Cultural Intensive Care We Dared to Go Aboard

in english and artists have worked on the project for All aboard! project”, Jessica Stjernström shorter or longer periods. claims. “The project differed markedly That All aboard! was realized at the from other proposals since there was Vasa Museum was no mere accident. an evident focus on achieving concrete Among the staff there are Torbjörn Ågren, results.” head of the museum education depart- “The project manager was able to PAGE 6 ment, Malin Fajersson, head of communi- give a clear picture of what the project cations and the director of the museum, would really be like when everything was Cultural intensive care Robert Olsson who all embraced the project ready, such as riding an elevator designed from the start. They had been working in a like a diving bell”, Jessic Stjernström ex- Carina Ostenfeldt had really intended similar direction and the new project made plains. to become a nurse anaesthetist. But a the tools and keys available for realizing “The room was to be for ALL children road accident changed everything. The their ideas in the form of actual activities. – not just FOR children but WITH children; consequences of the spinal injury that All aboard! – the salutogenic museum and that is very different. There were to has its own logo – a person driving their be no separate solutions and all children she suffered got in the way of these wheelchair forwards at full speed. The were to be able to do the same things”, plans and, instead, she found herself logo easily leads people to believe that Jessica Stjernström. at a hospital in the role of patient. this is a room for people with disabilities, Invitations to take part in the project Carina Ostenfeldt explains: But Carin Ostenfeldt is quick to explain: committee were sent to various societies, “We really wanted to play a little with organizations and government bodies. “My own experience of a long process of the international sign and make it more The goals and methodology of the project rehabilitation has certainly played a part active. The angle is the same as that of were established right at the start so that in developing the concept of ‘All aboard! the figures that decorate the warship the committee’s task was to be more of – the salutogenic museum’. But I have Vasa but this is also the angle of people a sounding-board. been primarily motivated by a concern driving their wheelchairs at full speed in a “I feel more like a participant in a for human rights and for what motivates wheelchair marathon race. Quite simply, creative reference group than in a steer- people; not the way back but the way the sign indicates activity.” ing committee”, claims Kent Holmström forward. One cannot regain what one has All aboard! – the salutogenic museum who is head of hospital play therapy at the lost in functionality but has to find a new has been organized according to educa- Astrid Lindgren Children’s Hospital. approach.” tional principles through the socio-cultural Accessibility is at the core of the pro- Issues of accessibility became very perspective on learning and developing ject and this was a particularly important concrete after the accident because when and with a fundamental salutogenic per- argument for Handisam, the Swedish she left the hospital after ten months of spective. Agency for Disability Policy Coordination. treatment it was winter with its snow- “There is a particularly happy light in Handisam joined the project at an early covered roads. the glade where the humanities and med- stage. “It was impossible to drive a car up icine meet and something new is opened “Removing obstacles’ is one of the the hill to the house where I was living be- up. The answers may not be crystal clear requirements of our guidelines for ac- cause of the snow. We had to get a snow but the questions that are posed open the cessibility, and government bodies are scooter so that I could get into the house. way for new possibilities and contexts.” required to have premises, information One often has to look for original solutions One example of just such a new con- and operations that are accessible to and to think anew in order to solve the text is the collaboration between the All everyone. The Vasa Museum now has a problems of accessibility; using one’s crea- aboard! project and the Astrid Lindgren pioneering project which is an excellent tivity instead of looking for readymade Children’s Hospital in which the museum model”, notes Mikael Wahldén, senior solutions as well, in my case, as a group can be used as an active ingredient in a adviser from Handisam. of creative and energetic friends.” rehabilitation programme for children and He also points out that finding solu- She gave up nursing and began an young people with the so-called Vipers. tions that work for everyone is a central arts degree at Karlstad University College “A range of opportunities for training aspect of disability policy measures. with cultural studies backed up with edu- have been built in to the All aboard! room. Separate solutions are only permissible cation and psychology. Since graduating Children can be taking part in an educa- when all other alternatives have proved she has worked as a newspaper, radio tional programme and be training physi- unworkable. and TV journalist, but has concentrated on cal functions at the same time. One can “But it is unusual for organizations to producing exhibitions on a freelance basis see the entire project as a sort of cultural have such a total grasp of the issue right as well as on commission from national intensive care – definitely life supporting from the start”, says Mikael Wahldén. art society Konstfrämjandet and Swedish but with a different substance in the cen- This project goes much further than Travelling Exhibitions. For the last four tral vein catheter…” merely widening door openings. Acces- years she has been managing and de- sibility is not just a matter of being able to veloping the concept of All aboard! – the Inga-Lill Hagberg Desbois get into the building but is also concerned salutogenic museum which is based on journalist and editor with proximity and being able to enjoy the a philosophy of accessibility. museum under the same conditions as There are four main pillars to the pro- others. ject: development of educational method- Including everyone without resort- ology, accessibility, interaction between PAGE 8 ing to separate or special solutions is rehabilitation and the arts, and operational We dared to go Aboard! not an uncommon goal but it takes time development. to achieve even at the country’s leading “Educational methodology is con- Everyone included, all organizations for people with functional cerned both with development and learn- aboard! disabilities and for promoting children’s ing. The educational competence can be rights. used in several areas. ‘All aboard! – the Everyone is welcome – All aboard! “It really ought to be self-evident. salutogenic museum’ would not have means everyone. There are no individ- But thinking in this way is a challenge, developed into such a comprehensive ual solutions here but everyone uses even for those of us at RBU. It takes operation if we had not struck a vigorous the diving bell. That was something time to learn a different way of ‘think- spring. And, of course, it is al the more that attracted us, Jessica Stjernström ing’”, Jessica Stjernström candidly notes. exciting that the project is based at Save the Children Sweden also strug- Sweden’s best-known museum.” from RBU (Swedish Association for gles with the same issue, according to Carina maintains that it was thanks to Disabled Children and Youths in the Christina Wahlund Nilsson. She is re- the enthusiastic collaborators and financial County of Stockholm) explains. sponsible for educational matters and is support from the Swedish Inheritance critical: Fund that it was possible to realize the RBU joined the project right at the start. “Why is it that at Save the Children project. A total of some 100 people – in- “We said yes straight away when we have not yet achieved an approach cluding technicians, educators, designers we were asked about taking part in the that includes every child’s needs? After 132 all, we are an organization that is con- “The fact that the project has such a variants on the All aboard! theme in other cerned with children.” concrete focus and is not just words was places that do not need to cost a single A group of children, the expert com- a wake-up call and this has helped us to krona extra. It is all a question of how mittee, has been employed by the All look realistically at how we work and has one plans from the beginning”, Mikael aboard! project. These experts have pre- exceeded our expectations in this direc- Wahldén insists. sented their views and proposals as to how tion”, Robert Olsson explains. the educational room should be designed The Maritime Museums’ vision for Inga-Lill Hagberg Desbois and furnished. This is in accordance with 2015 posits reaching a state where “the journalist and editor the UN Declaration on the Rights of the operations are informed by a perspective Child which is an important aspect of the of total accessibility”. The approach in- project. One of the fundamental principles volves an accepted, holistic understanding of the declaration concerns the right of and includes access to information, the PAGE 12 every child to express its views. physical environment and treatment by the A philosophy of access “In this project the UN declaration has staff.

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