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| Photo from: http://nordlandsmuseet.no/en/nordlandsmuseet/ |
We started our course with a visit of The Nordland Museum which is focused on history of Bodø and surrounding areas. In one of the oldest buildings in Bodø, which is, in compare with other museums, quite small you can find exhibition about Sami people, some parts from history of the town from the Viking Age till today, old dry aquarium and also watch short movie about Bodø.
The exhibition is located in right part of building in 1st and 2nd floor. In both floors you can see quite a lot of artifacts - in Sami exhibit (Sami's typical turf hut called gamme, subjects of day use etc.), exhibit of fishing or life in Bodø before and after II. World War. There are also a lot of vintage photos that complement the texts during the exhibition. All texts are in museum in Norwegian, but brochures about museum in many languages are provided.
My impression is good, I find this museum interesting. The best part for me was reconstruction of a cellar room ruined by bomb (from II.WW). I also find film interesting, because it is coordinated piece of sounds, pictures and special effects. What I missed was more description of history after year 1945. Also all information presented in film and actually in whole museum are more focus on better side of history and facts. I am little sceptical about last short video commercial on Bodø. It is evident, that this video is mainly for tourists and Norwegians, so it should be attractive. But in my point of view is video too much idyllic. Darkness during winter time, strong wind are not mentioned, just for example :)
In my head is still article by Randolph Starn, where I actually firstly heard about idea critical analysis of museums. I have never been thinking about this point, which is in fact really important. For me, future teacher, is important to work with this fact exspecially when I want to work with museums like a part of resource of information, which can be used during teaching. But like books should be all resources checked if their quality and informations are objective.
Starn, Randolph. (2005). “A Historian’s Brief Guide to New Museum Studies” The American Historical Review, 110:1 (Feb.), 68-98.
The description that you wrote is detailed and interesting. I agree with you with the short video commercial of bodo, but it is funny because, actually they do not lie, they just omit some information (like the freezing wind or the looong nights:P).
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