Paper short abstract:

Present paper inquires how can multiple and continuously changing cultural heritages be displayed and interpreted on a museum exhibition. What kind of ideological, methodological, and/or practical challenges might it bring along? What is the relationship of cultural memory and creativity?

Paper long abstract:

In 2016, a new permanent exhibition about Estonian culture, "Estonian Dialogues", will be opened in the brand new building of the Estonian National Museum in Tartu, Estonia. During the preparation process of the exhibition, the museum staff has faced the need to re-define the identity of the ENM as well as the whole concept of Estonian nationality.

Up until present day, the ENM has focused on preserving and displaying mostly the Estonian pre-industrial peasant culture. With the new permanent exhibition, the ENM strives to create a whole new cultural environment that would allow people from different cultural and social backgrounds to identify with Estonian culture as well as express their own personal identities. "Estonian Dialogues" intend to describe the everyday culture of various cultural and social groups of Estonia during the whole period of settlement. The exhibition narrative is above all about everyday life of ordinary people of Estonia, about their coping with traditional norms and rules, as well as with the major events of world history, and about their ability to create things and bring about changes. No matter how unrealistic, the goal to create a "biography" of all peoples that have lived on the Estonian territory in all times gives us an opportunity to define Estonian nationality in a new way and, as a national museum, act as a democratic forum that is equally accessible to all people of the state.