Museums are under pressure. Jaenine Parkinson says they’ve never mattered more
Saturday, 23 May 2026
In May last year, Jaenine Parkinson left her job as director of the New Zealand Portrait Gallery Te Pūkenga Whakaata, a position she’d held for nearly eight years, to become the head of art at Te Papa.
Just months after accepting her new job, Parkinson was told her role would be disestablished, part of a significant restructure the national museum embarked on in a bid to cut its costs.
Now, Parkinson is again stepping into a new role ‒ this time, as the chief executive of Museums Aotearoa ‒ the membership organisation representing and advocating on behalf of New Zealand’s galleries and museums.
“I was reflecting on my short time at Te Papa. Despite it all, I still really valued the opportunity to be in there. And the reason I still showed up every day is just because of the huge potential ‒ the huge wealth [of knowledge]. It’s meaningful,” Parkinson tells The Post.
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She believes museums and galleries have the power to challenge narratives, connect cultures, and share stories and knowledge that matter.
“In life, you can have your needs taken care of. But if you don’t have that meaning piece filled, then what’s the point?”
Meaning and museums go hand-in-hand for Parkinson, who has spent two decades working in the world of GLAM ‒ galleries, libraries, archives and museums.
Before the Portrait Gallery, she had a stint as arts, museums and heritage adviser at Kāpiti Coast District Council; she was the exhibition attendant for Lisa Reihana’s show at the 2017 Venice Biennale; she was the exhibitions project coordinator at the Auckland Art Gallery for several years; and before all that she was director of an art project space called Blue Oyster in Dunedin.
She also worked in various cultural spaces in Canada, including a performing arts centre located within a deconsecrated cathedral.
Born in Kāpiti north of Wellington and having gone to Paraparaumu College, Parkinson is keenly aware of museums’ relationships with communities, particularly in the regions.
Coming into her new role, she wants to see a demonstrated commitment to Te Tiriti o Waitangi across the sector, alongside deeper recognition of the quality and impact of the work museums and galleries already do.
She says pressures facing cultural institutions are mostly the same ones that other organisations are dealing with: the rising cost of living, climate change, quake-prone buildings, a lack of investment, a lack of space, a loss of expertise overseas.
All these issues are in Parkinson’s sights, as she takes the leadership and advocacy reins for the sector.
But perhaps topping all this, are the pressures that are on local government.
“Museums and galleries, except for Te Papa, are in partnership with local government,” Parkinson says. “When pressure is pushed on local government, it just filters in. It’s a very symbiotic relationship.”
While cultural institutions’ unique strength is how deeply embedded they are in their communities, it also means they are vulnerable to changes in the local politics space.
As an example, the sitting Government’s proposal to introduce a rates cap means less funding could make its way from councils to cultural institutions.
She sees museums and galleries as places where people can solve problems together, strengthen shared values, and rebuild trust in one another.
In the current age of disinformation and online noise, Parkinson believes it’s important people have opportunities to go to places they can trust; places where they can feel less alone.
“Museums and galleries are often free or low cost to access, in your local community, staffed by your local people. They talk about who you are, connect you to other people and the past, and inspire your creativity”, Parkinson says.
“… But there is a challenge ahead.”
Museums Aotearoa is arguing for a shift in the balance of who’s responsible for museums and galleries ‒ put simply, could central government come to the party in a more meaningful way?
At present, the Government gives about $46.57m to Te Papa each year, comprising roughly half the funding it needs, but all other museums and galleries must largely make their own way.
In the country’s first-of-its-kind national cultural strategy published last year, the Ministry for Culture and Heritage said it would investigate alternative funding options to support cultural infrastructure like museums and galleries, including exploring additional Crown funding, and “other cost recovery models”.
Parkinson says there’s huge untapped potential in the space, given the sector’s contributions to education, tourism, and the economy more broadly.
“The balance between local and central government, and the responsibility for looking after these essential services and assets, is not well split,” she says.
A comprehensive 2022 report commissioned from Museums Aotearoa and authored by consultants BERL, found the total assets for New Zealand’s museums and galleries were valued at $5.6 billion, including about $3.6b in 45 million collection items, and another $2b in buildings.
It found the sector provides a GDP contribution of more than $272m, and relies on the support of more than 11,000 volunteers.
Aotearoa’s museums and galleries received 17.5 million visits in 2021, employed 3365 fulltime equivalent workers that same year, and provided education benefits to students equivalent to $24.6m, the report found.
Other things on Parkinson’s mind include whether enough young people are being supported into roles as the sector looks down the barrel of a generational cliff, showcasing “the great indoors” as part of New Zealand’s tourism appeal, and the use of AI within GLAM.
“Museums can be the storehouses of knowledge and history and stability, but they can also be places of creativity and innovation,” she says.
In a note provided to Museums Aotearoa, Parkinson talks about looking at moa bones inside Te Papa with her son Owen, who’s 5.
“I found myself talking with him about kaitiakitanga (guardianship), about care, responsibility, and the obligations we inherit alongside taonga (treasures). Moments like this are where museums do some of their most important work: deepening understanding, shaping values, and connecting past, present and future.”
Amid the siloing of thought and social fracturing stoked by social media and algorithm-driven content, Parkinson ‒ who holds a master’s degree in art history from the University of Auckland ‒ believes there’s room for museums and galleries to help people actually speak to each other again; to help bridge gaps between groups.
“Where is the best place to have this kind of conversation? We’re actually going do this work in art galleries and museums.”
But Parkinson says it’s equally important for museums and galleries to continue interrogating the histories and narratives they’ve inherited and presented, including those shaped by colonial frameworks.
“It’s imperfect, and it is a journey, and we get it wrong, … but I also see it as a huge opportunity,” she says.
“The potential of our spaces to have these brave conversations, to bring people together, to get over some of these big hurdles around trust and social cohesion, … that’s the kind of the success that I’m aspiring to.”