Blockbuster exhibitions: The Future of Swedish Museums?

Abstract

With the heavy cutbacks worldwide in the museum field, museums need to find other methods to finance their operations (Black, 2012). The survival of museums depends if the audiences come. If no one visits the museum, then what good can the ‘big and expensive institutions’ contribute to the society (Wäre, 2002, p.271)? Opinion on what museums are about differs depending on what values the one you are talking with holds (Hall, 2011). With many trends and countertrends, my interest was caught by the discussion of inclusionary and participatory museum, i.e. the social museum, and the trend of mounting blockbuster exhibitions. While at first glance, these two phenomena seem to contradict one another, I wanted to investigate if it might not be possible to merge them, such that the blockbuster exhibition concept could work as a means to achieving the goal of social museums. The social museum should work for the good of society and its population, and hence should include and welcome everyone (Heumann Gurian, 2006). According to the guiding ethos of a social museum, museums should promote cross-cultural understanding, as well as building bridges of apprehension between diverse groups in society (Sandell, 2007). A short definition on the word ‘blockbuster exhibition’ could be an exhibition that attracts a lot of people to see it and thus generates profit. However, one has to look beyond the numbers blockbusters represent: profit, audience, marketing, etc. During my research I have reached the conclusion that if a blockbuster is well made, it can not only contribute to the budget and audience size, but can also add educational value. A well-made exhibition, regardless of whether it is a blockbuster or not, makes the visitor leave the museum happy and content. What is more important, a well-made exhibition makes the visitor leave the museum with new knowledge.