Healing Through Remembering

19/03/2010

Living Memorial Museum group visit Berlin

The Healing Through Remembering Living Memorial Museum Sub Group visited Berlin this March on a city-wide site visit tour to look at the capital’s museums and how the city commemorates its difficult past.
The group’s visit was hosted by the House of the Wannsee Conference memorial and Education Site. It was in this house in 1942 that Reinhard Heydrich, Head of the Reich Security Main Office, chaired a meeting of high-ranking civil servants to plan the implementation of the ‘final solution’.
There the Sub Group met people involved in commemoration and museums and had the opportunity to share their experiences of looking at museums and conflict.
They visited a variety of conflict related sites including the Berlin Wall Documentation Centre, the Chapel of Reconciliation, the Berlin Wall Memorial and the Centre for Witnesses to Contemporary History. They also took a walking tour of the Berlin Wall including the Checkpoint Charlie Museum, the Jewish Memorial, Topography of Terror, Hitler’s bunker, and the former Gestapo headquarters.
The trip ended with visits to the DDR Museum and the Stasi Prison. The purpose of the trip was to inform the work of the Sub Group when considering how best society can best commemorate and reflect on conflict through the use of museums.

07/07/2006

WANTED: Ideas on a Museum to the Conflict in and about Northern Ireland

Healing Through Remembering (HTR) issued an Open Call for Ideas on what form a Living Memorial Museum to the conflict in and about Northern Ireland should take – and as part of the project held 7 special public workshops across Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland and Great Britain.

The concept of a Living Memorial Museum (LMM) is one recommendation being examined by HTR, and an important part of the ongoing discussions is what form such a museum could take.

The LMM sub group were looking for a range of imaginative ideas and heard from adults and children alike.

There were plenty of options to think about. Should a museum be in a new building or an existing one? Should it be in one building or should it tour a number of places and sites? Maybe it shouldn’t be a building at all - maybe a virtual space on the internet.

Submissions to the Open Call for Ideas came in many forms including written, photographical, drawings, sketches and paintings. Photographs of models and multi-media submissions such as DVDs or CD-Roms were also welcome.

The public workshops included information about HTR and its work, and artists were there to help people create their vision of the museum.

Workshop were held at the following venues:
18 July The Clinton Centre Enniskillen
28 July The Border Arts Centre Dundalk
8 August Imperial War Museum London
12 August St. Patricks Trian Armagh
24 August Irish Film Institute Dublin
7 September Waterfront Hall Belfast
16 September The Junction L/Derry

Further information can be obtained by emailing or calling +44 (0)28 9023 8844.

HTR has been supported in the project by The Border Arts Centre, the Imperial War Museum London, the University of Ulster and Interface, the university’s Centre for Research in Art, Technologies and Design.