Minjastofa – exhibition at the Blönduós Women's College is a cultural heritage exhibition on the history of the Women‘s College, which operated from 1901 to 1978. It was set up by the society "Friends of Kvennaskólinn" in 2005, and features four rooms decorated in the original style, as well as artefacts donated by former students and Elín Briem, the college's first principal. After the shutdown of the Women’s College in 1978 there was uncertainty about the fate of the interiors. Aðalbjörg Ingvarsdóttir, the last principal of the College, made a register over the interior which had been untouched after the school was closed down permanently. Aðalbjörg recalls: “I knew where to start but not where to quit. It was a major effort, it took me months, and then the items were locked down in three rooms, pictures, paintings and all kinds of objects and textiles and small things and items.” The Friends of Kvennaskólinn under the lead of Aðalbjörg had worked for the protection and preservation of the Women’s College building. In 2005 they set up an exhibition with the collected items “so people would get the opportunity to see the things that nobody had seen for decades” Aðalbjörg explains, “and the exhibition was so well received that it was made permanent.” As of today, Minjastofa – Exhibition represents the past and is faced with the needs of the Textile Centre which is soliciting the rooms allocated to the exhibition. Is it possible to reconcile the different views and needs of the Friends of Kvennaskólinn and the Textile Centre with a due respect to both parties?
what the archive is about
The Living Archive explores the potential of (post)industrial heritage to transform production in our cities. We collect stories with participatory heritage methods. The nodes for the local collection efforts are Fab City Hubs (FCH). The collection has been carefully assembled by FCH teams who have been learning about, co-creating and applying participatory heritage-making approaches, emotion networking methodology, oral history principles and creative perspective-taking. Select tags and categories to filter stories in the archive below. Explore their connections in the network graph.
