Source: MIL-OSI Submissions
Source: Te Papa
Te Papa will re-open to the public at 10am on Tuesday 29 June and be open with its regular hours of 10am to 6pm, seven days a week.
Most of the museum’s exhibitions and spaces will be open, with some interactive displays closed off.
The Surrealist Art exhibition will be open. A maximum 78 people will be allowed in the exhibition at a time, to enable the recommended distancing between people.
Te Papa closed last Wednesday soon after it was announced as a location of interest for covid 19. A visitor to the museum on Saturday 19 June tested positive for the virus on his return to Australia.
Te Papa said that 123 of its staff were affected.
- 119 were at the museum between 3pm and 6pm on Saturday 19 June. Of these, 28 were in the Surrealist Art exhibition and 91 were in the general museum.
- 4 more staff were at other places of interest in Wellington.
All staff in the museum in the time period were required to get covid tests, with staff who were in the Surrealist Art exhibition required to self-isolate for 14 days.
Te Papa’s Chief Executive | Tumu Whakarae Courtney Johnston is among those self-isolating, as she visited the Surrealist Art exhibition that day.
As of Sunday afternoon, more than half of Te Papa’s affected staff had returned negative covid tests while others were awaiting results. No positive tests had been returned.
The museum will re-open on Tuesday 29 June under its established alert level two settings and will move to alert level one settings when Wellington does. Some additional measures will also be in place, which are detailed below.
Tumu Whakarae | Chief Executive Courtney Johnston said the museum was looking forward to welcoming back its visitors.
“We deep cleaned the building last week and have been looking forward to opening our doors again.”
“Te Papa can open safety under alert level two. The key thing for us is having enough staff on the floor, while a number of our team are waiting for test results.”
“With sufficient test results now coming in, we have enough staff who have tested negative to welcome and care for our visitors.”
Te Papa’s Kaihautū | Māori co-leader Dr Arapata Hakiwai said the well-being of visitors and staff was paramount.
“Te Papa is all about manaakitanga, caring for our visitors, and that means caring for our team too.”
“The health of our community is our number one focus, and we have worked with health authorities to do whatever we can to support the health of Aotearoa,” Dr Hakiwai said.
While Te Papa was closed over the weekend, it made its carpark available to health authorities as a temporary covid testing station.
Karakia were held for the re-opening of the museum to staff on Monday, and a further karakia will be held on Tuesday before the museum opens to the public.
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