page_title: Cheryll Sotheran
section_title: Career
hierarchical_section_title: Cheryll Sotheran / Career
caption_attribution_description: Exterior of Te Papa
context_page_description: Dame Cheryll Beatrice Sotheran DNZM was a New Zealand museum professional. She was the founding chief executive of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa and was credited with the successful completion of the museum, considered the largest international museum project of the 1990s.
context_section_description: Sotheran lectured in Art History at Auckland University before beginning her career in art administration when she was appointed director of the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery in 1986. 
  While in Auckland, Sotheran was also a founding member of the Feminist Art Network, working with artists and curators, including Juliet Batten, Elizabeth Eastmond, Alexa Johnston, Claudia Pond Eyley, Priscilla Pitts and Carole Shepheard.
  In 1989, Sotheran was appointed as director of the Dunedin Public Art Gallery, and in 1992 she was appointed as the founding chief executive of the nascent Te Papa, created from the merger of New Zealand's National Museum and National Art Gallery in a new building on the Wellington waterfront. The construction of Te Papa was the biggest international museum project of the 1990s and included moving a hotel on wheels to enable the museum to be built on its waterfront site.
  The opening of Te Papa in February 1998 was completed on time and on budget. A documentary by Anna Cottrell and Gaylene Preston, Getting to Our Place, recorded the process of developing the museum on a new museological principle of biculturalism.
  Sotheran weathered several controversies during her tenure at Te Papa, including ongoing criticism of the display of the national art collection and significant public protest when Tania Kovat's art work Virgin in a Condom was exhibited at the museum in an exhibition of work by the Young British Artists in 1998.
  Sotheran resigned from Te Papa for health reasons in 2002. She subsequently acted as sector director of creative industries at New Zealand Trade and Enterprise, where she was responsible for the strategic development of the creative industries across all sectors in the New Zealand economy.
caption: Exterior view of Te Papa Tongarewa in 2016
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon EOS 500D", "Image XResolution": "240", "Image YResolution": "240", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4.0 (Windows)", "Image DateTime": "2016:05:27 09:36:18", "Image ExifOffset": "208", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "798", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "12627", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/80", "EXIF FNumber": "8", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Shutter Priority", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "100", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2016:01:25 06:39:46", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2016:01:25 06:39:46", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "790241/125000", "EXIF ApertureValue": "6", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "29/8", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "18", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "74", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "74", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "792000/149", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "3168000/593", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF BodySerialNumber": "2250762923", "EXIF LensSpecification": "[18, 55, 0/0, 0/0]", "EXIF LensModel": "EF-S18-55mm f/3.5-5.6"}