Paper short abstract:

What does it mean to collect personal Stories at Museums in Sweden? Within a Project called Priority, Minority at Västerbotten County Museum six ethnic Groups recognized by the State as National Minorities with special rights to preserve their cultural Heritage, was invited to collaborate.

Paper long abstract:

In this paper I will reflect upon the role and meaning of the narrative turn in the practice of collecting and exhibiting personal stories at museums, especially the ones that are identified to be missing in the collections. Museums and other heritage institutions have been collecting personal stories in line with contemporary discourses.

The awareness of the lack of diversity has driven the museum to a normcritical approach, recognizing the need of lifestories from people and groups not so much, or not at all represented in the archives and documentations; workers, women, immigrants, our six national minorities, homeless, HBTQ-persons, unemployed, chronic ill. Stories and storytelling seem to be a new magic pin, a solution to many earlier problems with lack of representation.

I will present and discuss this theme on general basis at Cultural Museums in Sweden with a certain focus on a project called Priority, Minority at Västerbotten county museum developed for and together with the six ethnic groups recognized by the state as National Minorities with special rights to preserve their cultural Heritage

The project started with etnographic fieldwork and filmed interviews with some people within this groups. Their stories was later exposed in an, at start, almost empty exhibition space with showcases and texts that served as both an invitation and a call to “leave your story here”. The exhibition ended up nine months later complete with both stories and things through a new form of collecting and collaboration strategy with the six minority groups.