Te Papa is now advertising three new positions for
the curatorial team for art. This is part of a restructure that allocates the
art curators to the ‘Museum of the Future’ (new art) and the ‘Living Museum”
(old art). The new positions are for:
modern art, historical international art and historical New Zealand art
plus there's half a curator for historical photography.
The long-awaited role of Senior Curator (Sarah
Farrar is currently acting in the role) has still not been advertised
but there are strong indications that it is not being seen as a key position.
The first is that the Senior Curator won't have any input into the selection of
this new bunch of curators and the second, from the new job descriptions, is
that she or he will only have a ‘mentoring and coaching’ relationships with the
other curators rather than line responsibility. The curators will report
directly to the Operations Manager (oh, oh). We have also heard there might be
a Head of Art job to come. Wonder what they'll do? So by our count Te Papa now
has around nine art curatorial positions. Let's watch out for announcements
about more/ better space for art and funding shifts. After all, these people are going to have to do something.
You can read the job descriptions and what Te Papa
hopes from these new appointments here.
Image: a genuine curator’s egg
