The Helsinki City Museum (HCM) very intentionally investigates and deploys memory. I recently experienced some of the public programs that the museum staff runs--part of what Director Tiina Merisalo describes as HCM's institution-wide effort to serve as a place of "shared remembering."
Museum educator Aino Vila leads a powerful HCM program called "Museum Suitcases." The museum has assembled eight suitcases full of objects, mostly from the 1940s-1970s. Some have a theme (school, beauty products, childhood), while others are just a mixture of things from everyday life. Volunteers trained by Aino and, sometimes, elderly care workers check out the suitcases (for 1-4 weeks) and take them to senior centers. The point is for the objects to trigger memories that lead to individual reflection and group discussion. "Our childhood memories are so deep," says Aino, so the items in the suitcases often engage even people with memory challenges. Often the objects prompt detailed discussions of shared experiences and how things have changed.
The suitcase contents are designed to engage at multiple levels. Aino looks for objects that are highly tactile. A wooden spoon worn on one side from heavy use garners more responses than would a pristine spoon specimen, she finds. Each case includes items to engage the sense of smell. Tar, for instance, has strong associations in Finland. It evokes the archipelago to the south, where it is used to weatherproof boats, and also the Helsinki amusement park, where to this day it coats the old wooden rollercoaster. Hearing is addressed, too: a flash drive includes familiar music from previous decades.
Sometimes a single object can open up a whole era. Sugar scissors (below) were a household tool that children often were allowed to use, and they also release memories of the hardships Finland faced after WWII. Sugar was so dear that people would use only a sliver at a time from the larger "sugar loaves" and would even divide sugar cubes.
One additional themed staircase stands out. It features objects related to Somali culture, reflecting the presence of Somalian refugees in the country since the 1990s. The suitcase includes both objects from Somalia itself and others that reflect Somali life in Finland.
Each suitcase travels with a response book that invites participants to share their stories (often written down by the volunteer facilitator). "Everyday nostalgia is our forte," Aino says. "We are proud of it. We don't just have to show national treasures."
The Memory Suitcases program is affiliated with another city-run program, also designed to facilitate shared experiences. The Culture Companion program's brochure begins with a simple pair of questions: "Would you like to attend a cultural event? Do you find it boring or awkward to go on your own?" This program matches volunteers with people seeking someone to accompany them to happenings around town. The companion gets free tickets, while the cultural "requester" pays no more than five Euros. Possible destinations include movies, concerts, theater, and museums.
Another HCM program, this one onsite, is designed to bring larger groups of people together for a participatory memory experience. Every month the museum holds a popular singalong in the "schoolhouse" that is part of the museum's KidsTown exhibition. Mostly the group sings songs that people would have learned during their school days in Finland, following a familiar songbook.
I had the chance to observe a different kind of memory program at the Tram Museum, a satellite site of the HCM. Site guide Sauli Peltoniemi deftly led a tour of the museum for a group of people facing Alzheimer's issues. Trams are still very much in operation in Helsinki but they have also changed considerably, so they are a natural way for the tour participants to connect personal memories with their day-to-day world today. Sauli led the group onto some of the old trams; punched their tickets just like in the old days; and asked for a volunteer to serve as conductor. People shared memories about tram routes and asked questions about the beautiful old cars in front of them.
The next week I attended another of Sauli's tours, this one for a group of fifteen kindergartners. Again, Sauli had the group in the palm of his hand. Tickets were stamped, trams boarded, experiences shared, questions eagerly asked. Memory-making starts young.
