NETWORK OF MUSEUMS IN THE BALTIC

The Mariehamn-meeting September 18th-20th 2017 Ålands Museum

www.baltmus.net Museums in the network 2017

 Aboa Vetus & Ars Nova www.aboavetusarsnova.fi  Bornholms Museum www.bornholmsmuseum.dk  Die Lübecker Museen www.die-luebecker-museen.de  Estonian History Museum www.ajaloomuuseum.ee  Estonian Open Air Museum www.evm.ee  Fotevikens Museum www.fotevikensmuseum.se  Gdynia City Museum www.muzeumgdynia.pl  Gotlands Museum www.gotlandsmuseum.se  HAMN www.hamnmuseum.se  Historical Museum of the City of Gdańsk www.mhmg.pl  Jamtli www.jamtli.com  Kunstmuseum Schwaan www.kunsmuseum-schwaan.de  Länsmuseet Gävleborg www.lansmuseetgavleborg.se  Medeltidsmuseet www.medeltidsmuseet.stockholm.se  Museum Lolland-Falster www.museumlollandfalster.dk  Museum of Coastal Folk www.rannarahvamuuseum.ee  Museum of the history of Riga and navigation www.rigamuz.lv  Muzeum Archeologiczno-Historycznego w Elblągu www.muzeum.elblag.pl  National Museum of Lithuania www.lnm.lt  Novgorod State Museum www.novgorodmuseum.ru  Prins Eugens Waldemarsudde www.waldemarsudde.se  SA Haapsalu & Läänemaa Museum www.salm.ee  SA Käsmu Meremuuseum www.kasmu.ee  Saaremaa Muuseum www.saaremaamuuseum.ee  Sigtuna Museum www.sigtunamuseum.se  Stiftelsen Nordiska museet www.nordiskamuseet.se  Tallinn City Museum www.linnamuuseum.ee  Tartu City Museum http://linnamuuseum.tartu.ee  The Abbey in Ystad www.ystad.se/kultur/klostret-i-ystad  The Bunge Museum www.bungemuseet.se  The State Hermitage Museum www.hermitagemuseum.org  Vejle Museerne www.vejlemuseerne.dk  Ventspils Museum http://muzejs.ventspils.lv/  Västerviks Museum www.vasterviksmuseum.se  Žanis Lipke Memorial www.lipke.lv  Ålands Museum www.museum.ax

The Mariehamn-Meeting September 2017 2 Purpose

Network of museums in the Baltic is a network between professional museums, following the ICOM standards, dealing with issues concerning Baltic Culture and history.

The aim is to strengthen the cooperation on an institutional level so that the museums in the network can take on common projects for the benefit of all.

www.baltmus.net

The Mariehamn-Meeting September 2017 3

© Network of Museums in the Baltic www.baltmus.net Edited by Ulrika Mebus, Gotlands Museum, Sweden Photos by Ulrika Mebus Visby December 2017

The Mariehamn-Meeting September 2017 4 Content Museums in the network 2017 ...... 2 Purpose ...... 3 Monday September 18th Network meeting ...... 7 Present partners...... 7 Resumé from the partner museums ...... 8 Previous meetings ...... 10 New members – welcome & presentation ...... 10 The web-site and other communication tools ...... 10 Network-coordination 2018-20 ...... 11 Planning for the coming year ...... 11 Discussions ...... 12 European Year of Cultural Heritage 2018 ...... 13 Tuesday September 19th Conference ...... 13 Museums as year-round experience; challenges and possibilities ...... 14 Different audiences for different seasons ...... 14 Knowledge and responding to visitors; a year-round challenge ...... 15 Four seasons in Museum of Archaeology and History in Elbląg ...... 15 Guided tour at the Åland’s Art Museum ...... 15 Estonian Open Air Museum as year-round experience...... 16 Outdoor activities in the Museum Garden...... 20 Facing the challenges of the cold season at Lolland-Falster ...... 20 New museums - same old challenges...... 20 Guided tour in the Åland Museum of Cultural History ...... 20 Dinner at Stallhagen Gastropub & Microbrewery http://www.stallhagen.com/en/pub- stallhagen/ ...... 20 Wednesday September 20th - Excursion to Kastelholm Castle and the open-air museum of Jan Karlsgården ...... 22

The Mariehamn-Meeting September 2017 5

A warm THANK YOU to all colleagues at Åland’s Museum for arranging a truly inspiring meeting!

