Examine individual changes

'{{Short description|New Zealand curator}} {{Use dmy dates|date=March 2018}} {{Use New Zealand English|date=June 2012}} {{Infobox person | name = Dame Cheryll Sotheran | post-nominals = {{post-nominals|country=NZL|DNZM|size=100%}} | image = <!-- filename only, no "File:" or "Image:" prefix, and no enclosing [[brackets]] --> | alt = <!-- descriptive text for use by speech synthesis (text-to-speech) software --> | caption = | birth_name = Cheryll Beatrice Sotheran | birth_date = {{Birth date|1945|10|11|df=y}} | birth_place = [[Stratford, New Zealand|Stratford]], New Zealand | death_date = {{Death date and age|2017|12|30|1945|10|11|df=y}} | death_place = [[Auckland]], New Zealand | other_names = | occupation = Museum professional | years_active = | known_for = | notable_works = }} '''Dame Cheryll Beatrice Sotheran''' {{post-nominals|country=NZL|DNZM}} (11 October 1945 – 30 December 2017) was a New Zealand museum professional.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/100270650/te-papa-founding-chief-executive-dame-cheryll-sotheran-dies-after-long-illness|title=Te Papa founding chief executive Dame Cheryll Sotheran dies after long illness|website=Stuff|date=31 December 2017 |access-date=31 December 2017}}</ref> 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.<ref name=":0"/> ==Early life and education== Sotheran was born on 11 October 1945 into a large Roman Catholic family in [[Stratford, New Zealand|Stratford]], a farming town in New Zealand's [[Taranaki]] province.<ref name="HBTQ">{{cite book |last1=Taylor |first1=Alister |last2=Coddington |first2=Deborah |authorlink1=Alister Taylor |authorlink2=Deborah Coddington |title=Honoured by the Queen – New Zealand |year=1994 |publisher=New Zealand Who's Who Aotearoa |location=Auckland |isbn=0-908578-34-2 |page=345}}</ref><ref name=NZPA>{{cite web|last1=NZPA|title=Te Papa's 'Mama' in shock health resignation|url=http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=2045618|website=[[New Zealand Herald]] |accessdate=27 December 2015|date=7 June 2002}}</ref> She was educated at [[St Mary's College, Auckland|St Mary's College]] in Auckland and graduated from secondary teachers' college in 1968. She went on to complete a [[Masters of Arts]] in English at the [[University of Auckland]] in 1969, then undertook further study in the Art History department at that university.<ref name='NZPA'/> ==Career== [[File:Exterior of Te Papa, 2016-01-25.jpg|thumb|Exterior view of Te Papa Tongarewa in 2016]]Sotheran lectured in Art History at Auckland University and while in the city, Sotheran was also a founding member of the Feminist Art Network, working with artists and curators who included Juliet Batten, Elizabeth Eastmond, [[Alexa Johnston]], [[Claudia Pond Eyley]], [[Priscilla Pitts]] and [[Carole Shepheard|Carole Shephea<s>rd</s>]]<s>.</s><ref>{{Cite web |title=Feminist Art Networkers 1982 – 1988 |url=https://nzhistory.govt.nz/women-together/feminist-art-networkers}}</ref>  As Sotheran put it, “We knew as women we had a choice of working against the flow or simply going with the flow”.<ref>{{Cite web |date=25 January 2018 |title=Dame Cheryll Sotheran: A Tribute |url=https://thebigidea.nz/stories/dame-cheryll-sotheran-a-tribute |access-date=8 June 2024 |website=The Big Idea}}</ref> Throughout the 1980s, Sotheran was also a regular writer and critic for the [[Auckland Star]] and Art New Zealand. In 1983 she was invited to write the lead article for Art New Zealand’s special issue on women artists in which she considered whether their work would have to first take a separatist position before becoming integrated with mainstream art.<ref>{{Cite journal |date=Autumn 1983 |title=Editorial  |url=https://art-newzealand.com/26-editorial/ |journal=Art New Zealand |issue=26}}</ref> Sotheran pulled no punches critiquing male critics and their ‘trivializing’ of women’s art and she outlined how women artist were pushing back. [<nowiki/>[[Lucy R. Lippard|Lucy Lippard]]’s] dream of equality seems no closer, and the need to be distinctive in order to be effective still prevails.’