Attention to detail makes visitors’ experience special

Museums and galleries require a lot of different people, activities and tasks to make them function. Most are aware of the curator’s role in an organisation such as ours – they undertake all the research behind exhibitions, find themes and interesting elements, look at the subject-matter in a wider context and then, ultimately, distil it down into the information you see when you enter one of our galleries. They choose objects from the collection, or borrow items, and carefully consider what is grouped together and how they support the display.

Generally, people are also aware that there are collection items held by the museum and that we have people who manage this – from legal documentation adding things to (or removing them from) the collection. They number, catalogue, pack and house objects and organise loans to and from other institutions or from individuals connected to the concepts, themes or stories we tell in our galleries.

When you visit the museum, you’ll encounter our lovely Customer Service team who greet you and help with any queries. Many of you, I hope, are aware of our fabulous gift shop and this too requires managing, from finding new product, keeping up with restocking and presenting items in a beautiful and appealing way, it takes work.

There’s a lot more that goes on that you may be less aware of. We need to manage copyright issues appropriately, ensuring we’re following copyright laws and engage with copyright holders to achieve this. Just because we might physically own an item, doesn’t mean we have copyright for it. There’s a lot of photography work in the museum – not the kind that I do snapping an image with my phone – proper professional photography. This happens for a variety of reasons: for museum purposes such as publications, social media posts, website and exhibitions, or external requests for personal use, inclusion in book publications, research and so on. The intersection between photography and copyright is fluid and continuous.

Within our exhibitions there’s much you may not consciously notice - everything within a gallery is done deliberately. Colour is chosen carefully, perhaps it symbolises something relevant to the subject matter (paua shell colours in Kuru Taonga: Voices of Kahungunu), it may simply allow the works to shine (such as the neural colours in The Light Shone Clear), it might evoke a sense of place (land and ocean palette in Pūrakāu), or create a feeling (vibrant playful orange in Eye Spy: Curious Stories). The layout, use of mounts, type of materials (wood, metal, etc), font chosen – everything is designed to support the experience. When done well you may not be aware of it, but if the gallery ‘feels right’ and seamless it’s not by accident and our talented team are behind it.

Educators utilise the exhibitions, staff expertise and collection to create unique education experiences that support the school curriculum. With every changing display the Educators develop a new programme to offer schools and students. The recent change in school curriculum, focusing more on Aotearoa’s history, has seen teachers look to the museum even more to help them in this area.

The upshot is that it takes a team to make the museum work, and we have experts and professionals in their fields who make MTG what it is today.

Published in the Hawke’s Bay Today newspaper on 20 April 2024 and written by Laura Vodanovich, Director at MTG Hawke’s Bay.

Image: Jason Napthali and Elizabeth Goodall preparing the collection for relocation to the new collection store in Hastings.

22 April 2024

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