The Mariehamn-Meeting September 2017 6 Monday September 18th Network meeting

Ålands Museum Discussions on the benefits and development of the network, presentation of project on tourism/education, other projects and cooperation etc.

Present partners Aboa Vetus & Ars Nova Janna Jokela Estonian Open Air Museum FNDN Elo Lutsepp Estonian Open Air Museum FNDN Merike Lang Foundation of Haapsalu and Läänemaa Museums Maarja Kõuts Foundation of Haapsalu and Läänemaa Museums (Ilon´s Wonderland) Anne Suislep Gdynia City Museum Agata Abramowicz Gdynia City Museum Dorota Brzezińska Gotlands Museum Ulrika Mebus Kastelholms Slott Silvana Fagerholm-Sjöblom Klostret i Ystad Susannah Young Kulturbyrån Viveka Löndahl Museum Lolland-Falster Anna-Elisabeth Jensen Museum of Archaeology and History in Elbląg Joanna Fonferek Sigtuna Museum Ted Hesselbom Åland Maritime Museum Trust Hanna Hagmark-Cooper Ålands kulturhistoriska museum Graham Robins Ålands sjöfartsmuseum Heidi Viktorsson

The Mariehamn-Meeting September 2017 7 Resumé from the partner museums

Aboa Vetus Ars Nova Archaeological excavation and supervision in the basement of the office building ‘Konsulinna’ have been made during 2017. The building is located in the corner of Hämeenkatu and Nunnankatu, in the same lot as the museum itself. http://www.aboavetusarsnova.fi/en/news/seven-archaeological-layers-along-hameenkatu In November new exhibition: The 8th Turku Biennial with 16 top of the line artists working in Finland. It will be the first year that the biennial is to be held in winter so it will be interesting to see how this turns out. One aim is to serve and reach the locals rather than the summer-tourists. http://www.aboavetusarsnova.fi/en/exhibitions/8th-turku-biennial

The Museum of Archaeology and History in Elbląg Big renovation going on in the second museum building. It will be finished at the end of August 2018 and will close the project: With the Museum to the future. Modernization of the Museum of Archaeology and History in Elbląg - stage II. On this occasion, the museum invites all our friends from the Network of Museums in the Baltic and the Association of the Castles and Museums in Baltic Sea to take a part in the presentation and scientific meeting in September 2018 in Elbląg. At the moment an exhibition with paintings of Saint Albert. Also about old stoves from existing houses. http://www.muzeum.elblag.pl/s/2/o-muzeum

Gdynia City museum The exhibition "Gdynia - open work" is a new permanent exhibition of the Museum of the City of Gdynia, devoted to the history of the city and its inhabitants. Temporary exhibition: Modern Round about Baltic- designers from countries around the Baltic Sea. Travelling exhibition: “At the water's edge” displays memories from shores of the Baltic Sea when the sea was divided by the Iron Curtain. The exhibition's design is based on artist Hanna Sjöberg's own childhood memories from Gotland. The exhibition is an international artistic memory project with museums in all Baltic countries and it was presented by curator Angelica Blomgren from Gotlands Museum at last year’s conference in Vilnius. https://translate.google.se/translate?hl=sv&sl=pl&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.muzeum gdynia.pl%2F

Estonian Open Air Museum The museum turns 60 years this year. Conservation and digitalization center, KANU, is now an integrated part if the museum. Conference about migration has been held. Estonian Open Air Museum with all of Estonians is weaving a 100-meter long genuine rag carpet for the 100th anniversary of the Republic of Estonia in 2018. The colors and patterns of the carpet symbolize Estonian historical parishes. http://evm.ee/eng/events/events.e/weave-yourself-into-the-history/952

The Mariehamn-Meeting September 2017 8 SA Haapsalu & Läänemaa Museum The foundation consists of 5 museums: Ilons Wonderland – a childrens museum and Ilon Wikland´s gallery, Ants Laikmaa home museum, Haapsalu old Town hall, Haapsalu Episcopal Castle and Railway and communications museum. Ilon’s wonderland will highlight Astrid Lindgren jubilee in November with performances. There will be a big Astrid Lindgren exhibition in Japan, they want to borrow paintings. The Castle Museum is closed for conservation and reconstruction works. A Medieval theme center will be opened there. The new permanent exhibition in the Town Hall introduces Haapsalu in the beginning of the 20th century through the eyes of a visitor to the resort. https://www.salm.ee/en/

