Memories, voices and silences in museums

Abstract

I have a passion and respect for the work done by local and regional museums as cultural institutions that survive on small budgets and the assistance of committed volunteers. I am fascinated by the memories they hold - in their collections and through their volunteers - and those that are absent. I am intrigued by the ways in which they interpret their collections: the sometimes apparently muddled over-collections that are left to speak for themselves; the themes selected; the strategies used; the connections - and disconnections - to community and to community memories. In my talk in an MA symposium on Museums, 'Memory and Ethics' in May, I focused on two strands: the ways in which oral history scholarship provides insight into the silences and mistakes that are encountered in museums; and the power of what I refer to as memory exhibitions. I have written about mistakes, silences and remembering in local museums elsewhere. Here I focus on memory exhibitions and, in particular, one memory exhibition.