This thesis aims to examine if and how gender is framed, presented and problematized in contemporary art exhibitions. To achieve this, exhibitions and the curatorial function at the museums Bildmuseet in Umeå and MAN (Museum Anna Nordlander) in Skellefteå are investigated through interviews and analyses. These were made from a gender theoretical perspective, guided by Judith Butler's poststructural approach, focusing especially on perfomativity and queer. The thesis describes how contemporary art exhibitions can be curated in a gender aware manner. The areas identified as important when it comes to gender aware curation are: including and problematizing gender, educating in gender issues and gender awareness during internal as well as external collaborations. All of the analysed exhibitions contain gender aspects that ​are examined deeper, even though the curators did not intend all of the exhibitions to highlight and problematize gender. In the thesis, it is also discussed what role the curator has in the gender aware work and how gender/sex are represented in the examined exhibitions. It also problematizes the lack of non-binary artist in previous exhibitions of the museums and how this, through different strategies, can be counteracted in order to create a more democratic and inclusive museum.

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The emotional part of a museum experience is being debated and there is research pointing towards the affective part of learning. The purpose of this study is to examine how museum pedagogues reason about the usage of affective learning in their work and to investigate whether they consider affective pedagogy is a part of their work or not. Furthermore how they consider themselves working, or not working, with feelings in their pedagogy. A key factor in this study has been to work interdisciplinary with both museum pedagogy and social science with theoretical perspectives of feelings such as happiness, sadness, anger, disgust and fear, and with theories such as Feelings & materiality and Pedagogy of Feeling. Methodologically a qualitative interview study museum pedagogues have been used together with observation of four Swedish state- and country museums. In this thesis it is shown that the interviewed museum pedagogues indeed have acknowledged the fact that the museum is an affective place, but the interviewed had different way of make use of feelings. They all agree on the fact that feelings can support the learning process, and that all the different feelings have their own effect on learning. Also that the museum pedagogues have some influence on the feeling that the exhibitions are to emit, which could be used in the pedagogues favor if the exhibition consists of hard and problematic feelings. However, in contrast to this it seems that few of the museum pedagogues discuss the affective influence of a upcoming exhibition or program, or evaluate a project in what feeling the visitors experienced during the visit. This is a two years master’s thesis in Archive, Library and Museum studies.

Uppsatsen undersöker huruvida freds- och konfliktvetenskapliga teorier kan kopplas till freds- respektive försvarsmuseer. Tidigare forskning som kopplar dessa två tvärvetenskapliga ämnesområden till varandra är ytterst bristfällig, vilket kan ge negativa konsekvenser på det museer förmedlar till sina besökare. Är freds- och försvarsmuseerna inte medvetna om vilka teoretiska utgångspunkter de faktiskt har kan de omedvetet ge besökarna en snedvriden och ensidig bild av verkligheten. I uppsatsens undersökning beskrivs Fredens Hus och Armémuseum utifrån ett freds- och konfliktvetenskapligt analysverktyg för att utröna hur de tolkar och förmedlar säkerhet. De två freds- och konfliktvetenskapliga teorierna realism och feminism används sedan för att se om endera museum faktiskt förmedlar en verklighetsuppfattning baserad på någon av dessa teorier. I slutsatsen redogörs att Fredens Hus förmedlar en verklighetssyn som sammanfaller med det kritiska perspektivet feminism och att Armémuseum förmedlar ett perspektiv som sammanfaller med det traditionella perspektivet realism. / The thesis explores wether peace- and conflict studies theories can be linked to peace and war museums. Previous research on these multidisciplinary subject areas merged together is deficient, a situation which could be an adverse impact on what the museums conveys to their visitors. If the peace and war museums aren’t consciously choosing either peace- and conflict studies theory to base their work on, they could inadvertency give their visitors an one-sided and skewed view of the world. The thesis analysis describes Fredens Hus  and Armémuseum from a peace- and conflict studies analysis tool set, designed to determine how they interpret and convey security. The two theoretical perspectives, the traditional perspective realism and the critical perspective feminism, is then used to analyse wether either museum actually conveys either two theories. In the conclusion of the thesis it is apparent that Fredens Hus conveys a perspective that coincides with feminism and that Armémuseum coincides with realism.

<p>This paper deals with an object donated by a group of members of the public to the Royal Armoury in Stockholm, Sweden. The donators claimed to own a horse bit that had been used by King Gustav II Adolf's mount in the battle of Lützen, where the King was killed. The bit was a gift to the donators' ancestor, the farmer and politician Petter Jönsson, from the King of Sweden, Oscar I, in the 1850's. In this paper, the donated bit is examined and found unlikely to be the bit used at Lützen. The examination also revealed that the bit now worn by the horse in its display is a prop, included in the group of objects in the 19^th century, and that the original bit probably was lost in a fire in 1648. The examination also raises questions on why this bit was considered a valuable gift, what consequences the gift transaction of the bit had for giver and reviever. It ends with a discussion about the donated bit and the bit in the display, and their roles at the museum in the future.</p>

