Experience Group Director – Mark Donovan 

Role

Mark Donovan is Experience Group Director at Te Papa. The Experience Group is Te Papa’s largest division. Staff there are responsible for exhibition development, events, the children’s Discovery Centres, library services, and Host services.

Background

Mark took up the role of Experience Group Director in June 2009.

Before joining Te Papa, Mark was Senior Director for Exhibits and Design at the National Aquarium Institute in Baltimore. While there, he focused on extending the scope of the institution and its public programmes, including its exhibits. He achieved a 2008 American Zoo and Aquarium Association award for best live animal exhibit – Animal Planet Australia: Wild Extremes.

Mark has served in an advisory capacity on institutional boards in the United States and Europe. Before his time in Baltimore, he:

• worked at Syracuse University in the museum studies programme
• helped establish a travelling exhibit program for New York State
• served as Deputy Director of the Memorial Art Gallery in Rochester, New York.