Museums seek to preserve lockdown life

Would you put your slippers on display? The global coronavirus pandemic is still raging but museums are already gathering testimony and objects to remember life and its ups and downs under lockdown.

“It’s such an extraordinary experience,” said Beatrice Behlen, senior curator at the Museum of London.

“When we knew there was going to be a lockdown, we started talking straight away about what we needed to collect for the future.”

The museum, dedicated to the history of Great Britain’s capital city, launched an appeal for Londoners to donate items that reflect their lives during the COVID19 outbreak.

“It could be something that gives you comfort,” she said.

“One example often mentioned is your favorite slippers that you’ve been wearing every day.”

It might also be evidence of a new skill someone has picked up, whether knitting or cooking or making masks for healthcare workers.

Among the items collected so far are a pot of homemade jam and a makeshift rattle used to accompany the weekly “clap for carers” that honors frontline healthcare workers across the UK.

“What’s interesting for us is the story that’s behind it, not necessarily the item itself,” Behlen said.

“It needs to mean something to people. And we asked them to tell us about the object as well.”

Collection of emotions

Harder to curate are the emotions people feel while isolated at home, the feelings of loss and fear, but also safety, hope and love.

In response to an appeal by the Museum of Home, also in London, one family has recorded how they set up a screen in front of their table so they could share a meal with relatives via videolink.

Another transformed their living room into a workshop to make desperately needed gowns for healthcare staff across the country.

The museum is also asking people to record how they feel about their homes, which are now used as offices, classrooms and gyms.

“What seems to be coming out time and again with some of the testimonies is people’s resilience and how they’re changing and adapting,” said museum director Sonia Solicari.

In one recollection, a woman known only as Amarjit describes how her Victorian house in east London has become “a palace” during lockdown, as “everything now happens here.”

By contrast, Alex, who lives alone in a small flat with no outside space, says she feels like she is in “solitary confinement in prison.”

“However, I am grateful I am safe and not in a difficult relationship — the neighbors downstairs constantly fight.”

Solicari says she has been surprised at how open people have been with their thoughts about life during the pandemic.

“It’s really become a collection of feelings and emotions, as well as a collection of images and testimonies,” she said.

“So it documents feelings, which can be very hard for museums to collect.”

Curators around the world are making similar efforts to chronicle these historic times.

In Sweden, the Nordiska Museet in Stockholm is collecting children’s reflections on how their daily lives have changed and how they see the future.

In Vienna, a photo of a birthday in confinement and a kiss through a window pane are part of 1,800 contributions already collected by a local museum.

“You have to keep a record of this event to explain in 100 years what happened,” said Sarah Lessire, who is coordinating an online archive project in Belgium.

“If we don’t act now, we risk losing all these memories.”

Her site lists multiple initiatives, such as mutual aid groups on Facebook or a virtual May Day party.

The lockdown has also inspired three young advertising executives in Barcelona to set up a virtual museum on Instagram.

More than 900 pieces of work from around the world have already been submitted to their Covid Art Museum.

For brick-and-mortar institutions whose doors have closed during the lockdown, however, there are worries they may not be able to show their collections to offline visitors for months.

Some fear they may not survive at all, including the Florence Nightingale Museum London, which is making urgent pleas for donations.

Dedicated to the pioneering nurse, the museum is situated on the grounds of St Thomas’ Hospital, where Prime Minister Boris Johnson was recently treated for coronavirus.