The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa (“Te Papa”) is an autonomous Crown entity that preserves, protects, acquires, researches and provides access to collections that are part of Aotearoa New Zealand’s artistic, cultural and natural heritage. Our collections are at the core of the national estate of collections, alongside those held by other Aotearoa New Zealand museums and institutions. Te Papa’s collections comprise of approximately 2.2 million treasures and span five key disciplines: History, Art, Pacific Cultures, Natural History, and Mātauranga Māori; and includes Collected Archives. We also hold a library rare books collection that contains about 2,500 items.

Within Te Papa we employ conservators who have expertise in the areas of textiles, paper, objects, and paintings. They are part of our Collection Care team, within the Directorate of Collections and Research. 

Conservators carry out the conservation of collections associated with exhibitions, loans, acquisitions, and digitisation, and support the preservation aims and wellbeing of our collections.  
Conservation at Te Papa is promoted in Ngā Tikanga Whakahaere Kohinga Taonga a Te Papa | Collection Care and Practice Framework, which consists of 16 practice standards covering management, care, and use. The Framework articulates our activities, including: Perform assessments and treatments on individual collection items/taonga to enhance their longevity, use or cultural integrity.

To facilitate our capability in this area as our programme requires, Te Papa is establishing panel of preferred suppliers, i.e. a group of conservators from whom Te Papa can request services directly. Registrations of interest are invited from conservators who can provide services in the following areas:

• works of art on paper and archival materials
• photographic materials
• time-based media art
• objects

Please refer to the attached documents:

1. Conservator Supplier Panel (PDF), outlining our requirements and the process in detail
2. Form for respondents to complete (MS Word doc)

The deadline for registering interest, by submitting the completed response form, is 2pm on 5 October.

Questions may be directed to Neil Blackie, Procurement Specialist Neil.Blackie@tepapa.govt.nz