Museums, Migration and Cultural Diversity

Swedish Museums in Tune with the Times?

Christina Johansson

• Publisher: Studien Verlag
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9783706557429
• Topic: Art
• Subtopic: Théorie et critique de l'art

Historically, an important role of museums has been to contribute to national homogenization. The book specifically deals with how the Swedish museum sector of culture and history addresses new demands from a society that is profoundly characterized by migration and cultural diversity. Besides the museums' representations of migration and cultural diversity, the book also examines how changes in the museum sector relate to general policy developments in the fields of culture, integration and minorities. The book also discusses whether and how museums are open for dialogue and collaboration with migrants and ethnic minorities and the kinds of problems museums encounter in their efforts to be more inclusive.

Malmö Museums – Is This Traditional Museum in Tune with the Times?

In this chapter the focus is on Malmö Museums – a museum located in Sweden’s third largest city – and its work with aspects of migration and cultural diversity. The city is multicultural in the sense that over 40 per cent of its some 300,000 inhabitants have an immigrant background42 (SCB 2012). Malmö has also been proposed as a suitable location for a future state funded migration museum. This idea was presented in 2006 by the Liberal Party leader, who stressed that an immigration museum in Malmö could educate all Swedes about how the development of Sweden had benefited from immigration and thereby counteracted racism and the discrimination of immigrants (Leijonborg 2006). The idea was not realized and, accordingly, Malmö did not receive any specialist immigration museum. Nevertheless, given the population composition of Malmö, the museum sector in the city is well placed to address issues of migration and cultural diversity.

One important museum in the city is Malmö Museums. This museum and its first natural science collection date back to 1841. Over the years the museum’s collections and scope of interest grew and various sub-museums were established. These have now been merged into Malmö Museums, with a focus on various aspects of the municipal and regional history, such as culture, nature, technology and maritime science. Since 1937 the museum has been housed in Malmöhus Castle – an old castle in Malmö that was turned into a museum (Malmö Museums 2014a). The museum’s current vision is to be “a creative and communicative cultural organization that is accessible and relevant to everyone regardless of their background or needs” (Malmö Museums 2014b). The museum has also been praised for its “pioneering work with multicultural issues and its openness to current social issues” and in 2002 was awarded the title Museum of the Year (Malmö Museums 2014a).

As described in the section presenting the limitations, sources and methods of this book, this chapter on Malmö Museums illuminates the major projects on migration and cultural diversity that the museum has been engaged in. Towards the end of the chapter I also briefly discuss what happened after these projects came to an end.

The museum’s major projects on migration and cultural diversity were all initiated during the first years of the 21st century. These projects can basically be divided into two separate categories: projects focusing on specific national minority groups, and projects focusing on aspects other than ethnicity. All these had collaborative ambitions. The following exposé starts with the former category.

Projects Focusing on National Minorities

Both the Roma project and the Living in Two Worlds project had the explicit aim of addressing specific national minorities. When it comes to the Roma project, the main objective was to establish a national museum for the different Roma groups living in Sweden.43 The idea did not come out of the blue, but was connected to other developments in society and in the Swedish museum sector, for example the adaptation of a new Swedish minority policy44 and general ideas about the importance of democratizing the museum sector. In addition, at the time Malmö Museums had developed a new internal policy for documentation stressing the importance of a more inclusive approach. In this case also the Roma’s own engagement played a role, since a Roma association contacted the museum with a proposal for collaboration on this matter (Malmö Museums 2002a, 2004). The Roma project was followed up by the Living in Two Worlds project with a special focus on the situation of young people from the minority groups – Roma, Jews and Sámi – living in Sweden. One aim of the project was to collect material that could be displayed at the Roma museum (Malmö Museums 2007).

The Roma Project

With the Roma project the museum had a clear ambition to open up for participation and collaboration. In an initial phase, the museum also made educational visits to the Jewish Museum in Stockholm, and the Sámi Museum in Jokkmokk (Malmö Museums 2002a). Different aspects of the Roma situation and history were also discussed by leading scholars at an international conference arranged in Malmö (Malmö Museums 2011b). More importantly, though, the museum tried to open up for collaboration and participation with various Roma groups. The museum intended to involve the project participants in both the planning and the steering of the project. Each Roma group – Swedish Roma, Finnish Roma, Non-Nordic Roma, newly arrived Roma and Travelers – identified in the Swedish minority policy from 2000 was represented in a working group connected to the project.45 A curator and the director of the museum also took part in this working team, with the latter chairing the group. In order to come to terms with male dominance, in 2002 the museum also created a specific women’s team (Malmö Museums 2002a, 2011b).

