The purpose of this thesis is to study and analyse collections of outsider art in two Swedish Medical History Museums, Medicinhistoriska museet in Uppsala and Mentalvårdsmuseet in Säter. The work explores how the history of the museums, how art collections were established, the outsider artist as well as how the two museums work the collections today. The empirical part of the study is based on the fieldwork that the author conducted at the Medicinhistoriska museet in Uppsala and Mentalvårdsmuseet in Säter during two separate days in the winter/spring of 2022. Both observations of the museum room were made, as well as interviews with the two curators in charge of the art collections. Attentive observations and systematic notes from constitute the basis for the description of the material and immaterial features of the museum. For the chapters on the historical and cultural context concerning outsider art, art brut, psychiatric care and how the hospitals became museums, literary sources were used.  The result of the study shows that outsider art made in a hospital is a very specific part of outsider art and art brut because of the very special conditions of an often locked psychiatric care unit. It implies that outsider art made in psychiatric care have not been seen as real art, not been viewed as interesting for the public. There has existed an authorised heritage discourse (“AHD”) in the hospitals and well as in the later museums which has led to the collections not been correctly taken care of, and research about the patients has not been made. Instead, the patients work has been stored incorrectly in attics, basements and in un-locked storage areas with only a few ”aesthetically pleasing” works showed in the museum.      Further, the study shows how the art collections in the two medical hospitals correctly used and worked with, can be a part of removing the stigma around mental disease and people living with it.  The conclusions to be drawn from this are that the complexity of the art collections of outsider art made in psychiatric care lie in the fact that mental illness, psychiatric hospitals, and outsider art have been under a stigma, as well as the fact that the patients’ stories being stories from the margin. This is a two-years master’s thesis in Museum and Cultural Heritage Studies.

Syftet med uppsatsen är att ta reda på hur företags konstsatsningar har initierats och vad syftet är med konstsamlingarna. Det här ansåg vi intressant att undersöka då näringslivets involvering i konst har blivit allt större runt om i världen. För att uppfylla syftet valde vi att göra en flerfallsstudie av företagen Cederquist, Folksam, IBM och SEB, där vi utförde kvalitativa intervjuer med respondenter som arbetade med konsten inom respektive företag. Resultatet visar på att initieringen av konstsamlingarna i samtliga företag genomförts då de bytt kontor, initiativen har kommit från högt uppsatta personer inom det aktuella företaget med ett konstintresse. Det främsta syftet med konsten var som en personalfrämjande åtgärd, där konsten ska bidra med kreativitet och inspiration till de anställda, ytterligare kom vi fram till att konsten används i syfte att förbättra företagets varumärke. / What caught our attention when initiating this study is the fact that business interest in art has increased globally. This study examines how corporations are starting to prioritize investing in art and the purpose and value of art collections in established organisations. To conduct this study we decided to do a case study of the companies’ Cederquist, Folksam, IBM and SEB. The method used in this study is qualitative interviews with participants that have experience in procuring at least one art collection within each company. The results are clear, that art collections are mainly obtained due to senior executive’s individual passion for art, as well as when companies relocate offices. We found that the main purpose of art is to create a nice work atmosphere, where art can inspire and contribute to creativity amongst the staff. Conclusively, art within companies can also strengthen their own brand-image.