This study sheds light on an interface between the concepts of museum and religion, based on case studies of two churches located at open-air museums: Seglora kyrka at Skansen in Stockholm and Murbergskyrkan at Murberget in Härnösand. These represent two types of museum churches, where Seglora kyrka originally was built för religious use within the Church of Sweden, while Murbergskyrkan originally was built by an open-air museum. This has been done through studies of both the biographies of the churches, to understand the changes in identities that they have undergone during their lives, and the use of the churches today, to understand possible conflicts between pedagogical and religious use of churches at museums. The research has been carried out as a methodological bricolage, where printed sources have been combined with interviews with museum employees and observations of the churches. Based on the biographies of the churches, it can be stated that Seglora kyrka has gone through several changes, to when transferred to Skansen be assigned its present identities as both a museum object and a religious object. Murbergskyrkan has always been assigned these parallel identities. Both churches are still used both pedagogically and religiously, and assigned identities as both museum objects and religious objects. The different uses of the churches do sometimes stand in conflict. Religious practice can go against a museal conservational mission. Pedagogical use of religious objects can be a subject of debate, for example when programs aimed for schools take place in religious buildings. Churches are located at several open-air museums, in Sweden and internationally, and are often included in both educational and religious use. Awareness of possible conflicts between pedagogical and religious use of churches should hence be required from museum educators and employees. This is a two years master’s thesis in Museum and Cultural Heritage Studies.
Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:uu-478665 |
Date | January 2022 |
Creators | Andersson, Hedvig |
Publisher | Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för ABM |
Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
Language | Swedish |
Detected Language | English |
Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
Format | application/pdf |
Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
Relation | Uppsatser inom musei- & kulturarvsvetenskap, 1651-6079 ; 156 |
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