Courtney Johnston: Tumu Whakarae, Chief Executive of Te Papa Tongarewa, the Museum of New Zealand
"Tell people what you want to happen. People can't help you achieve your dreams if you don't share them."
We really hope you enjoy listening to the career story of Courtney Johnston on The Female Career podcast. Courtney is Tumu Whakarae, Chief Executive of Te Papa Tongarewa, the Museum of New Zealand. Courtney has had a varied career across web, communications and people leadership. One of her first jobs as a student at Victoria University while studying for her Masters in art history was actually as a visitor host at Te Papa. Her early career was at City Gallery Wellington as an assistant curator and publicist before moving to the National Library working across communications and web. She was the General Manager at Boost Media, a web design and development agency in the early 2010s, before spending a number of years as Director at the Dowse Art Museum in Lower Hutt. She initially joined Te Papa as the Director of Audience & Insight before moving into her current role at the end of 2019. Outside of her full-time gigs she was the visual arts correspondent on Nine to Noon with Kathryn Ryan for 10 years and has also been on the Boards of a wide range of sector organisations, including as Chair of Museums Aotearoa.
You can listen for free to Courtney sharing her career journey here on The Female Career website, on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you like to listen to your podcasts.