museums above your grasp, go to the beach instead. Why judge museums the same way you would judge movies, DVDs, casinos, sports events, reality TV?

So Te Papa (and many other museums) fall short of my ideal. There’s still interesting stuff there but the over-explanation is commonplace. Not too stimulating, though some of the discovery areas trigger some questions and a sense of discovery, even in old minds.

The library has been my favourite part of Te Papa since I found it. Again, a slightly motley collection of books of all ages, some quite old. It’s a little like the closed or stack areas of public libraries, full of books that haven’t been read for a while, and all the more worth looking at for that. Good to know they are there, sad that they won’t be accessible. I hope they will still be there, perhaps they’ll be sold off to support reading awareness.

If you want to look at a real museum, have a look at the British Museum, or the Victoria and Albert, or the Smithsonian, the National Portrait Gallery, or even the Tate Modern. The museums have lots of interesting historical STUFF on display (like what museums are supposed to), with respectful signs saying what it is and where it came from. You are expected to construct your own “narrative”. and strangely enough people can.

What do you know. Its not there.

There is a kiddie floorshow on the bottom which is about bugs and critters ooh er. with silly little signs about how bugs are interesting.

The middle and upper areas are about how wonderful maori and pacifika are. There is a tiny hall about voyages to NZ, with a few artefacts, but basically nothing there.

The wonderful case after case of treasured possession and reminders of our heritage are all gone. Instead there is lots of mood lighting and displays aimed at “teaching” us at the reading level of a six year old.

Plus the building is hard to get around. Why on earth cant there be escalators all the way up? Why are there only 2 lifts? Is it deliberately difficult to find stuff.

I was so disappointed I walked out. The so-called national museum is now officially worse than the Canberra national museum in its genuflecture to the indigenous peoples, and its whitewashing of the last 200 years of endeavour that has built NZ from forests and swamps into something that almost made it into first world status.

As in Canberra with the magnificent war museum, there is a silver lining. The Wellington Museum in the old Bond Store is bloody brilliant. Took the wrinklies there and spent a happy couple of hours looking at real stuff, without having some schoolmarm explain how to think about it.

The families who donated their treasures to the Dominion Museum, later the National Museum so that we could all understand how New Zealand came about, and the triumphs and hardships of settling a harsh land, well they have all been airbrushed from history.

Te Papa. Its a bloody disgrace.

I went there in a group, many from out of town, one of whom was (still is) a particularly good friend of mine and happens to be in a wheelchair. We decided that interactive electronic rides were a must (more like Disneyland than a museum but that’s another point altogether).

First was some space capsule thing. Couldn’t fit the wheelchair through the door so they parked her in a corner facing the wall. I picked her up and carried her in – no small feat when one had to bend forward to fit through the door.

Next was a much larger theatre, set out like a cinema but with a moving floor. This would have considered disabled people in its construction, I figured. Nope. She was told to park near the front of the balcony on the immobile floor section, thus denying her the full experience again (and bearing in mind she was on a full price ticket).

Once again I picked her up and seated her next to me. This went on for the entire time.

Now this was perhaps a decade ago so things may have changed. I haven’t bothered going back to find out.

But aside from its overwhelming ugliness, how on earth could these attractions have been built with no thought to how they might be enjoyed by the disabled?! Clearly not only were the designers blind, they were also pig ignorant.

My Dad used to take his six children there frequently, and not only did we enjoy the museum part, but we loved the art gallery upstairs. Most of that art that I used to enjoy looking at as a child has now been hidden, and what did Te Pa do with the ancient Egyptian display?

I hate British art myself – particularly Damien Hirst and Tracy Emin. I don’t buy into all the conceptual bollocks they spout.

But I never would have been able to make my mind up for myself had I not attended the exhibition.

The point of touring an exhibition is to expose as many people as possible to the many different ideas circulating around the contemporary art world.

You clearly have a firm view of what art is and isn’t, but don’t write off an entire institution just because they hosted something you disagreed with – its unfair to expect them to please everyone all of the time. I actually think this is Te Papa’s weakness – by trying to please everyone, they please no-one.