<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Sotheran |first=Cheryll |date=Autumn 1983 |title=Replacing Women in Art History |url=https://art-newzealand.com/26-replacing/  |journal=Art New Zealand |issue=26}}</ref> Writer Peter Ireland wrote of Sotheran’s art criticism that she had the ‘ability to sense a new direction and formulate her hunches crisply…. always at her best when she analysed the sometimes difficult work of an artist she esteemed.’<ref>{{Cite web |last=Ireland |first=Peter |date=24 January 2018 |title=Dame Cheryll Sotheran 11 Oct. 1945 Dec. 2017   |url=https://eyecontactmagazine.com/2018/01/dame-cheryll-sotheran-11-october-1945-30-december  |access-date=8 June 2024 |website=EyeContact}}</ref> During this time she also became increasingly interested in art museums and exhibitions and in 1986 she was appointed as the fifth Director of the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery in New Plymouth.<ref>{{Cite web |date=5 January 2018 |title=Dame Cheryll Sotheran 11 October 1945 - 30 December 2017  |url=https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/news/2018/01/05/dame-cheryll-sotheran--11-october-1945-30-december-2017.html  |access-date=8 June 2024 |website=University of Auckland}}</ref> In 1985, with Luit Bieringa, director of the National Art Gallery, she curated New Zealand’s first participation in the Art Gallery of New South Wales regular exhibition Perspecta 85<ref>{{Cite news |date=23 October 1985 |title=N.Z. perspective for Aust. |work=The Press (Christchurch) |pages=24}}</ref> and the following year she curated ''Not a Dog Show: Tom Kreisler'' for the Govett-Brewster.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Tom Kreisler and His Dancing Dogs |url=https://sarjeant.org.nz/gallery/tom-kreisler-and-his-dancing-dogs/ |access-date=8 June 2024}}</ref> Increasingly involved in arts management, many of the major exhibitions she presented at the Govett-Brewster were curated by independent curators, most notably Robert Leonard’s ''Pākehā Mythology'' (1986)<ref>{{Cite web |title=On Curating |url=https://robertleonard.org/on-curating/ |access-date=8 June 2024}}</ref> and Wystan Curnow’s ''Putting the Land on the Map: Art and Cartography in New Zealand Art Since 1840'' (1989).<ref>{{Cite web |title=Putting the Land on the Map: Art and Cartography in New Zealand Art Since 1840 |url=https://citygallery.org.nz/exhibitions/putting-the-land-on-the-map-art-and-cartography-in-new-zealand-since-1840/ |access-date=8 June 2024}}</ref> Alongside her administrative work Sotheran also formed close relationships with local Iwi forming ideas of community that would be critical to her thinking in the future.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Walker |first=Tim |last2=Thompson |first2=Judith |last3=Reynolds |first3=Cheryl |date=January 2018 |title=Cheryll Sotheran a Tribute |url=https://thebigidea.nz/stories/dame-cheryll-sotheran-a-tribute |access-date=8 June 2024 |website=Big Idea}}</ref> In 1989, Sotheran was appointed director of the [[Dunedin Public Art Gallery]]. She brought with her from the Govett-Brewster a sense of the contemporary that shaped both the exhibition programme and purchasing for the collection. Sotheran was also responsible for setting up the relocation of the gallery from Logan Park to a central city site in the Octagon. Dunedin art historian and lecturer Peter Stupples recalls Sotheran’s arrival as “life-changing for the gallery.’<ref>{{Cite news |last=Frost |first=Rebecca |date=8 September 2022 |title=Achievement Over Controversy |url=https://www.odt.co.nz/entertainment/arts/achievement-over-controversy |access-date=8 June 2024 |work=Otago Daily Times}}</ref> In 1992 Sotheran 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.<ref name='NZPA'/> 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.<ref name=Scoop>{{cite web|title=Government thanks Dame Cheryll Sotheran|url=http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA0206/S00102.htm|website=Scoop.co.nz|accessdate=27 December 2015}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11967979|title=Founding Te Papa chief executive Dame Cheryll Sotheran dies|date=31 December 2017|work=[[New Zealand Herald]] |access-date=31 December 2017|language=en-NZ|issn=1170-0777}}</ref> The opening of Te Papa in February 1998 was completed on time and on budget.