Walking away from Our Place

By GEOFF CUMMING

Someone is pressing the wrong buttons at Te Papa. Hardly has the driving force behind our most ambitious and successful cultural project left the building and her detractors are sharpening their tongues.

Dame Cheryll Sotheran's resignation last weekend was for health reasons, complications associated with her diabetes, but that didn't stop speculation about the real reasons behind her departure.

Her volatile reputation with staff, the museum's "paper" losses and a falloff in visitors in the last financial year were cited. With perennial criticism over the museum's direction, the resignation last month of her personal assistant, and threatened legal action from a consultant, it seemed she must have jumped before she was pushed.

But after nine years in a hugely demanding, high-profile role, the truth more likely lies in her surprising farewell statement to staff: "Recently I have become aware that I am not as robust as I once was and it is time to move on."

Was this the woman hailed on opening day 4 1/2 years ago as the navigator and helmsman of the great ship Te Papa Tongarewa?

After last year's charges by a former curator that Te Papa operated under a "climate of fear", the image conjured up by her resignation was more that of a tyrannical captain prised from the wheel. You could imagine the interactive monument on Wellington's waterfront heaving a sigh of relief.

It seems an undignified end for the chief executive of such a prominent public institution, one that has exceeded all expectations in visitor numbers since its opening in February 1998.

Even if they've never been there, most New Zealanders think positively about Te Papa - no mean feat in a country used to pouring scorn on efforts to capture its cultural heritage.

Among museums, it forged an international reputation for engaging the public through its use of technology, imaginative displays and themed exhibitions. Visitor numbers passed six million in January and continue to exceed forecasts. Te Papa is credited with introducing a new audience to museums and popularising our appreciation of our history, the arts and sciences.

Yet, as with Sotheran, opinion about Te Papa is sharply divided. Its many academic critics dismiss it as more an entertainment palace than a serious museum that educates visitors and whose collections are the subject of scholarly research.

Many academics see Sotheran's departure as an opportunity for Te Papa to shift from its extreme populist approach and salvage a reputation as a serious educational and research institution. But even they acknowledge that to do so would risk losing its edge and alienating its audience.

Whoever replaces Sotheran faces an unenviable task, but nowhere near as daunting as that which the former history lecturer and gallery manager took on in 1993. By then, a national cultural centre combining the collections of the National Museum and the National Art Gallery had been eight years in the planning. Its guiding legislation required it to reflect biculturalism, be a forum for the nation and foster debate about culture and national identity.

The project evolved during a time of international debate about the role and place of museums. No longer stuffy tombs of academia, publicly funded institutions were expected to appeal to broad audiences, use state-of-the-art display and be less of a drain on taxpayers.

Te Papa's architects, led by senior project officer Ken Gorbey, were enthusiastic disciples of this "new museology," and signalled their intention to give the museum a common touch.

Under Sotheran, Te Papa took new museology to another level. Its theme rides, interactive displays and use of kiwiana made it hugely popular with children and with adult audiences who shunned traditional museums.

Former art curator Tim Walker says Sotheran faced an enormous task to complete the project on time and create a "truly inclusive" museum and art gallery for the nation - as was required by statute. She introduced an institutional culture based around teamwork and project management, challenging staff to rethink ways of doing things.

"There was an expectation of being focused, being strategic and doing what we said we would do - and frustration with staff if standards weren't met. But that had to be seen in the context of the almost unachieveable task she faced."

Sotheran's challenging management style was laid bare last October when former curator Jillian Lloyd took claims of bullying, discrimination and constructive dismissal to the Employment Relations Authority. Lloyd told of "a climate of fear at Te Papa which starts at the top and trickles down". Sotheran went around swearing and abusing people, she said.

Sotheran could not recall screaming or yelling at curatorial staff and said she was tougher on her senior management team. She said some curators were unable to accept the model at Te Papa, which did not give them priority over others, such as marketers and designers.

The authority did not uphold Lloyd's case, saying the museum had not committed any "actionable wrong" against her.

