Adapting to Covid-19 in Sweden

As has been much highlighted in the international media, Sweden did not close primary and secondary schools during the pandemic. Most municipalities decided that no one except the school staff were allowed to meet the students. This meant that almost all our programs were cancelled. However, when the weather got warmer, two municipalities decided to allow for time travelling. This gave us the opportunity of doing ten time travels this spring.

The daily average of pupil numbers per class was between 20-30 (10 year olds), with their teachers. This made the staff from KLM the only “newcomers” to the group. We travelled back to the Stone Age and the Bronze Age. The Time Travel exercise earned us much praise: here is a sample of the commendations we received:

“I would like to point out that the teachers paid attention to how you adapted the time travel to the Coronary restrictions - they were impressed and relieved. After all, it is a lot of extra energy and thinking that goes to restrictions these days, and it was nice that someone else had thought and you could lean on that!”

In Kalmar all time travels are made outside, with or without Covid-19, which of course was necessary at the time. Before the Time Travel, however, we made a risk analysis and made some small changes to the concept.

• We set up a washing station including hand disinfection facilities,
• We used gloves when handling food.
• We chose to give the pupils only hats that were washed between the Time Travels. Full costumes were not used.
• We kept the required distance.

In short, they were performed quite as usual - it was very satisfying.

Now we, as well as everyone else, hope for a normal autumn. We have started to receive bookings for Time Travels after the summer and are prepared to perform them in September and October.

Linda Liljeberg and Tina Lindström
Kalmar County Museum Sweden

Last updated: 2020-07-07 14:44:42