Paper short abstract:

In my paper examine the different ways of dealing with change and innovations in the Finnish museum field of the 1970's. Was the ideal museum to be found in the past or the future?

Paper long abstract:

The 1970's were a decade that brought many reforms to the Finnish museum field: There were big organizational changes, new generations of museum professionals, and new paradigms and pedagogical practices. At a moment of change one can look at the past with nostalgia or be excited about the future. In my research I look at how the earlier museum practices were seen and interpreted from the 1970's contexts, and how the future of Finnish museums was planned.

In my PhD-research I study Finnish museum culture and museum practices, and how the practices have been carried out by different agents. My research material includes a collection of museum professionals' interviews, which have been produced by various Finnish museums as part of a national museum history project between 2005 and 2010. The individual museum professionals' memories will be contextualized by analyzing different written sources from the 1970's.

Based on this material I ask how the interviewed museum professionals viewed their own role in the development of the museum field, and what kind of "museum traditions" or "museum heritage" they valued - or were they "museum radicals" who supported new innovations. What sort of utopian or ideal museum were they striving towards?