Thirteenth International Conference on The Inclusive Museum

Abstract

Both the superdiversity of today’s society and the greater awareness of visitors provide new challenges for museums with regard to dealing with sensitive heritage and difficult histories. In our contribution we intend to present a case study for three Belgian museums: the Africa Museum in Tervuren (near Brussels), taking a post-colonial perspective in a thorough controversial setting, the Kazerne Dossin in Mechelen, a memorial, museum and documentation center dealing with Holocaust remembrance, and the Museum Dr. Guislain in Ghent, focusing on the history of mental health care in general and psychiatry in particular. First, we want to analyse the narratives, the representations, and the collections of these museums in relation to difficult heritage, confronting both the explicit and implicit discourse with the factual approach in the museums. Second, we aim to examine the position of these museums as places of dialogue and/or debate and pay special attention to the way they are triggering visitor reflection, especially student historical consciousness and awareness of multiperspectivity. Third, we want to offer a conceptual and operational framework with recommendations and key points of attention in order to facilitate the rethinking of museums’ relevant positions in sensitive or difficult stories and issues. For a broader comparative perspective, we compare our observations from these Belgian cases with international experiences and concerns, both from museum workers and scholarly authors.