On the stability and diversity of the Open Air Museum as a medium in the 21st century

Lang, Merike (2010) On the stability and diversity of the Open Air Museum as a medium in the 21st century. Acta Ethnographica Hungarica, 55 (2). pp. 379-399. ISSN 1216-9803

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Abstract

The connecting theme for all museums of the 21st century is the meaning of the museum as a medium at present time and the discussible question, why something is mediated. The aim of this article is to introduce and give theoretical reasons for both the ideas that were born and realized at the Estonian Open Air Museum (EOAM) during the final years of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century and those that are still waiting to be realized. The EOAM is the central state museum of vernacular architecture in Estonia. Its experience is of interest from two complementary aspects.First, getting to know the history and present of the EOAM inspires one to reflect upon the stability of an open air museum as a medium in the context of a certain cultural memory and notwithstanding the conditions of cultural competition in the 21st century.Secondly, the experience of the EOAM justifies the flexibility of different museological ideas and methods, the possibility of tolerance and intertwining as well as the economy of choices. In the 21st century open air museums take not only theme parks as a pattern, but they also approach the classical museums of history and folk culture.

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