Ålands Museum The museum deals with nature, art, history. It was newly restored and re-opened last year. New exhibition for tourists – and to get them there is the easy part. The problem is how to engage the local people – to function as a cultural living room. There was a summer exhibition – part of the celebration of Finland 100 years. “Do the objects speak Swedish?” A question of identity. Produced the exhibition in house, didn’t engage the local society – which might have been a mistake. Will have greater cooperation with schools and local society in the future. To create us, not me and you. http://www.kulturhistoriska.ax/en http://www.konstmuseum.ax/en

Åland’s Maritime Museum The museum promotes Åland's maritime heritage with big collections. The updated children’s activity room is a fantasy world for kids all ages. The museum was awarded the Finnish Museum of the year 2016. https://www.sjofartsmuseum.ax/en/

Museum Lolland Falster For some years the staff has been 120, due to huge archaeological excavations in the Fehmarn Belt. The tourist information for two municipalities is in the museum, as a responsibility. http://aabne-samlinger.dk/museumlollandfalster-en/

Sigtuna Museum & Art The museum has evolved in last years; from 3 to10 employees. It houses a new museum in Märsta, a museum for the whole municipality, an art-hall. Sigtuna is said to be the place where Sweden begins with strong history of Vikings and strong religious tradition with a bunch of church-ruins encircling the town. The task is to preserve the old and integrate the new. An example is a bunker from the post-war period created in 1972 for a possible nuclear strike or a nuclear accident. The bunker will be opened for the public as a part of the museum. http://sigtunamuseum.se/kommunledningsbunkern/ Current exhibition: Sigtuna Stories, an exhibition with stories in different places in the municipality of Sigtuna covering the history in Sigtuna from the Stone Age to the present

The Mariehamn-Meeting September 2017 9 day. Meet different people with different stories from different places at different times. http://sigtunamuseum.se/

Gotlands Museum The museum has a new director, Susanne Thedéen who takes the lead after Lasse Sjösvärd, who is the founder of the Network of Museums in the Baltic. He sends his regards! The balance of preservation and development is always a present topic for the museums; to tell about the past but also about the present. This autumn a new exhibition will open; Cause of Death: Woman - Men's violence against women. An extensive program including lectures and workshops with schools (the higher grades) will be an important part of the project. http://www.gotlandsmuseum.se/cause-death-woman/

Previous meetings • Board-meeting Tallinn April 2017 • Network meeting Vilnius September 2016 The discussions during these meetings have been much about the creation of a common museum-project adjoined to the European Year of Cultural Heritage 2018. The revision of the Operational Guidelines was confirmed. All documents are accessible at the web: Reports: http://balticmuseums.ning.com/page/projects Guidelines: http://balticmuseums.ning.com/page/network-guidelines-1

New members – welcome & presentation Historical Museum of the City of Gdańsk. • The museum was established in 1970. It is devoted to promotion of the history of its municipal agglomeration. Currently it has 8 branches, each promoting important historical assets and more than 21 000 objects of historical value in its collection. We are visited by almost 350 000 guests each year, who are served by almost 120 employees. Museum cooperates with foreign partners sharing key historical objects valuable common European history connected with Hanseatic trade as well promoting its history of amber trade and its amber deposits on world-wide level. • Swedish National Maritime Museums and Stockholm City Museum have resigned from the network during 2017.

The web-site and other communication tools The network will never be more active than its members – the more you share the more benefits you’ll get! Since we do not have an employed coordinator, every museum contributes keeping the network going and active.

The Mariehamn-Meeting September 2017 10 It was urged that all museums start sharing at the Baltmus Facebook-page more actively https://www.facebook.com/museumsinthebaltic/?fref=ts . By inviting colleagues to like the page it will make even more sense as a communication forum where news can be shared and announced. Every museum should have at least one administrator to the Facebook- page. Contact network-coordinator Ulrika Mebus to get an administrator-approval!

