Say so long to Delectable Collectables
For the past 18 years, local people’s collections have been displayed in Te Papa’s Inspiration Station.
Ranging from Chinese wood figures and tin toys, to Star Wars memorabilia and elephants, a rotating showpiece in Inspiration Station called Delectable Collectables has shown the art of collecting is alive and well.
Wellingtonian Tanya Marriott is the last to share her unique collection with Te Papa visitors before Inspiration Station, one of four children’s discovery centres, closes on Monday.
Marriott has been building her collection of more than 500 My Little Ponies since she was five years old.
She says collecting is simply about the love of the object.
‘‘Every collector has a reason for why they’re doing it, but collecting for collecting’s sake is a strange phenomenon,’’ she says.
‘‘When I pull out My Little Ponies, all these memories and stories come with them. It gives them value. The ones displayed at Te Papa are actually the more destroyed ones, because I loved them so much.’’
She says displaying her collection at Te Papa was a rewarding experience.
‘‘People tend to think that they go to museums to see something phenomenal, and instead they’re confronted with this everyday item – one that they remember from their own childhoods.’’
Rongotai College student Eric London curated and displayed more than 88 items in Delectable Collectables from his own dinosaur collection in 2009, when he was eight years old.
He enjoyed sharing his passion, something he says you never truly grow out of.
‘‘I didn’t quite realise how big a deal it was at the time, to exhibit in a national museum. To me, it was just really cool for other people to see how much I liked dinosaurs.’’
Te Papa curator, communities and diversity, Lynette Townsend says the Delectable Collectables display was about uncovering and showcasing what adults and children collect, and why.
Inspiration Station also includes art and history activities, dress ups and the infamous ‘‘Big Baby’’.
It closes on Monday to allow for construction to begin on the museum’s new Art Zone.