The Carl and Elise Eldhs Studio foundation has been granted support from the Swedish National Heritage Board and Region Stockholm for the project Brita’s archive.
The project aims to prepare a new archive for the material that Carl Eldh’s daughter and the studio museum’s founder, Brita Eldh, left behind. Thanks to the support, the museum can get an even better overview of its history and the work becomes an important basis for future exhibitions, programs and research.
Historiography and preservation have been thematized in several ways in the museum’s public activities in recent years. By inviting contemporary artists to investigate the museum, its collections, history and archives, we have asked questions about the ways history is created and preserved – about the use of history and the writing of history based on the place.
In the project Brita’s archive, Brita Eldh’s cultural heritage work in converting her father’s studio into a museum is examined. How did the business develop, how were the boundaries established between a home and a business, the private, the public and the professional? What events took place, what ways of communicating the arts and cultural heritage did she engage in? What cultural political strategies did she apply to even establish the museum?
It has now been more than 20 years since Brita Eldh passed away, and we are interested in preserving the museum’s institutional memory as those who worked closely with her in the 90s are no longer on the museum’s staff. Much of the material also relates to her father’s artistic work and will contribute new knowledge about Carl Eldh’s life and work. The project Brita’s archive is an important part of the museum’s exploration of its own genesis and history, in the work of carrying this rich cultural heritage forward into the future.