<ref name = 'Scoop'/> 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.<ref>{{cite web|title=Getting to Our Place|url=http://www.nzonscreen.com/title/getting-to-our-place-1999|website=NZ on Screen|accessdate=27 December 2015}}</ref> 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 Kovats|Tania Kovats']] art work ''[[Virgin in a Condom]]'' was exhibited at the museum in an exhibition of work by the [[Young British Artists]] in 1998.<ref>{{cite web|last1=O'Neil|first1=Andrea|title='Virgin in a Condom' artwork provoked violence month after Te Papa opening|url=http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/capital-life/67466278/Virgin-in-a-Condom-artwork-provoked-violence-month-after-Te-Papa-opening|website=DominionPost|accessdate=27 December 2015|date=21 March 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last1=Walrond|first1=Carl|title=Atheism and secularism – An increasingly secular country|url=http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/video/26202/the-virgin-in-the-condom|website=Te Ara – The online encyclopedia of New Zealand|accessdate=27 December 2015}}</ref> Sotheran resigned from Te Papa for health reasons in 2002.<ref name='NZPA'/> She subsequently acted as sector director of creative industries at [[New Zealand Trade and Enterprise]],<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20090822210511/http://www.wiftnewzealand.org.nz/summit/speakers/sotheran-cheryll.html Dame Cheryll Sotheran DNZM, Showcasing New Zealand], Women in Film & Television (WIFT)</ref> where she was responsible for the strategic development of the creative industries across all sectors in the New Zealand economy.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10435294|title=Dame Cheryll Sotheran on life after Te Papa|last=Hewitson|first=Michele|date=20 April 2007|work=[[New Zealand Herald]] |access-date=31 December 2017|issn=1170-0777}}</ref> ==Honours and awards== Sotheran was awarded the [[New Zealand 1990 Commemoration Medal]] in 1990, and the [[New Zealand Suffrage Centennial Medal 1993|New Zealand Suffrage Centennial Medal]] in 1993.<ref name="HBTQ"/> In the [[1999 New Year Honours (New Zealand)|1999 New Year Honours]], she was appointed a [[New Zealand Order of Merit|Dame Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit]], for services to museum administration.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.dpmc.govt.nz/publications/new-year-honours-list-1999 |title=New Year honours list 1999 |date=31 December 1998 |publisher=Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet |accessdate=31 August 2019}}</ref> She received a distinguished alumni award from the University of Auckland, also in 1999.<ref>{{cite web|title=Famous past students|url=https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/for/future-undergraduates/living-and-studying-in-auckland-1/why-choose-auckland-1/meet-our-students-and-teachers/famous-past-students-1.html#35830e81635c7d7d99598fb0e9e975e|website=University of Auckland|accessdate=27 December 2015}}</ref> ==Death== In 2013, Sotheran suffered a stroke. She battled health issues until her death in Auckland on 30 December 2017, from undisclosed causes, aged 72.<ref name=":0"/> ==References== {{Reflist}} {{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Sotheran, Cheryll}} [[Category:1945 births]] [[Category:2017 deaths]] [[Category:People from Stratford, New Zealand]] [[Category:People educated at St Mary's College, Auckland]] [[Category:Directors of museums in New Zealand]] [[Category:Women museum directors]] [[Category:New Zealand public servants]] [[Category:New Zealand women public servants]] [[Category:University of Auckland alumni]] [[Category:Dames Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit]] [[Category:New Zealand women curators]] [[Category:New Zealand Roman Catholics]] [[Category:People associated with the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa]] [[Category:Recipients of the New Zealand Suffrage Centennial Medal 1993]]'