The web-page The web-site of the network www.baltmus.net is the main communication tool for the network. By signing up the members get access to all information at the web including contact information to all the members. Each museum should have at least one administrator so that each organization can contribute. The communication forum http://balticmuseums.ning.com/forum is a platform for news and discussions. When publishing something on the web, it’s brilliant to publish it also on the Facebook-page to activate it. Simply copy and paste the web-link into Facebook. It’s possible to use the forum and Facebook for all kind of information concerning museums. If there is an interesting event, please share it by publishing on the web http://balticmuseums.ning.com/events and then copy-paste on Facebook!

A new web-exhibition was discussed, but without a decision being made. To be further discussed next year. The previous web-exhibition is still available on the web-site: http://balticmuseums.ning.com/page/web-exhibition

Also a project-bank was asked for. Ongoing projects can be presented, and ideas and search for project-partners set up. (The coordinator has created a project- and ideas page and its open for every museum to add to it. http://balticmuseums.ning.com/page/projects- ideas )

Network-coordination 2018-20 In 2018 Gotlands Museum will leave the coordination of the network on to Gdynia City Museum who will coordinate the network for a three-year period during 2018-2020.

Planning for the coming year • Board-meeting 2018. Since the proposal is to arrange the network-meeting in Gdynia the spring, there will be no separate board-meeting in spring. We should also consider having just one annual meeting and arrange other meetings via digital/social tools. • Network Forum 2018 (new name for Network annual meeting and conference). Gdynia City Museum proposes the Network Forum to take place in the spring, April 5th- 7th in Poland.

The Mariehamn-Meeting September 2017 11 Discussions Museums as free institutions? Politicians and economics, propaganda; how does all this affect the museums? As free institutions, keepers of the memory of society they should by no means be influenced by politicians. But how does it work in practice, which ideological changes affects us? Modernity. Modern Museums? What is modern in today’s society? Sustainability? Everybody is talking about sustainability, but what does it really mean within the museum- context? Agenda 2030 – how could it be implemented into our everyday business? Methodology Are museums more interested in methods or in history? How we do things, not so much what we do. How we present history, art etc. Networking As a tool and possibility to improve professional skills. To generate common projects, exhibitions – the network-meetings as match-making-events. Networking during the forum, speed-dating in the sense that the museum present ideas on projects and initiatives that others might want to cooperate within, or develop further. What is the heritage of yesterday? What is history – when does history start? Today we are living the history of tomorrow. We are “doing history”– we are specialists on that. Which memory do we give to the future? Is it the profession or the people influencing this? What’s the mechanism behind?

The Mariehamn-Meeting September 2017 12 European Year of Cultural Heritage 2018 https://europa.eu/cultural-heritage/

End of September Creative Europe will launch a call for funding for EUYCH2018-projects. The Network should go for a common application on a common project/initiative Motives for moving. • The day of Baltic Heritage in September? Slow art – one object in each museum telling a story about heritage transition within the Baltic. Moving around with the objects. How has these artefacts or the ideas, concepts behind them been moving. Artefacts connecting the region.

Gotlands Museum will take on the responsibility of working towars an application. Contact person: Ulrika Mebus.

The Mariehamn-Meeting September 2017 13 Tuesday September 19th Conference

Museums as year-round experience; challenges and possibilities Attracting visitors to Nordic Museums in the cold season is challenging. Still this season offers unique possibilities experiencing new dimensions such as more space and peace, darkness and coldness. These qualities could be developed into programs and events that seem exotic and exclusive to foreign visitors during a season when travelling and accommodation is at its cheapest. Also winter-weekends means good opportunities offering special activities for families and other local visitors. Anyhow, there are certain obstacles to overcome. Open air museums often face difficulties due to lack of warm locations. The infrastructure in low-season is another problem, since many service-points in smaller communities close down from autumn until spring. Looking outside the box, actively cooperating with partners in other sectors of society could mean more active museums wintertime. This in its turn creating new dynamic in the nearby society as well as contributing to social, economic and cultural development.

