Te Papa’s biggest revamp in two decades has the national museum devote a third more space to art.
The newly-opened gallery, Toi Art, spans two levels of the museum and includes art from the collection and new works commissioned for the space.
Though art gets more room, only a fraction of the 40,000 piece collection is on display.
Standing Room Only invited critics Mary-Jane Duffy and Mark Amery to give their assessment.
Art critic for the Big Idea, Mark Amery, says it feels much more like a museum for the 21st century.
“There’s a sense of space around the work,” he says.
A claustrophobic space, often criticised as a rabbit warren has been made more logical, and if feels as though Te Papa has “got something right”, he says.
“There’s a lot of adventurous selections of work like bold Don Driver collages – things we haven’t seen for a while.
“The abiding thing is suddenly we feel part of the Pacific, all this tapa work in the show.”
A girl plays in the interactive art studio at Toi Art Photo: Kate Whitley / Te Papa
Mary-Jane Duffy, Head of Whitirea’s creative writing programme, who has previously worked at Te Papa, singled out the exhibition Pacific Sisters: Fashion Activists and the historical portraits for praise.
She says it would be ideal if works on show from the permament collection could be changed every six months.