The collaboration in the project was not without its problems. Especially, questions such as which groups and how many people from each should be represented in the working team resulted in conflicts. There were also disagreements about whether the groups represented in the working team should be the same as those recognized in the Swedish minority policy. The quarrels sometimes led to representatives dropping out of the project (Malmö Museums, n.d.a). The special women’s team seems to have functioned well, however. Nevertheless, with hindsight the curator said that solving the problem of the lack of female representation by creating a special women’s team that, according to the curator, never became fully integrated in the ordinary activity was in itself problematic. Although the curator pointed to the dubiousness of a special women’s team, being somewhat distant from the quarrels in the ordinary working team had positive effects, in that the women’s team accomplished much more than the working team (Malmö Museums 2011b). With regard to the conflicts in the working team, the curator said that problems mostly occurred when the focus was on the upcoming museum and the potential employment possibilities this would mean. In her view, the quarrels should be understood as a response to how the majority had categorized the Roma. Accordingly, the conflicts decreased in strength when the focus was moved from the issue of representation to more practical work (Malmö Museums 2011b).

According to the curator, even though the museum staff regarded the mode of operation of the Roma project as demanding, one of the most significant lasting results of the project was the museum’s willingness to engage in external co-operation and dialogue. However, the curator also underlined that real changes must be preceded by a new recruitment policy for the museum, so that in the future the staff composition would reflect the actual population of Malmö (Malmö Museums 2011b).

The project can be said to have succeeded because the participants were involved in the steering and planning of the project. A significant observation is also that the various Roma groups were keen to participate. However, the museum’s ideas about representation also led to conflict. In particular, the idea of creating a kind of mini-parliament (without a foregoing election) with participants representing one of the Roma sub-groups recognized in the Swedish minority policy seems to have led to conflict. Instead of focusing on the planning of the museum, many participants became occupied with monitoring their own group’s opportunity to influence, funding issues and securing future jobs in the planned museum. These kinds of conflict relate to the findings of Mary Stevens, who points out that a problem with museums giving recognition to certain groups is the emergence of conflicts as a result of other groups’ fears of not being given similar recognition and self-empowerment.

Although conflicts arose within the project, the participants succeeded in creating a proposal for a Roma museum and submitted it to the government in 2002. This resulted in a new phase of the project, which involved the collection of stories and items that would form the basis for the planned museum (Malmö Museums 2004). This collecting process also resulted in an exhibition about the Roma’s history and situation in Swedish society, entitled Roma and Travelers – Beyond Romance and Pain. With this exhibition, the museum wanted to show that Roma history was also part of Swedish history. Another objective with this exhibition was to contribute to a reduction of prejudice and discrimination by increasing the knowledge about “the Roma culture” and the treatment of the Roma throughout history (Malmö Museums 2004 p. 16).

The exhibition consisted of four different sub-sections with varying focus. The first section highlighted the current situation of the Roma. Here, visitors were greeted by the tones of modern Roma music and received general information about national minorities and the current discrimination of the Roma. For example, stories highlighting the current discrimination on the housing market were on display (Malmö Museums 2003, 2004, 2011b). In the forefront of the exhibition – in a third section – information was displayed about how the Roma had been treated by Swedish society during the historical epoch known as the People’s Home (the creation of the welfare state). The exhibition focused on the discrimination and hypocrisy that was apparent at this time. The various stories presented were framed by the words of the then Swedish Prime Minister, Per-Albin Hansson, declaring that “the good home” did not know of any privileged or neglected, and had no darlings or stepchildren. This utterance was contrasted by the many stories about how the Roma were discriminated against on the labor- and housing markets, how they were subjected to investigation and sterilization, and how they were stigmatized and surrounded by myths. In this section, journalists and researchers who, according to the Roma, had contributed to the reproduction of prejudices about the Roma were criticized (Malmö Museums 2003, 2004, 2011b).

In another section the traditional Roma way of life was displayed. Here, the focus was on objects and phenomena the Roma themselves wanted to highlight, such as crafts, songs, and the presentation of traditional occupations. Mo...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Titel
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Overview of the Research Field
• Theoretical Points of Views
• Limitations, Sources, and Methods
• Swedish Migration History and Migration Politics
• Swedish Museums Work with Migration and Cultural Diversity over Time
• Museums Current Approaches to Migration and Cultural Diversity
• The Museum of Work A Modern Museum Promoting Equality
• Malmö Museums Is This Traditional Museum in Tune with the Times?
• Conclusions
• References
• Endnotes
• Zum Autor
• Impressum