Welcome Viveka Löndahl, Director at Åland Board of Antiquities and Culture, and Graham Robins, Curator of The Cultural History Museum of Åland. Introduction Ulrika Mebus, Network Manager

Different audiences for different seasons Janna Jokela, Educational Officer, Aboa Vetus & Ars Nova, FINLAND

Aboa Vetus & Ars Nova is a museum of history and contemporary art, situated in the city of Turku, Finland. The museum is open 360 days in a year and offers its visitors a variety of exhibitions, guided tours, workshops, courses and events. Summer is the high season when lots of tourists from Finland and abroad visit Turku and the museum. In Aboa Vetus & Ars Nova, big summer exhibitions are on display and archaeological excavations carried out on the site during summer attract people and get a lot of media attention. Summer schools for children are organized throughout the summer and make sure that the museum is buzzing with activity. Winter is the low season, when school visits are frequent but the crowds of tourists are gone and the city feels a lot more silent. This would be a good time to attract the local people in the Turku region to the museum – but how? We decided that the best way to attract people into the museum during wintertime was with really great, big exhibitions, so we decided to flip the seasons around and try displaying the big (and expensive) exhibitions during winter instead of summer

The Mariehamn-Meeting September 2017 14 (visitor surveys showed that during summer the tourists usually come to the museum, no matter what is on display). In 2015, the museum launched the idea of a “third season”, taking place between the holiday seasons of Christmas and Easter. A first attempt was made with a rotating exhibition from the Victoria & Albert Museum of Childhood in London. It exhibited doll`s houses from the 17th to 21st centuries and was on display in Aboa Vetus & Ars Nova from December to April. The exhibition and the program around it were a huge success and truly made the idea of a third season a reality. This year, we decided to move our recurring contemporary art exhibition, the Turku Biennial, from its usual place in the summer to the winter season, displaying it from November 2017 to April 2018. It will be exciting to see how local people respond this time!

Knowledge and responding to visitors; a year-round challenge. Ulrika Mebus, Gotlands Museum, SWEDEN

Four seasons in Museum of Archaeology and History in Elbląg Curator Joanna Fonferek, Museum of Archaeology and History in Elbląg, POLAND

Guided tour at the Åland’s Art Museum

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Estonian Open Air Museum as year-round experience. Merike Lang, Chief Executive Officer of the Estonian Open Air Museum FNDN, ESTONIA

People in Nordic countries can be proud of having four seasons in the year. This is Nature’s gift to us, which many foreigners, unfortunately, have no opportunity to see. What catches the eye when we look at current trends in tourism services is that tourism companies are insistent on reducing prices during the high season rather than putting low off-season prices to good use. Well, there is, in fact, a simple reason for that: people’s holidays, including travelling opportunities, have been traditionally linked to the summer, when school breaks up, and families can spend time together. There also are retired travellers, who prefer the so-called Indian summer, but here it is early autumn, before it gets unpleasantly dark and cold. Going to warm seashores in the winter or skiing in the mountains are entirely separate types of holiday, typical of families and single people in their golden age alike. Alas, both my personal experience and some people-watching prove that going to museums is not exactly one of the goals of holiday-makers who head for a skiing destination. Such are the ingrained traditions, which museums cannot change by themselves because, unless we mean the Louvre or some other world-famous museum, stand-alone ordinary museums are generally not travel attractions as such. We can only rely on the entire country’s promotion capability. For instance, it was only recently that Enterprise Estonia, one of the state’s image creators, released its work “The Estonian Stress Buster”, a promotional video about stress-relief options provided by Estonian nature. If the

