Te Papa has responded to
our post about how much each visit to the museum costs the taxpayers of New Zealand. We couldn't make the numbers stack up (and some complicated stuff about how Te Papa reports its attendances as an average over the last nine years didn't help much), but it turns out that they add to the number of visitors to its building on Wellington's waterfront the visitors to Te Papa's travelling exhibitions held in other institutions. This sleight of hand reduces the cost per visit by around 35%. So when you stumble into, say, a Te Papa exhibition of Rembrandt etchings in some small art museum somewhere in the country, you are doing your bit for Te Papa door count.
Te Papa also noted that our estimate that 800,000 people visit the art exhibitions on the fifth floor each year was completely wrong. And then they went and spoiled it all by telling us that in fact there's half that number at 400,000 visitors. That is, on average, 7,693 people a week, every week find the art on the fifth floor. We acknowledge the mistaken Noble 800 figure but anyone who has ever been up to the lonely fifth floor is going to wonder how they can kid themselves like that. You can read our request and Te Papa's response
here.
Image: The 5th floor of Te Papa at 11 am on 14 August 2011
