Hungarian Open Air Museum
The Skanzen launched its museum outreach programme, called Museum in a Suitcase in 2015. We visit mostly highly disadvantaged areas and mediate knowledge about rural lifestyle to school children with limited opportunities to participate in our museum education activities. A further development of the project is the Theatre in a Suitcase programme, which is an unconventional theatre education programme in collaboration with secondary schools, actors and dramaturges. In the Transylvanian Building Complex in Szentendre, the everyday life of rural and urban people comes to life for visitors. With this programme, we once more stepped out of the museum framework, and students in grades 9-10 can learn in their own classrooms about the stories and decisions of people who lived at the beginning of the 20th century, a time of fateful historical cataclysms. The sessions use theatre, drama and museum pedagogical methods to explore themes and give young people the opportunity to engage, reflect, talk about and process the traumas of the past, often transgenerational. Both themes of our complex theatre education programme (‘going or staying in the homeland’, ‘the changing and expanding roles of women in the early 20th century’) explore the family through issues and problems that are still valid today. The development of the scenes was accompanied by a methodological development in drama and museum education, based on the interpretation of the stories and the themes in secondary schools. In our sessions, students not only see two-character scenes in a classroom with stage props, but also see the decisions of the people of the time brought to life by costumed actors, and explore these issues through the voices of contemporary public opinion and social expectations. In addition to the period presented, the museum objects, the stories, the family history research, and authentic information were all important factors us.
Explain in one sentence why you think the project you nominate is outstanding and could serve as an example for the entire community of modern and contemporary art museums.
The programme provides an excellent opportunity to explore social issues and problems, through authentic stories and individual life paths, real persons’ stories, that are still valid today. It gives young people the opportunity to get involved, reflect, talk about and work through past traumas, often transgenerational. The stories, which are based on serious museum researches, are easier to understand, storytelling techniques make it easier to process more difficult issues. This initiation helps the students understand political and historical narratives from micro history view, which also contributes to their better understanding of historical events learned in the school. The programme also enhances their emphatic behaviour, because during the session, they also have to think with the head of the characters.
Explain why this practice or program is relevant and sustainable in creating meaningful and lasting connections with people, communities, and the museum context with a medium to long-term vision.
With the programme, we were able to bring the museum closer to that group - secondary schools - which is one of the most difficult to reach. The research-based stories were not only important for authenticity, but the museum content, the stories and objects also brought the knowledge closer to the participants and made it easy to understand. We can also reach out to people and communities who would have limited opportunities to learn about the stories we tell in the museum. Throughout the development process, we were in constant contact with the secondary schools, and their feedback was important for us. Overall, we saw the implementation as a community project. Also the model can be applied by any museum with a focus on social history, local history, way of life. If there are research materials, communities may cooperate with drama groups or local theatres to realise the programme.