The Mariehamn-Meeting September 2017 16 outside world were to embrace this idea, the Open Air Museum would only welcome such a development. Until then, our own residents will remain the off-season target group. Climate change has been playing a nasty trick on us for several years now. While before we could say that Estonia had 9 months of winter and 3 months of lousy skiing weather, in recent years we have mostly had 12 months of lousy skiing weather in a row. The thermometer stubbornly shows +10 °C on Midsummer’s Eve and Christmas Eve alike. Still, our museum team tries to exercise positive thinking, and we have decided that our most important item of major sales appeal is mud, which became the concept for our advertising video “Fun in any kind of weather” produced for social media: dress for the weather and the mud, let children run about and come into the Open Air Museum buildings for warmth. As far as the low season is concerned, one should focus on highly specific target groups and their needs and habits as well as festive dates of the calendar, which stand for people’s opportunities to have a day off, in our state or neighbouring countries. The museum’s capabilities and strengths should also be considered. The introduction to the topic of our today’s conference brought up a common issue for open-air museums, which is the lack of warm locations, so the low season is indeed a tricky subject. It is true, and the problem is mainly characteristic of old displays located in buildings that were constructed without much regard to ensuring proper indoor climate. Turning a museum into a winter attraction requires investments. However, these will have to be made once for a longer term and will also have a positive effect on the preservation of displays in addition to luring more visitors. It was already 15 years ago that the Estonian Open Air Museum started realising that we could not ensure the preservation of rural buildings of the later period and their better and more exquisite furnishings in our humid forest if we kept them unheated all year round. Our storage facilities are not spacious enough either for interiors to be evacuated for the winter. So, we designed safe heating options (electric or geothermal heating) for new museum buildings from the start, but in some old buildings we made sure the heating solutions that had already been there could actually be operated. Of course, merely heating a display building and paying someone to do it is unreasonable: might as well open it for visitors as well. By now, the number of our exhibit buildings that are open in the winter has reached eight. Year-round operation also implies that the support infrastructure should be thought through, and that is especially true about toilets with non-freezing plumbing. They are particularly crucial for buildings where events and programmes are to be held or permanent staff are to work. This means that an open-air museum cannot design the interior of its exhibit buildings to be as authentic as possible anymore, but needs to plan modern auxiliary rooms and utilities. The content of all later displays and the relevant activities must be carefully thought through at the planning stage. The museum also needs to provide warm locations for catering facilities as well as the ticket office and merchandise sales. Naturally, comfort alone will not guarantee high visitor numbers. The content that the museum offers must be worth spending the time and thought-provoking. The warden working in the heated exhibit interior must also have superior communication skills,

The Mariehamn-Meeting September 2017 17 demonstrate period activities and tutor visitors. The latter need to feel welcomed. But, of course, creating such an environment is our objective whatever the season. A year ago, we rearranged our summer display: in some farm buildings, we installed glass walls in front of interiors and then could populate the rooms behind the glass with interesting knickknacks, life-size puppets, sounds and video sketches. All of that replaced wardens who would have been sitting in the rooms and, in a typically Estonian way, would have wanted not to talk to people. Despite the scepticism expressed by those who favoured human interaction, new displays got a warm reception from visitors. The interiors have become livelier visually; certain historical topics were assigned to them, and there is a sufficient amount information for visitors to study on their own. Unfortunately, these locations cannot be used in the winter season because they are not heated, and textiles cannot be displayed due to humidity. We have to dismount the displays every autumn although they could be left up for the winter if there were modern heating appliances. At the same time, we thought that one of our farm buildings, designed as a study aid explaining the entire scope of Estonian rural architecture, can also be left open and unattended during daylight in the winter; cold and humidity will not damage anything important there. The host of the neighbouring heated farm building opens it and switches on the lights, and then switches them off and locks the doors at the end of the day. This bold experiment has only yielded positive experience so far. This year, an individual visitor can use a free specially developed app NUMU (an abbreviation for Smart Museum in Estonian) on their own smart device or the one they rent from us; the app contains an audio guide to our display, accompanied with text. You can even get it from the App Store or Google Play right now, but when you are in our museum, it will be supplemented with GPS connection showing where you are at any moment, and confidence about finding your way is rather important in the museum’s 72-hectare territory. At the moment, the audio guide is available in Estonian, Russian, English, German and Spanish, and we will be adding more languages next year (Italian, French, Finnish and Mandarin). There are also two games; although only available in Estonian and Russian at the moment, they are fascinating because of the use of augmented reality, which makes certain objects move on your smart device. Such games are especially interesting for our younger visitors. The apps developed for us are suitable for any open-air museum, and if you would like to use one as the basis for your future audio guide, I can direct you to just the right people. From June to September, NUMU has been downloaded less than 3000 times in our museum. Another hit of the year is the joint-effort weaving project “Weave yourself into history”. As you know, Estonia is celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2018, and the national jubilee organization committee has called for making birthday presents to the Republic of Estonia. Evelin Värk, our marketing director, suggested that our visitors weave 100 meters of rag carpet (in the form of 5-meter rugs). The patterns on the rag carpet are based on all Estonian folk costume skirt stripe patterns. The designs with the right colours and order of stripes were created by one of the country’s most famous tapestry designers, Anu Raud. Since early spring, when the campaign started, the weaving loom brought to the stable of the museum’s inn has produced 70 meters of the rag carpet woven by more than 4000

