Photo: Malin Karlsson
Let your creative streak loose Committed to showing and enlightening visitors about the history of Swedish performing arts, Scenkonstmuseet (the Swedish Museum of Performing Arts) pays tribute to the remarkable human characteristic that is artistic creativity. Combining traditional and modern exhibition styles, this certainly is not your runof-the-mill museum.
cumulated over more than 100 years. It comprises costumes, visual art, scenography models and a lot more. The museum’s musical instrument collection alone is made up of 6,000 pieces, making it one of the world’s largest.
By Pia Petersson
“Our philosophy is pretty straightforward, really: everyone has a creative streak within them, and here at the museum we invite all visitors to make use of that creativity,” begins Karin Algvik, head of communications at the museum. Since it opened in 2017, the Swedish Museum of Performing Arts has become integral when it comes to showcasing a significant and legendary part of the country’s cultural heritage. Theatre, music and dance are the three performing-art forms represented at the museum. “What we do is 56 | Issue 127 | August 2019
important partially due to the conservation aspect – here at the museum, we have everything from rare theatre manuscripts from the 18th century to parts of Ingmar Bergman’s stage models in miniature. Sweden is quite outstanding when it comes to performing arts, and we think it’s vital to showcase this part of our cultural heritage,” Karin explains.
Put on your dancing shoes The large collection at the museum consists of almost 50,000 objects, ac-
When it comes to the collections, Karin points out some of the highlights: “I think the shoe collection is a lot of fun. It consists of everything from the Herreys' (Eurovision Song Contest winners in 1984) golden shoes to a pair of shoes worn by a stage actor in the 18th century. Hence, through the medium of shoes, we’re presenting an interesting part of stage art history.” A collection that has proved especially popular among visitors is that of the many costumes. This was initially intended as something fun for children to