Study visit to Indianmuseum in Dalarna
Per Skye opened his private museum in 1992, it is open to visitors upon appointment with him. He presents a very mixed collection of objects, photographs and stuffed animals on currently 100 sqm, comparted into 3 segments. The forerunner of the current location had 300 sqm. The plan for the current location is to extend the exhibition space. Parts of the collections can currently not be shown. The focus of the presentation, however, is not on the objects, but rather on a collection of historic photographs. These are not presented as originals, but low-quality b/w copies. While the idea of correction the stereotypical picture of Native Americans (with a very strong focus on the Plains tribes), the presentation seems very imbalanced and reaching the goal is very much depending on the explanation given by the owner. There is a structure followed throughout the museum that introduces to several topics deemed important by the owner of the museum that highlight certain cultural phenomena in images and objects with additional texts.
The visitor is greeted at the entrance with personal snapshot of the owner taken during trips to North America. The introduction area of the museum starts already with a mix of historic photos, objects and stuffed animals, accompanied by meagre texts. Certain topics, like childhood and games, are shown following that. Leading to an area that intends to show the role of women and men, culminating in a line of figurines of different types, all dressed in contemporary Pow Wow dresses. And including the unpreventable stuffed animals.
Most of the objects in the collections are modern or contemporary and show an interesting range of dresses for Pow Wows, kitsch and use items, like baskets. The collection is well documented. Large parts were bought in North America by him, partly from pawn shops, galleries and auction houses. Others were given to him by people here in Sweden that did not know what to do with these objects. Clearly indicating that SMVK and Etnografiska Museet are not on peoples minds as adequate repositories for these.
There are no publications documenting the collections or the history of them. The museum does not run a homepage or any other form of web presence.
The collections are in lamentable state. While most of the objects look to be undamaged, the current location has no pest control and no air conditioning. The effects are visible on many of the objects. The installation and presentation were not done by conservators and are partly damaging the objects. While the number of objects is probably below 500 and no “critical” objects can be found, this collection would not be an ideal addition to the collections at SMVK. Apart from the amount of work that would be needed to prepare them, most are not of any importance for the already existing collections. A collaboration could still potentially be of interest, since single objects, like a horse dance wand from around 1900, cannot be found in SMVK´s collections and are exceedingly rare in Europe. The owner does not intend to part with the collections at the moment and, contrary, intends to furtherly extend them.