Time Travels - a way to collaborate between museums

During the last few years, the Ostrobothnian Children’s Culture Network BARK has coordinated TT where many museums collaborate. And not only museums, the Regional Archives and libraries are on board as well.

We started in 2010 with inviting all grade 6 learners in Vasa (about 650 pupils) to Time Travels back to the year 1799 at one of the Regional Museums. BARK was coordinating Stundars Museum, The Ostrobothnian Museum, Brage Open-Air Museum, the Regional Archives and the Culture Departmentof the city of Vasa and even a chef from a restaurant specialized in historic food. 

A Time Travel at this scale could be hard for a small museum to manage by itself regarding time andresources, but supporting each other made it possible! 

New Time Travels were developed in 2011 when we travelled to 1943 and experienced the life at the Home front at Brage Open-Air Museum in Vasa. This time the library joined us. Almost all schools in Vasa participated. This year we will be at Stundars Museum and the planning is in progress…

The Time Travel method has now spread to other cities in Ostrobothnia. In Jakobstad, 100km north of Vasa, three museums together with BARK and the local library are preparing Time Travels for three different age groups in April and May 2012. Before the Time Travel, the local library visited the schools as part of preparations.

I think this kind of collaboration is very interesting. We all have different approaches to history and heritage and learn a lot from each other. The Time Travels really gain from our different ideas of how to use the local historical environment!

Annina Ylikoski
Coordinator and Museum Educator The Ostrobothnian Children’s Culture Network BARK

Last updated: 2020-01-31 15:37:20