Parzinger: Dahlem’s Doors Will Remain Open
News from 06/14/2017
Museum site, research campus, storage facility: on Monday, SPK President Hermann Parzinger discussed plans for Dahlem at a meeting of the Berlin House of Representatives’ Committee on Cultural Affairs.
Parzinger declared that “the doors will remain open at the Dahlem museum site.” The Museum Europäischer Kulturen (Museum of European Cultures) will continue to present its permanent exhibition and special exhibitions there, as well as undertaking many educational projects.
The location will continue to play a large role for non-European cultures, too, even after the display collections have been moved to the Humboldt-Forum. The storage facilities, workshops, and libraries of both the Ethnologische Museum (Ethnological Museum) and the Museum für Asiatische Kunst (Asian Art Museum), as well as a large part of the museums’ research staff, will remain in Dahlem according to the SPK’s plans. Here, researchers will preserve and study the extensive collections, prepare exhibitions for the Humboldt Forum, and maintain contacts with the societies of origin.
Parzinger said, “we envisage Dahlem as a lively research campus specializing in museum collections. Cooperation with the Freie Universität and non-university research institutions will be strengthened. Our findings will be presented to the public in a wide variety of formats, ranging from informative to participatory.”
A potential analysis will now be conducted to assess the feasibility of specific objectives and identify the amount of space, technical building requirements, and structural improvements needed to achieve them. Parzinger also stressed that “it’s important to us that if space is freed-up and can be used by third parties, it is used in a way that fits the profile of the research campus.”
For the time being, however, no space can be used by third parties. For the next few years, the staff in Dahlem will be very busy preparing for the move to the Humboldt-Forum. One by one, over 20,000 objects have to be assessed, cleaned, restored, and packed. The fire prevention systems in the storage building will also be brought up to date. This means that the objects stored there must be removed and kept temporarily in the rooms previously used for exhibitions.