I recall when TePapa was approved, a Wellington advertising company drew up plans for a more iconic “sparkling sea shell” design, with underwater viewing platforms. It would have been a landmark building, worthy of showing off.

The w*nkers at Te Papa knew better, of course. They wanted a non-descript, Stalinist shed.

In which to hide a library, apparently.

‘Shitmo’ would be offensive as it would rate 5 stars compared to most prisons in the Middle East .I think ‘Motoons’ has a certain ring to it & they’ll never be exhibited in Te Crapa.

The Virgin in a Condom was actually part of the ‘Pictura Britannica’ exhibition, and was exhibited alongside works by up and coming British artists. Although Te Papa carried it, they were not the ones curating it.

Te Papa and the national gallery play host to many international exhibitions and events on tour (although I can’t remember one I’ve actually been to)

While many argue artistic merit and freedom of expression my view is and was they would have never displayed say a vishnu or mohammed in a condom ,on a turd ,having a piss or in any other ” inappropriate’ context.

It also said to me in no uncertain terms that “mainstream” culture ,religion and beliefs are fair game while all else is sacrosanct.

But all the stuff you see when you enter the building is just window-dressing.

I mean, surely a museum is more than just what is on display or how it is being ‘promoted’?

Te Papa continues to have some damned good collections and archives which can be accessed for research. It might be lacking a publically accessible history of NZ railways, but that is probably more to do with a lack of curatorial expertise than some socialist agenda or other.

Lets not forget that the founding chair was Ron Trotter!

Te Papa is interesting, contemporary and kids love it. The visitor numbers are huge. Granted the exterior is a bit of a blight on the Wellington waterfront, but inside the exhibitions and general aim of the museum is great. There are so many people that come from around New Zealand to see Te Papa it has to be considered a success.

And does anyone remember the old museum? Now that was atrocious.

I fear similar things are happening with libraries: shelves of Mills & Boon, rows of free internet terminals, and racks of pop DVDs. Nothing wrong with these entertainments, but they are ratepayer funded to compete with little businesses down the road that have to charge.

To be fair to the Hutt Library, I would never have seen two seasons of the Onedin Line if I had to rent it from Blockbuster. They do stock stuff that is not stocked in high st rental stores. And they charge too. $5 a week for a dvd set, $10 for a PS2 game for the boy. I suspect that they pay for themselves very quickly, and most people I see renting dvds are also walking out with books. That has to be a good thing.

My own particular specialisation and interest is in New Zealand reef-gold mining (Think the Coromandel Peninsula, Waihi et al) and New Zealand railways, yet to visit Te Papa is to believe that (aside from WW Stewart’s superb models) railways were ‘bothersome and unimportant’, and gold-mining a pestilence of such proportions that it doesn’t even exist – or ever did. (The fact that railways opened-up the country and that New Zealand gold miners gave the world technological break-throughs and inventions that are still in widespread international-use today – as well as the city of Dunedin, is ignored) – and this from the supposed ‘Museum of New Zealand’ representing our country, and an institution that we as taxpayers all contributed towards.

Effectively, Te Papa is a socialist politically-correct revisionist institution, (complete with obligatory on-site purpose-built marae as a sop to those whom DL et al wanted to ‘butter-up’ and keep on-side). No other museum that I am aware has such a detail. Sadly, the revisionist-aspect is a fate it shares with the New Zealand National Archives (Ask to see the ‘Littlewood’ treaty if you are ever there – and watch the reactions, and listen to the words. . .), and sadly, this is not a policy that is going to change anytime soon. The ‘revisionistas ‘ are too well entrenched.

And if you are considering writing-in to complain and point out the omissions? Forget it! If it isn’t in line with the ‘new, improved’ New Zealand history, (the socialist version – not the actual facts), you are merely wasting your time. Been there, done that. . .

The architecture is of course another issue altogether, with certain mean-spirited architectural-type people of my acquaintance noting that Te Papa is built on reclaimed land and that a small localised earthquake in the harbour, closely-followed by a Tsunami (also localised) would be doing the nation an inestemable favour when it removes the architectural eyesore that Te papa is, – especially if certain prominent Labour party politicians were inside at the time. (I am of course merely passing-on the opinions expressed by others. . .)

One can but dream. . .