| The Museum of Modern Art (Moderna Museet) in Stockholm sees itself in terms of a meeting place of contradictory tendencies. It is a meeting place of art with its viewers, for modern and contemporary art, for accessibility and challenge. It has to get the balance right between these tendencies because a museum that pays too much attention to its publics can end up playing it safe, while one that pays too much attention to the artist can end up excluding large sections of the public. The director, Lars Nittve argues that 'our aim must be to allow the visitor to feel I am welcome here, this is my museum.' One of the ways that Moderna Museet has delivered on the idea of a meeting place has been through the introduction of hosts (värdar) who not only protect the art but engage visitors in discussion. Rather than simply seeing a meeting place as an environment that contains artworks, the concept has led the museum to challenge its own convictions. It decided to drop admission charges for the museum leading to an increase from approximately 250,000 visitors a year to 680,000 in the first ten and a half months after free entry was introduced. And it led to the idea of hosts who are responsible for protecting the art, being friendly and approachable and explaining the artworks to visitors. The hosts, many of whom have art history backgrounds, are informally dressed and rotate their jobs. During a day this means they will spend time on the reception desk, checking coats and talking about art in the galleries. While they are briefed by the curators on the art, the hosts develop their own expertise through self study and share their knowledge with each other. They are allowed to act as individuals in their way or working and as the role has developed it has become largely self-regulating.
This faith in individualism, within the framework of the meeting place concept enables people in Moderna Museet to explore new ways of organizing exhibitions and engaging publics. Nittve argues that this individualism is vital to creativity, but that it cannot exist without a culture of trust: 'you need to create a climate that us a safe place for ideas and where you can say stupid things, but you're not made to look stupid. It's about trying to create a non-blame culture.'
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