Museums and collections often owe their foundation to strong civic involvement. The Braunschweig Landesmuseum would like to discuss the collection strategies and concepts of historical and Jewish museums that have been initiated by strong public participation. Soon after the founding phase, however, civic museum initiatives invariably reached their limits. The development and maintenance of the collection was now to be supervised scientifically. For this purpose, its management was handed over to those with the relevant professional qualifications.
At the Vaterländisches Museum, founded in 1891 and now the Braunschweig Landesmuseum, this was the art historian Karl Steinacker (1872-1944). His concept was aimed at diversifying the collection. Extremely well connected within the social network of the Braunschweig region, Karl Steinacker also found support for his diversification plans within the Jewish communities. This commitment was triggered by the acquisition of the interior furnishings of the Hornburg synagogue in 1924, after which the museum received numerous loans and donations from Jewish people in the Braunschweig region. These were then brought together to form a distinct Jewish department within the museum. The museum’s relationship with the Jewish community continued after 1945, with the active participation of the community in the expansion of the Jewish collection, especially in the reopening of the Judaica department in 1987 and in its new conception in 2021.
The following questions then arise with regard to the past, present and future:
How does active participation of the population influence the building and further development of museum collections? What say do citizens have and what is the relationship between citizen advisory boards and museum management? What challenges and opportunities arise from this participation and engagement? What networks have developed? How did these come about? How is the collaboration between community and museum organised? How can new communities be reached? With these questions we refer to historical museums in general and Jewish museums and collections in particular.
Have we aroused your interest? Then we look forward to receiving your synopsis (no longer than 2.000 characters incl. spaces) and your CV (no longer than 500 characters incl. spaces) by 02.09.2022. The presentations should not exceed a speaking time of 20-30 minutes. We plan a 10-minute question and answer session after each presentation.
Please send your synopsis and CV as a PDF to: b.gierke@3landesmuseen.de or h.poetzsch@3landesmuseen.de.
The conference is scheduled to take place analogously in Braunschweig on 17/18 April 2023. Travel and accommodation costs for the speakers will be reimbursed. A publication of the speeches in book and open access form is planned.