Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa

The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa is New Zealand's national museum and is located in Wellington. Usually known as Te Papa (Māori for 'the treasure box'), it opened in 1998 after the merging of the National Museum of New Zealand and the National Art Gallery. An average of more than 1.5 million people visit every year, making it the 26th-most-visited art gallery in the world. Te Papa operates under a bicultural philosophy, and emphasises the living stories behind its cultural treasures. History Colonial Museum The first predecessor to Te Papa was the Colonial Museum, founded in 1865, with Sir James Hector as founding director. The museum was built on Museum Street, roughly in the location of the present day Defence House Office Building. The museum prioritised scientific collections but also acquired a range of other items, often by donation, including prints and paintings, ethnographic curiosities, and items of antiquity. In 1907, the Colonial Museum was renamed the Dominion Museum and took on a broader focus. The idea of developing a public art gallery in Wellington was gathering support, and the Science and Art Act of 1913 paved the way for a national art gallery in the same building. Co-location with National Art Gallery Following the passing of the National Art Gallery and Dominion Museum Act in 1930, the two institutions shared a single board of trustees. In 1934, the National Art Gallery moved into the Dominion Museum building and incorporated the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts, which sold its land and donated the proceeds to the new organisation together with an initial collection. The early holding consisted largely of donations and bequests, including those from Harold Beauchamp, T. Lindsay Buick, Archdeacon Smythe, N. Chevalier, J. C. Richmond, William Swainson, Bishop Monrad, John Ilott and Rex Nan Kivell. In 1936, a new building to house both the collections opened in Buckle Street as a part of the newly built National War Memorial. In 1985 a temporary exhibition space venue was added to the National Art Gallery. Shed 11 the Temporary/Contemporary was situated on the Wellington waterfront in a converted industrial warehouse built in 1905 and exhibited contemporary art, both local and international, until 1992.