The High North Tour 2021: This Museum Will Affect the Future of Vesterålen
Sortland: Sortland Museum takes a new route to attract children and youth. Rather than focusing on the past, the museum has taken measures to affect the future of the Vesterålen region. Director Ane Høyem spearheads the project called Gaia.
“Gaia is a large tech and environmental project, and also a societal project based here in Sortland”, Ane Høyem says to High North News.
Plans include, amongst others, a container museum based on discarded containers from the fish industry. A giant 3D model of Vesterålen is to show what the region was like in the past, is in the present, and will be in the future.
“We also want to create an environmental contract for Vesterålen for companies, private individuals and for public offices. We connect the private and the public to see if we can solve climate and environmental problems”, says Ane Høyem.
Ane Høyem er enhetsleder på Sortland Museum, et museum som går nye veier for å tiltrekke seg barn og unge. (Foto: Arne O. Holm)
“We wonder whether a museum can play a different role in society. Can we facilitate? Can we be a hub and a platform through which people want to work together?” she asks.
Many of the ideas are built on meetings with school groups that have visited the museum.
“It does something to you when you see children start crying in the face of plastic ocean waste. The question then is ‘What can we as adults do about this?’”.
Young digital talents have also been engaged to develop a unique and local computer game.
Join us at Sortland Museum and see the whole interview with Director Ane Høyem.
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This article was originally published in Norwegian and has been translated by HNN's Elisabeth Bergquist.