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Getting to Our Place

1999 Television
  • Documentary
  • Arts/Culture
  • NZ History

This 70-minute documentary provides an eye-opening view into the crucible that forged Wellington's Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. The museum opened in February 1998. The fly-on-the-wall doco reveals the challenges of developing a national museum melding history, art gallery and commercial attractions. As political, creative and monetary considerations collide, the result bears "many of the hallmarks of a thriller" (NZ Herald writer Peter Calder). Included are tense stoushes about funding, the Treaty of Waitangi exhibition, and Saatchi & Saatchi's logo ideas. This backgrounder adds further detail.