So shoot us for getting it wrong. There we were suggesting that foregrounding Wellington-based artists on Te Papa’s fifth floor might sweeten the passage of the Wellington City Council’s annual allocation of $2.25 million to the museum. Well that didn't happen. The WCC decided to give the sum a haircut and reduced the allocation to Te Papa to $1 million. Te Papa’s startling response was to tell the DomPost that the WCC's $2.25 million made up more than half its total annual cash sponsorship of $3.81 million. So Wellington ratepayers were stumping up over 59 percent of Te Papa’s total cash sponsorship. Who knew?
By that accounting, even with the cut, WCC is still a major sponsor with a contribution of over 25 percent of the annual amount Te Papa attracts in sponsorship. As it stands. Te Papa has eight sponsors. Four are government agencies (including WCC) and four are commercial concerns. So the other seven sponsors are putting up an average of $222,000 each making even a reduced WCC contribution of $1 million kind of significant.
NOTE: In June 2012 the Wellington City Council reviewed its decision to cut Te Papa's annual funding and agreed to continue funding as per its original allocation of $2.25 million per year.
Image: Dr. Evil: ONE MILLION DOLLARS! Number Two: Don't you think we should ask for more than a million dollars? A million dollars isn't exactly a lot of money these days.
