Those of you who were as surprised as we were by Te Papa’s intention to monetise the curatorial functions of the
museum and use the collection’s artefacts to turn a bob can rest easy. The job
description for the new Associate Director Enterprise has been severely modified to dial back these commercial expectations.
Some time between our post
on Wednesday morning and that afternoon the editors were hard at work cutting and pasting. The most
startling bits in the job description (the stuff about having Te Papa operate "commercially
when curating exhibitions” and having responsibility for "commercialising
artefacts”) are gone. They've been replaced by more conventional
expectations to "ensure commercial opportunities are generated around our
collections…”
There's nothing to indicate
these changes have been made but any marketing thrusters who were looking
forward to cash in on curation will be disappointed. For the rest of us it's a
matter of remembering that somewhere in that building someone pretty senior
thought it was a good idea.
