PhD defence M.A.C. (Mayke) Groffen

Cultural-history museums have a rich tradition when it comes to home life. Nevertheless, despite the constant development of collections, there is little explicit or theoretical focus on collecting contemporary home life. This dissertation aims to identify successful strategies. It first examines the two concepts underlying the research: contemporary collecting and the collecting of home life by museums. With a renewed interest in evocative ensembles on the one hand and a museological focus on contemporaneity on the other, it is remarkable that debates on collecting contemporary home life have overlooked the concept of a modern period room, Mayke Groffen argues. Outside the museum context, however, furniture stores, construction firms and estate agents try to tempt potential buyers using modern period-room-like displays. 

Next, the thesis examines three such commercial cases: IKEA’s room settings, the new builds in BAM’s Homestudios and the funda House, a virtual home developed by the Dutch property website funda. Aiming to develop a viable strategy for how cultural-history museums collect contemporary home life, Mayke Groffen analyses these cases from a museum curator’s perspective and explores what insights can be gained from them. In the third and final part of the dissertation, the insights gained are used to build a strategy for how museums can collect contemporary home life. Concrete recommendations can be found in the cross-case analysis, followed by a final chapter with overarching conclusions. This not only provides an impetus for a step-by-step strategy, but also highlights points that merit further discussion in both museum practice and theory.

The public defence will take place at the Senate Hall, 1st floor Erasmus Building, location campus Woudestein. The ceremony will begin exactly at 13.00 PM. In light of the solemn nature of the ceremony, we recommend that you do not take children under the age of 6 to the first part of the ceremony.