The "Museum and Exhibition" degree programme is unique in Germany. In addition to theory at the university, students immerse themselves in the work of museums - and are already organising their own exhibition. This time it's about sport.
Every word has to be right. On a morning in mid-February, Gwendolyn Wördenweber and Moritz Waßmann sit hunched over their laptops. They are putting the finishing touches to the texts for the exhibition. They need to be easy to understand, short and snappy, informative but also entertaining. The students from the third semester of the "Museum and Exhibition" Master's programme say that it is a challenge to reduce the message to the absolute essentials and to get rid of familiar phrases.
The texts are intended for an exhibition that they designed themselves from start to finish. Together with nine other students from the course, they will be presenting it from 15 to 26 April at Oldenburg's Forum St. Peter. The title: "A feeling that lasts. With five senses through the club life of the Oldenburger Turnerbund." It is part of the project "Sports venues as places of remembrance" organised by the Oldenburgische Landschaft regional association.
Sports history: developing an exhibition concept
This is the first time that the students have organised an exhibition in public and not just as part of an internal university seminar, as a major practical project for the degree course, which runs over two semesters. The brief was broad: To showcase impressions from 167 years of club life - in any way possible. "First of all, we visited OTB sports facilities and looked through a lot of archive material," Waßmann recalls the beginnings. "It was important to us not to create a purely historical exhibition for club members, but also to appeal to people who have nothing to do with OTB and its history."
The result: an exhibition that conveys in a multi-sensory way how sport and memories in general and OTB history and personal memories in particular are connected. Visitors to the exhibition will have their various senses stimulated at five stations. "Sport in particular makes a lot of typical noises, and for many people this brings back memories," says Wördenweber, explaining the concept. For example, the shrill sound of a whistle resounds through the room in the "Hearing" section. Songs can also be heard that are sung together at major sporting events or among club members - as well as stories from the past that are still told to each other at OTB today.
Organising your own exhibition means intensive work, the students report. They quickly split up into different working groups. The basic exhibition concept was developed in the area of curation and communication. Others dealt with design issues and developed the interactive hands-on stations for exhibition visitors. The curatorial team made sure that exhibition items such as whistles and headphones were in the right place. Public relations work - visual advertising, a website and a dedicated Instagram channel (@exhibitionproject) - was also part of the project. In addition to the exhibition itself, we had to organise an accompanying programme with guided tours and discussion rounds.
We interlink theory and practice in a special way.
Dr Klara von Lindern; subject advisor for the "Exhibition and Museum" degree programme
"That's a lot, but we prepare our students well for it. From the very first year of their studies, they learn what it means to put together an exhibition on their own," says Dr Klara von Lindern, academic advisor for the degree programme and research assistant at the Institute of Material Culture. "We interlink theory and practice in a special way." The "Museum and Exhibition" Master's programme has been running for around 20 years now. According to von Lindern, what is unique about the Oldenburg model is that students are immersed in the practical work of various museums right from the start of the programme - especially small to medium-sized museums in the region. They visit four museums during the first two semesters, spending one fixed day a week on site. For example, there are co-operations with the Oldenburg City Museum, the State Museum of Nature and Man, the Wilhelmshaven Naval Museum, the German Maritime Museum in Bremerhaven and the Cloppenburg Museum Village. "In this way, the students get to know the various fields of museum work in a very practical way and can establish a broad network right from the start," says von Lindern. "Making contact with each other and with museum staff makes it easier to start a career in the industry."
Wördenweber and Waßmann were also able to try their hand at various museums before their first major exhibition project. For example, they researched the life and work of a dyke count in the Wesermarsch for the Ovelgönne Crafts Museum, edited texts for a new exhibition at the "Nordwolle Delmenhorst" museum and worked on a concept for a museum use at a Gulfhof in need of renovation.
Museums in social change
The students already have theoretical knowledge and methods from the university seminars in their luggage. In the first two semesters, for example, there is an introductory module that deals, among other things, with how museums came into being in the first place, which current discourses and debates shape the museum landscape and how exhibitions can be scientifically analysed. "Museums often follow their own institutional logic and are characterised by institutional structures that have often existed for a long time," says von Lindern. Nevertheless, they are central places of negotiation for social debates and discourses. "I am delighted when our students, as well-educated young people, are involved in the negotiation of such social and academic debates in the exhibitions in and around Oldenburg and contribute actively and with a fresh perspective." For example, when it comes to topics such as discrimination, barrier reduction and digitalisation. Also when it comes to looking at where certain exhibition objects actually come from and the extent to which postcolonial references have been addressed.
Starting your career as an all-rounder
What comes after graduation? "Our degree programme covers the entire spectrum of museum work. Our alumni have therefore taken very different career paths," says von Lindern. Some curate traditional exhibitions, others work in education and communication or go into academia. Still others are active in cultural policy, in the museum association, work in the archive or in the library. There are former students who now run museums in the region or work in public relations. The students from the current year have yet to start their careers. "I'm preparing myself for the fact that my tasks will probably be very varied later on," says Wördenweber. Waßmann adds that their first major exhibition project has certainly encouraged them to continue on their path. They now know that no matter what task they are given at the museum, they will be able to cope well with it.
