Современные проблемы сервиса и туризма 2015_v.9_#4 | Page 7
ЛОКАЛЬНОЕ В ГЛОБАЛЬНОМ: ФОРМУЛА ТУРИЗМА
Скансены как объекты туризма
UDC 008+930.85:069+39(4)
DOI: 10.12737/14526
Per Stromberg1,
Alexandra V. Trotsenko2
1
Telemark University College (Bo, Norway); PhD, Associate Professor; e-mail: [email protected]
2
Oles’ Honchar Dnepropetrovsk National University (Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine);
PhD in Geography, Associate Professor; e-mail: [email protected]
THE CONCEPT OF SKANSEN:
ORIGINS AND STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT
The article discusses the development a special type of museums in Europe – open-air museums. Such institutions named «skansen» in honor of the first open-air museum, which opened in 1891 in Stockholm at
the initiative of Arthur Hazelius. The five historical stages in the history of European skansens are offered to
distinguish: 1) origin of the idea and the opening of the first skansen (up to 1891); 2) the establishment of
skansen (from 1891 until the First World War); 3) Inter-War Period (the period between the First and Second
World Wars); 4) Post-war reconstruction (up to about 1960); 5) Development of skansen as a scientificresearch institution and tourism center (from 1960s until today). Each of the selected stage is characterized
by its process of deepening and expansion of activity of skansens as special kind of museum establishments.
Museums change according to the era and social requires. Skansen emerged in response to the disappearance of the traditional economic system and national culture under the influence of the processes of
industrialization and globalization. Today skansen is the effective means of translation to new generations
an appropriate national historical and cultural identity, traditional way of life of the people. Skansen (openair museums) is important tool of intercultural and inter-civilizational dialogue. Such museums are also a
means of communication, which able to withstand to many cliches and misconceptions imposed by the
mass culture. Today the organization of open-air museums is one of the most promising and effective ways
to preserve historical and cultural heritage. This type of museum has got status of «museum of the future».
The article briefly discusses the most interesting and popular open-air museums as tourist destinations of
the Nordic countries.
Keywords: skansen, open-air museum, stages of the development of European skansens.
The world is changing, and museums are
changing with it [2]. As known, the «museums-collections» appeared the first. Usually
they were created on the base of private collections of families of European monarchs.
These included the «Museums of Fine Arts»,
where art from different countries, ranging
chronologically were exhibited. Wealth of
museums had been put on public display for
two purposes: «to receive pleasure» by public
and to improve the taste of people [2].
The first ethnographic museum appeared
in the end XIX century. The mannequins in national costumes that stood in the windows,
models of any national original scenes, characters, with indication of their belonging to a
«large» or «small» motherland, were an indispensable attribute of these museums. In contrast to their «big» brothers, such museums
were completed in the course of the expedi-
tions «survey-selection»; they were supposed
with the maximum fullness to reflect the characteristics of the local way of life.
The open-air museums should be considered in the light of changes of the European
societies in the XIX century. Times of progression, modernization and social changes often
evoked feelings of nostalgia, alienation and
loss. But nostalgia and progress, tradition and
modernization and their representations, are
simultaneously contradictions and conditions
of a more overriding motion in society,
modernity, like the twofold face of Janus.
According to the famous Polish ethnographer E. Tchaikovsky, «the place, time and
circumstances of the birth of the idea of openair museums are debatable». Many good
ideas in museum practice still remain ideas
until «fact of establishing a new stage in the
development of museums» becomes a reality.
5