Paper short abstract:

In my paper I will try to follow the development of some Slovenian museums collections from 15th to 20th century and answer the questions what kind and whose material culture (heritage) was gathered in our museum collections and how collectors and curators interpreted it in the language of museum exhibitions and other forms of museum communications with their visitors. Perhaps one of the most interesting phenomena is rapid growth of new collections; in last decade hundreds of them appeared and their owners try to promote them as vital part of local identity.

Paper long abstract:

Durig the history of collections and collectors the notion of museum objects made a major shifts from delighting in the world's strange offerings and abondoned many of the aesthetic and mystical criteria that previously determined the museum objects as vital part of (national - regional) cultural heritage. At the end of 19. century European and American ethnology/anthropology museums and »collections incited wonder and admiration, esoteric knowledge, and adventourus spirits of the collector« (Jenkins 1994). Instead of these new collections were based on scientific notions of classification, began to emphasize the summary relationships among objects.

In my paper I tried to find the same development in Slovenian museums collections of 19th and 20th century and answer the questions what kind and whose material culture (heritage) was gathered in our museum collections and how collectors and curators interpreted it in the language of museum exhibitions.

In last few decades also in Slovenia we are faced with many new phenomena concerning museum collections and collecting in the era of postmodernism. Some of these development we can trace also in Slovenian ethnological museums after 1980; in that period I will focus on the newly defined role of collections in museums concerning »ethnologization of museums« and »activistic concepts of museums«. At the end I will analize rapid growth of new collections; in last decade hundreds of them appeared and their owners try to promote them as vital part of local identity.