13 Dec 2019

Courtney Johnston to become Te Papa Chief Executive

From Nine To Noon, 10:05 am on 13 December 2019

Courtney Johnston is to become Te Papa's new chief executive. At 40 she is the youngest person to ever lead the national museum and the first woman since its founding chief executive Cheryll Sotheran.

She is currently director of audience and insight at Te Papa - and Nine to Noon's long-standing arts commentator.

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Photo: supplied

She takes over from Geraint Martin, a former DHB chief executive, who has held the role for the last two and a half years.

Te Papa has been through significant turmoil and faced staff morale issues. Johnston tells Kathryn Ryan her plan in turning around the rather dire situation is to give “lots of love.”

“Museums today are about love. They’re about love and emotion. They’re about care. They’re about acknowledging difficult things that have happened in our pasts. They’re about a diversity of voices and they’re about coming together to form a future and that’s what really excites me.”

Johnston says it’s a job of a lifetime for her and she’s been building towards it for a very long time.

Te Papa has a shared leadership model between the chief executive and the kaihautū (Māori co-leader). Johnston says she’s excited to work with current kaihautūl, Arapata Hakiwai.

“We will mix skills, I think. Like a Venn diagram there are certain things, there is mana that Arapata carries and a weight of responsibilities that I could never acquit. There will be things that I do, but I think the key thing for us will be finding that way of weaving together.”

There have been three major restructures under the past three CEOs, the last of which was very controversial. The good news, Johnston says, is that there are no plans for another one in the near future.

“Every organisation makes tweaks in order to deliver the best service. I think the science community wants what every community we work with wants, which is to know that we’re building collections and caring for them properly, that we’re carrying out academic and rigorous research and that we’re sharing that with the public.

“I’m a museum person through and through. I really look forward to working with the science community on that.”

As for her vision as CEO, she says she wants a Te Papa that gets New Zealanders talking.

“The real magic that museum’s do is the connection that they make between the person and the object or the person and the knowledge. That’s our area of opportunity. That’s our magic. That’s our special power of transformation.”

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