Historiebruk på museum

The purpose of this phd-project has been an investigation of numerous ways museums creates connections between the past, present and the future. I have choose to use the constructed Norwegian term ?fortidshåndtering?, which could be translated as to handle the past or dealing with the past. The term is both used to describe and characterize what museums does with the past. The term is therefore used to embrace different sides of museums practices related to the past. The term dealing with the past is inspired by studies of use of history. In my thesis I argue that dealing with the past is better fit to describe and analyse museum practices as they are complex in a diverse and unique way compared to other public institutions, like schools and universities. The thesis is based on a large material from the three museums Glomdalsmuseet (The Glomdal Museum), Norsk Skogbruksmuseum (The Norwegian Forrest Museum) and Norsk Oljemuseum (The Norwegian Petroleum Museum). These museums were established in 1911, 1954 and 1981, and each of the museums has produced a numerous of sources that can be interpreted as results of different processes of dealing with the past ? to day present as texts, collections, exhibitions buildings and more. This is a diverse material which I have tried to analyse as parts of how museums have created or tried to create connection between the past, the present and the future, their interpretation of temporality, stories they have wanted to tell and what kind of perception it was based on. The thesis is therefor about what kind of dealing with the past it is possible to find at the selected museums, what kind of function it has had and what factors that changed them over time. My main questions to the material have been to what extent has the dealing with the past been defined or affected by the institution type museum, or that specific museum? Have the dealing of the past been inspired or based on scientific ways of dealing with the past? And what has different expectations from the society to the museum affected their dealing with the past? Museums are dealing with the past in many different ways and to different purposes which are changing over time. At the same time I would claim that they are types of institutions characterized by their way of creating collections and exhibitions that can be ? and often are ? defined by selection criteria and perspectives done in the past. Their presentation of and preservation of the past represents therefore something from past the museum has managed to keep for the future, or something one must handle and deal with when new perspectives and stories are added to the museum project. By following the selected museums over a longer time frame and by investigating the different phases that could be read out of this, the thesis has closed in on the mechanism that could be said to have shaped the museums dealing with the past. My analysis shows how similar internal and external factors has been significant at all the three museums, but also how the strength and relationship between the different factors have had different impact in different phases of the institutional history. I have alas not pointed out a common or a singular development of the museums alongside a common historic development of the Norwegian museum sector, all though it is possible to point out tendencies in that direction when it comes to perception of the ideal museum and political defined expectations towards museum in general. Museums are often explained and judged based on their formal purpose, practise and scientific orientation related to public interest, scientific institutions and the school sector. The thesis show also connection between museums, academic institutions and educational sector. But I have stressed that dealing with the past have been shaped by far more factors than the public purpose, knowledge created in scientific institutions and educational purposes as they are defined for schools. I claim that dealing with the past at museums are embedded in a complex relationship between the institutions purpose and its openess to a broader society surrounding the museum including many different interests, and that this divides museum more from other public institutions than how it has been understood in the field of use of history.My research on how the three selected museums have been dealing with the past show a complex practise which I have approached through describing and discussing how the have delt with the past, what connection between the past, the present and the future they have created or intended to creat and why and how this have changed over time. When I overall conclude museums dealing with the past to be complex, it is because the different internal and external factors are important for how museums are dealing with the past, but also because they express their ways of dealing with the past in so many different ways and to many purposes.

Museet erfarer allerede at prosjektet har en nytteverdi i form av det nettverket som prosjektet har skapt. Praktiske og infrastrukturelle erfaringer fra vitenskapelig sektor har overføringsverdi for arbeidet med museets nye planverk. Den forventede nytteverdien av forskningsresultatene er også orientert mot museets indre utvikling og ambisjonene om flere bidrag til relevant forskningsfelt. Avhandlingen har åpnet opp et nytt forskningsfelt der museene og museale praksiser er det sentrale. Kandidaten vil videreføre dette arbeidet ved at avhandlingen blir utviklet videre på en måte som resulterer i fagfellevurderte artikler. Videre vil denne måten å forstå museer på tjene den indre kritiske refleksjonen rundt våre egne opparbeidede praksiser og måter å «handtere» fortiden på. Videre er det forventet at kompetansen kan brukes både som en ressurs for konkrete relaterte forskingsprosjekt på museet og mer allment i den kritiske dialogen museale forskningsprosjekt treng å være en del av.

Det er økende krav og forventninger til museenes faglige utvikling og forskning er vektlagt. Samtidig er det voksende interesse innen historie og kulturfag for museenes ulike faglige roller og perspektiv. Museum Vest og AHKR har derfor sett en stor nytteverdi i å utvikle et phd-prosjekt sammen. Prosjektet vil både bidra til mer forskning på museum, samtidig som det vil øke forskningskompetansen i museet. Prosjektet er godt forankret i både virksomheten og i gradsgivende institusjon. Arbeidet med samarbeidsavtale er godt i gang, og avtale vil bli signert når den faglige prosjektbeskrivelsen har gjennomgått gradsgivende institusjons formelle prosedyrer for godkjenning. I virksomheten er phd-prosjektet og samarbeidet med gradsgivende institusjon godkjent av styret og det er satt av en fast post på budsjettet til å dekke virksomhentens kostnader i prosjektperioden. Gradsgivende institusjon har pekt ut to veiledere for kandidaten, og virksomheten har pekt ut prosjektleder og mentor på virksomhetens vegne. Prosjektet vil starte opp fra og med oppstart av forskerutdanningen ved gradsgivende institusjon høstsemesteret 2016. Kandidaten vil arbeide med avhandlingen på fulltid i tre år. Fordelingen av arbeidstid blir to år ved gradsgivende institusjon og ett år ved virksomheten. Både virksomheten og gradsgivende institusjon er opptatt av at det også skal være god faglig kontakt mellom institusjonene i prosjektperioden. Temaet for avhandlingen vil være historiebruk på museum. Hva kjennetegner museumsinstitusjoner som historiebrukere? Analysen vil ta utgangspunkt i historisk orienterte museer innenfor kulturdepartementets museumsnettverk, universitetsmuseum og sektormuseum. Analysen vil således omfatte både museum som er definert som kulturhistoriske, tematisk orienterte museum og museum bygget rundt sentrale historiske begivenheter.