104 Swedish museum directors have participated in a new report by the organization Swedish Museums, which pursues the interests of the Swedish museum sector.
According to the report, every fourth museum in Sweden experiences that politicians or officials have at some point tried to influence the content of exhibitions or other things that have to do with museum activities.
- I'm not surprised.
We are on our guard now more than ever.
We see that things that are about cultural heritage are very interesting for politicians when they want to pursue their issues and change society, says Maria Jönsson, museum director at Norrköping City Museum.
Cultural heritage and identity
In February 2020, the Sweden Democrats in the Norrköping City Museum reported to the police in connection with the exhibition "Compassion and resistance" about Nazism.
The police report was dropped after a few days, but the incident caused the principle of arm's length distance to be debated throughout the country.
- Then we got a lot of support from other museums that recognized themselves in our situation, says Maria Jönsson.
The report from Sweden's museums has not looked more closely at which political parties are trying to influence the museums the most, but states that there are several different parties:
- It is often about ignorance, you perceive the museum as your environment.
In addition, cultural heritage is very much linked to identity and there are political agendas to influence, not just from a party, says an anonymous museum director who was interviewed in the report.
Municipalities and regions
In the case of municipal or regional museums, ie the museums that have a municipality or region as their principal, one third state that politicians or officials have tried to control the activities.
- This is often what politicians or senior officials are appointed for - to point out a direction and hand out assignments.
But our assignments need to be very comprehensive and I have the last word on the content at Norrköping City Museum, says museum director Maria Jönsson.
Rikard Åslund, Östergötland's regional director of culture, believes that the museums 'experiences may have to do with the cultural collaboration model that was introduced in Sweden in 2011 and which made it the regions' task to distribute state cultural support.
- This meant that the regional politicians and officials got a closer connection to the cultural institutions, which I believe has led to a closer regional examination of the museums' activities, he says.
Marketing vs culture
According to Rikard Åslund, there is a good knowledge of the principle of arm's length distance in politics, but also a willingness from regions and municipalities to ensure the national cultural policy goals and ensure that taxpayers are satisfied with what they get for their money.
In addition, it is not always popular when museums choose to highlight things that put the area in bad days, such as dark sides of a municipality's or region's history.
- Of course we want to highlight all our beautiful cultural heritage, but there are always critical questions that need to be asked.
What image do we want to show of our county?
Is marketing or cultural relevance important?
In such questions, there can probably be a slightly different input, says Rikard Åslund.