The survey aims to problematize masculinity in the exhibitions of the museum.  In what way is masculinity interpreted and valued in exhibitions? What is the attitude towards masculinity in gender oriented museological texts? This study investigates in which way masculinity is written about – how interpretations of masculinity emerge in the texts and what consequences this may have. The survey is based on the method of discourse analysis and the material is processed from a gender perspective. The source material consists of museological texts dealing with the topic of gender and museology, which also is the core material. A complement to this is a selection of exhibition catalogs from museums as well as reviews which are also based on art exhibitions. The main point of the source material consists of the museological texts. The survey highlights that the gender-conscious museological discourse understands, interpret and evaluate masculinity on a more or less given regulatory framework. The classification of this framework means that masculinity is understood in terms of power or unmanliness as a norm and representation. The result is a definition that is reproduced and transmitted via testimony, texts. This contributes to a perception of masculinity which is formulated in evaluative attitudes – about masculinity itself seen as a problem. The discursive framework which the gender-conscious texts consists of constructs the perception of masculinity, and are not merely observations about masculinity as reflections of reality. The discursive classification presumes what there is to know, or what can be found in the study and interpretation of masculinity, men or masculinity. The gender conscious museological discourse affects how truths and statements are constructed, developed and reproduced. The attitude towards masculinity – the perception of masculinity – in the gender-conscious museological discourse as it manifests itself in these texts, is that masculinity in practice doesn’t need to be problematized.

This paper deals with an object donated by a group of members of the public to the Royal Armoury in Stockholm, Sweden. The donators claimed to own a horse bit that had been used by King Gustav II Adolf's mount in the battle of Lützen, where the King was killed. The bit was a gift to the donators' ancestor, the farmer and politician Petter Jönsson, from the King of Sweden, Oscar I, in the 1850's. In this paper, the donated bit is examined and found unlikely to be the bit used at Lützen. The examination also revealed that the bit now worn by the horse in its display is a prop, included in the group of objects in the 19th century, and that the original bit probably was lost in a fire in 1648. The examination also raises questions on why this bit was considered a valuable gift, what consequences the gift transaction of the bit had for giver and reviever. It ends with a discussion about the donated bit and the bit in the display, and their roles at the museum in the future.

This thesis explores how art produced in the former GDR has been looked upon, handled and exhibited after the reunification of Germany in 1990. Swedish Art History has paid little attention to art in the GDR. The debate starting in the 50s between the spokesmen for abstract art and the defenders of figuration restrained for a long period the ability to look upon art from the GDR without prejudices. This led to a rejection of all figurative art in the GDR and sweeping judgmental attitudes, like it´s all “kitsch”. Comparatively few artists in the GDR however, painted in the style prescribed by political leaders. An open issue in this study was, against background: Has GDR art gained in interest and respectability?    This study focuses on two exhibitions The Divided Heaven in Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin and an exhibition in Kalmar konstmuseum, Sweden, named Maintaining the Order of Things – the Aesthetic of Modernism in Commercialism, Nationalism, Elitism and Socialism, 2011. The exhibitions have been analyzed along several dimensions: The number of works from the GDR, strategies for hanging them, the presentation of the exhibitions in information brochures and the homepage of the museums. Descriptions of the works give information on typical motives in the GDR over time and some information as regards the artists. The way the building has supported visitors in experiencing an exhibition has been considered and its importance as an institution.     The study of the two exhibitions illustrates two different strategies for showing art from the GDR, in contrast or integrated. The Swedish exhibition which primarily exposed paintings from the 60 s focused on comparing GDR paintings and the Swedish sketches on commissioned  etchings on vases from Orrefors glassworks.  The German exhibition exposed GDR art together with art from other countries, along thematic lines.     The study indicates an increasing interest in the art from the GDR, which is confirmed by the great number of exhibitions 2012.  Also projects researching the art from this period in German history and the construction of a new museum for it supports the idea that interest in and respect for art produced in the former GDR is gradually established. This increased interest has not yet included the officially promoted style – Socialist Realism. / <p>Vid den elektroniska publiceringen har två bilder tagits bort från den ursprungliga versionen av upphovsrättsliga skäl, bild 21 och 26.</p>

Museo de la Memoria y los Derechos Humanos (MMDH) in Santiago, Chile is dedicated to the depiction of a difficult heritage. This museum of memory and human rights narrates the military dictatorship in Chile 1973–1990, a time when thousands of people were subjected to unthinkable human rights violations committed by the Government Junta of Chile. Memorial museums exist worldwide and aim to depict a specific historical event when people have been victimized by the state. By showcasing the crimes committed by the junta, MMDH seeks to contribute to the culture of human rights to prevent human rights violations from reoccurring in the future; a culture of Nunca Más (Never Again). In this thesis, the permanent exhibitions of MMDH have been studied through the lenses of representation and discourse theory. The purpose has been to understand the way in which the museum depicts the dictatorship and whether the goal of contributing to a human rights culture was visible in the material that is presented in the exhibitions. The results show that MMDH depicts a story using different themes primarily relating to the crimes committed by the Chilean state and the civilian population’s fight for human rights. In the exhibitions, several themes evoke emotions and can generate a real impact on the visitors. However, the museum presents its material without analysis or interpretation and it disclaims placing the dictatorship in a historical and political context, which can inhibit the educational purpose of the museum. In addition, since the exhibitions lack educational material on human rights and democracy, the categorization of being a museum of human rights with the goal of contributing to a culture of human rights, is insufficient. In the discourse of the exhibitions present at MMDH there is an apparent inclusion and exclusion of narratives which can be explained by the museum’s political link in a country that to this day is undergoing a process of dealing with its past. This is a two-year master’s thesis in Museum and Cultural Heritage Studies.

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