The Mariehamn-Meeting September 2017 18 visitors, including people from all over the country, members of the government and the parliament, official foreign guests and tourists. All the participants of the project are registered, and the process of weaving is constantly updated in social media. Now we hope very much that the President can come by and take part in the joint weaving effort before we reach 100 meters. The completed 100 meters of rag carpets will be presented to the President of the Republic of Estonia during the national gala event on 23 February 2018 so that they decorate the venues of the official events held in celebration of the state’s jubilee. Our project has been included in the 5 best gift ideas and has made sure that the Open Air Museum is always in the picture. Still, our latest bold idea was opening an information centre combined with a shop and café in Old Tallinn, some 100 meters from the Town Hall Square. The café is furnished in 1930s style, and its showpiece is the period coffee maker, the only one in the Baltic States and Nordic countries, which makes the best and cheapest coffee in the neighbourhood. Although the Open Air Museum is located 9 kilometres from the city centre, it is very important that we can always be seen by people who have free time on their common leisure route. I will not have time to elaborate on our winter season programmes, but surely every museum nowadays has resources to organise programmes, celebrations or workshops. What I want to say is, going back to what is stated on the invitation to today’s conference, that museums in Nordic countries may, of course, make the experience of darkness and countryside in the dark one of the unique features of their programmes for visitors, but one can go to the woods anywhere to be in the dark, and other events and activities will, sadly, require outdoor lighting. For safety reasons, we could not continue using outdoor candles, so special street lighting was designed for our museum. To conclude, I would like to say that the success of low-season sales depends on strong and targeted marketing as well as interesting ideas that would make people leave the comfort of their homes and TV sets and go out. The winter season in the Estonian Open Air Museum lasts from October to April, and 35,000 visitors out of the 135,000 we get per year come there in the winter. These are very good numbers compared even to some indoor museums in Tallinn, and they are the result of long-term and purposeful work.

The Mariehamn-Meeting September 2017 19 Outdoor activities in the Museum Garden. Ted Hesselbom, director Sigtuna Museum, SWEDEN

Facing the challenges of the cold season at Lolland-Falster Anna-Elisabeth Jensen, Head of Cultural heritage department, Museum Lolland-Falster, DENMARK

New museums - same old challenges. Graham Robins, Curator, Åland’s museum, ÅLAND

Guided tour in the Åland Museum of Cultural History

Dinner at Stallhagen Gastropub & Microbrewery http://www.stallhagen.com/en/pub-stallhagen/

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The Mariehamn-Meeting September 2017 21 Wednesday September 20th - Excursion to Kastelholm Castle and the open-air museum of Jan Karlsgården

Jan Karlsgården open air museum exposes Åland traditions and gives you an idea of how an Åland farm might have looked like during the late 19th century. Activities are organized during summer as well as winter. http://www.kastelholm.ax/en/2012/12/jan-karlsgardens-friluftsmuseum/

The Mariehamn-Meeting September 2017 22 Kastelholm Castle is a well-preserved castle ruin. Construction on what was originally a fortress, the only medieval fortress on Åland, began in the late 1300s. At the time of the castle’s construction, Åland was an independent administrative district with Kastelholm as its centre. The Swedish royal family of Vasa showed great interest in the castle. Both Gustav Vasa and Duke John spent time here. For a few months Erik XIV was imprisoned here with his wife Karin Månsdotter. Kastelholm continued to be Åland’s administrative centre up until 1634. During this time the castle was rebuilt and extended many times. Following a fire in 1619, the very last royal governor on Åland, Stellan Otto Mörner, attempted to rebuild the castle as a more representative building. In 1745 yet another fire almost completely destroyed the castle which was then left to slowly fall into ruin. Since the late 1800s the castle has undergone several extensive restoration projects, the most recent taking place in the 1990s. Today the castle is a museum. http://www.kastelholm.ax/en/historia

The Mariehamn-Meeting September 2017 23 Lunch at Smakbyn, Kastelholm. Smakbyn opened its doors to the public in the autumn of 2012 by the well-renowned chef Michael Björklund. Since then, Smakbyn has evolved into a restaurant, shop, conference hall and distillery. http://smakbyn.ax/en/

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People from Åland through time. Photo-assembly in the Åland's Museum.

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www.baltmus.net

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