Paper short abstract:

This paper aims at analysing the poetics and politics of exhibition and interpretation at The Cardiff Story museum, the local museum of the Welsh capital which opened in 2011, and at reflecting how it reinvents and commodifies Cardiff’s past and history for residents and tourists alike.

Paper long abstract:

Cardiff has been subjected to considerable urban, economic, social and cultural transformation. As a post-industrial city now devoted to culture, entertainment and consumption, Cardiff was one of the few European capital cities without a museum dedicated to its history and heritage. This changed in 2011 with the opening of The Cardiff Story museum. Housed in the Old Library emblematic building at the heart of the city, this museum offers the ground floor gallery Cardiff in Context, which presents a multi-sensory experience of Cardiff's development as a city, the role of the docks in turning the city into the world's coaltropolis by mid-1800s, the city's relationship with its hinterland, as well as its development as a European capital. The basement's City Lab gallery provides computer-based activity stations, hands-on activities and costumes for trying on that promote a more interactive and reconstructive approach to history. Phase 2, due to open this year, will consist of a first floor permanent gallery entitled Cardiff's Communities that will give voice to individuals who have come from different parts of the world and have helped shaping the city's development.

This paper seeks to examine the poetics and politics of exhibition and interpretation at The Cardiff Story, to question which/whose (hi)stories, objects and images have been selected to represent/legitimise the city, and to analyse its significance as a learning venue and tourism attraction where Cardiff's past and history and individual and collective memories and identities have been turned into commodified resources for residents and tourists alike.