Walker says he had no problems with Sotheran's management style. "I certainly never felt it inappropriate to approach her."

She brought to the job an impressive track record from New Plymouth's Govett-Brewster Art Gallery and the Dunedin Art Gallery, where she shifted the collection to new premises.

Walker says she was more than an administrator, "she was a visionary as well".

But not everyone was ready for the new museology or Te Papa's interpretation of its task of fostering public debate. Not long after opening, there was controversy over the Virgin in a Condom statuette, part of an exhibition of British art. And the display of a Colin McCahon painting next to a refrigerator reflected an approach that continues to rankle with art purists.

At the end of its first year, Sotheran was created a dame for services to museum administration. She was named New Zealander of the Year by North and South magazine, which quoted then board chairman Sir Ron Trotter's assessment of her as a "great manager".

Trotter was again effusive in Sotheran's defence this week, praising her as a woman of considerable vision. "She is a very efficient manager in the sense that this was a $350 million project and she delivered on time to the day and under budget by considerable millions. That's something that has not been achieved in many public works."

He says the Te Papa concept caused a lot of hostility which Sotheran was aggressive in facing. "The point is, it works. She's created something. That's her legacy."

Others maintain that it doesn't work. In scientific and artistic circles, the consensus is that Te Papa has gone too far, dumbing-down its educational role and paying lip service to research.

Scientists say the theme rides and interactive displays are lightweight in educational terms and will prove hugely expensive to upgrade as interest in them wanes. Many find the attractions a noisy distraction and information about exhibits too glib and superficial.

Concern about "jumbled, incoherent" displays prompted Arts and Culture Minister Helen Clark to order a review of Te Papa soon after coming to power. That review led to an $11 million funding injection and the construction of new galleries to display the national art collection.

But the opening of the galleries last October failed to sway the critics, particularly Sotheran's insistence that works be linked to themes rather than hung for permanent exhibition.

Professor Elizabeth Rankin, head of art history at Auckland University, says that in trying to simplify things there's a great danger of being too simplistic. "It's an absolute balancing act and getting it right is tough. But it's possible to be entertaining without being banal."

Rankin and others are concerned that the museum has subjugated the role of curators, with marketing and public relations staff given equal say in exhibitions.

Among the sciences, there is dismay about the non-replacement of specialist curators for marine mammals, land snails, fossil birds and marine invertebrates.

But other academics say Te Papa is doing what it can within its resources. Professor Dick Bellamy, Dean of Science at Auckland University, says many of Te Papa's scientific collections are not as notable as those in Auckland and Christchurch. He says it had little choice but to take a populist path, given its limited funding and high overheads.

Sotheran has pointed to similar misconceptions about the quality of the national art collection. "I think there's a perception that we have storehouses full of major works," she said last October. She said the collection was relatively young, mostly on paper and paled in comparison to Auckland and Dunedin.

Auckland Art Gallery director Chris Saines says Te Papa has responded to the criticisms of the serious arts community with its latest exhibitions. Past Presents, in the new main gallery, shows "for the first time in my experience something of the depth and quality of Te Papa's art collections".

Saines found a similar "sense of renewed vigour" in Taiawhio, an exhibition combining contemporary Maori art, traditional carving and weaving practices, mixed media works and sculpture.

"I think they have responded to their critics and moved on. In terms of the visual arts, they now stand in a very different place to where they were in the early days.

"They must be given credit for taking that critical nettle in hand and responding to it."

A similar evolution is in store for the sciences. Board chairman Roderick Deane says completion of the new art galleries creates space to extend Te Papa's scholarship, research and curatorial functions.

In the search for a new CEO, the board will look for someone who can develop the curatorial and research side without losing Sotheran's marketing skills and knowledge of the arts.

"The challenge is to strengthen the intellectual and scholarship base while maintaining an institution which is very successful with the public and which has wide appeal.

"We've had 6 1/2 million people in 4 1/2 years and I'd very much like us to continue to market Te Papa strongly."

- Additional reporting by Paula Oliver.