Kauri Museum appoints new director

21 Feb, 2022

Matakohe’s Kauri Museum announced the appointment of Canadian Barbara Hilden as its new director on February 21. Barbara joins the museum at a critical phase of planning and reshaping exhibition design and delivery, with the facility having received $3m from the Provincial Growth Fund in June 2020 for a makeover, which includes creating a centre of excellence for people to have a deeper and stronger understanding of the significance of kauri.

Museum board chairman Grant McCallum says they are delighted with the appointment.

“Barbara brings considerable international and museology experience to the role and the board was impressed with her vision for the future of museums and her focus on working with all our communities to tell our stories as we chart a new path in a post Covid world.”

Currently based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Barbara has been working for Puke Ariki Museum in New Plymouth since 2020 as the collections and curatorial lead, although the Covid border restrictions has meant that she has been carrying out work from Canada.

Prior to this she curated and managed the Borealis Gallery in Edmonton, Canada, and as a collections consultant for the Alberta Foundation for the Arts where she cared for 17 Alberta provincial art collections supervising acquisitions, worked with artists and curators, and administered the various contemporary and historical collections.

“I’m deeply honoured to be joining The Kauri Museum at this time as museums are no longer static repositories of information, they are dynamic hubs of creativity, conversation, and complexity and exist to serve our local, national, and international communities,” says Barbara, speaking from Canada.

“When we make space in our collections, exhibitions, and programmes for diverse voices, we strengthen not only the institution but also the community.

“Our job as museums and stewards is to share stories, because stories are what connect us – with our communities, with our cultures, with each other. In a post-Covid world, those connections are going to be more important than ever.”

Barbara and her partner Tom Long will be moving to New Zealand as soon as Covid border restrictions allow.

New Kauri Museum director Barbara Hilden is keen to start making connections when border restrictions allow. PHOTO/SUPPLIED