She’s only 16 years old, but Bella Paulsen has her mind firmly in the last century.
The Waihī College student has opened her debut exhibition at the Waihī Arts Centre and Museum, with a deep dive into the mining town’s photographic history.
Waihī Unfolded had a gala opening on January 24, with exhibition curator Bella presenting her display to the gathered crowd of around 60 people.
It had been hours and weeks of hard work, she said; sifting through the museum’s archived collection to put together a timeline of Waihī’s history.
The exhibition will be open for up to a month, Bella said, depending on public interest. It features photographs, signs, newspapers and documents showcasing the people of Waihī.
Each display focuses on a different decade; beginning in 1880 with the “Martha” gold claim on Pukewa Hill in 1878, and continuing up to the 21st century.
Along the way attendees can view aerial pictures of the town; photos of the main street; school, club and business photos; letters; and written histories of prominent locals like the Pye family.
“Originally it was just supposed to be from 1880 around to 2000, but then this area here [the 2000s] just expanded. It is much bigger than what I expected,” Bella said.
“The cool thing about this timeline is it kind of expands away from mining, because I know Waihī’s all about mining, but this [is] about the people. You’ll see a lot of faces.”
Bella began volunteering at the museum a year ago, after she returned from a student exchange to Italy. Initially she was greeting visitors, but she quickly became involved with the archives.
Bella said her exhibition idea was sparked as she dug through the organisation’s stored artefacts.
“I was looking through and putting photos into the systems, and I was like, this is such amazing stuff that should be seen. But our museum doesn’t have the space to accommodate everything,” she said.
“So this is a little one-off for the community to see and experience.”
Bella said she wanted to encourage people to get involved with the museum, and also hoped her show would pave the way for similar exhibitions in the future.
“[I want to] inspire the museum to include more of this stuff. A lot of these photos were hidden away so bringing them out more or doing this a little more often, or something smaller,” she said.
“I would like to partner with Waihī College a bit more, and I would love to keep doing a timeline again, maybe something different, maybe focus on a specific area in history.”
Judy Newth, who manages the museum’s volunteers, said she was impressed with Bella’s work.
“She suggested it, and we were impressed with the way that she had planned it, and her things like the posters that she did,” Judy said.
“It’s not the usual sort of exhibition that we would have. There’s a lot of photos, but they’ve also got a lot of captions added to them, which is very important, really, because a lot of people don’t know about it. And I think she’s been very happy with the results that she’s had.”
Meanwhile, Bella also has big plans for her own future.
“I’m working on doing a museum career, I want to work at Te Papa specifically,” she said.
“There’s also a lot of design aspects through here as well that I’m also kind of interested in.”
And her first foray into curation has been an excellent start to her portfolio, Bella said. She spent more than two weeks working nearly full-time to put everything together, including sourcing the photos and information, and even aligning the ceiling spotlights.
“It’s nice seeing it all being brought together,” she said.
“I’m pretty proud of it.”
DETAILS: Waihī Unfolded is on at the Waihī Arts Centre and Museum, 54 Kenny St.
