Finnish and Estonian men came together to brainstorm on museum services in Tartu

CoMe Stronger project started brainstroming new museum services in a joint development workshop in Tartu. In early October 2024, the Finnish project team and 13 elderly men travelled to Tartu to meet Estonian men and the Tartu University project team.

The first day was mainly spent travelling, as it took almost 12 hours to get the elderly men from Turku sub-regions all the way to Tartu. Despite the long journey, the Finnish and Estonian men met on the first night for a short project and workshop introduction, and joined together for a nice dinner at famous Gunpowder Cellar, known for its impressively high pub ceiling.

On the second day, we held our official workshop at the Estonian National Museum. The men participated in guided tours showcasing the permanent exhibitions Encounters and Echo of the Urals. The tours were arranged in both Finnish and Estonian, which gave the men a great opportunity to enjoy the tour in their own language and get the most out of it. During the tours, the men made observations and wrote down their thoughts about what was interesting about the museum and what could be improved.

During the final group discussion, the men shared their insights with the project team and the staff of the National museum as well as Naantali museum, who joined us remotely via Teams. The men stressed the importance of the museum guide – a good guide added significant value to the tour. Even though the men were interested in various topics, especially the joint history between Finland and Estonia and the connection to the Soviet Union was brought up. Many of the barries that were highlighted were related to acceccibility issues such as text size, seating availability, and sign clarity. While the men were clearly interested in museums, in this discussion accessibility turned out to be one of the biggest challenges when it comes to using the services.

The joint workshop provided a good basis for future development work, which will continue in user panels starting in December.