Building design history. Estonian Museum of Applied Art and Design

Abstract

As one of the first ones of its kind in the Soviet Union, The Museum of Applied art was founded in November 1971 as a branch of the Estonian State Art Museum and opened its doors to the audience with a permanent exhibition in summer 1980 – the year of the Regatta of the Moscow Olympics taking place in Tallinn. (Fig. 1) It was a time when the State Art Museum was developing subdivisions for specific art fields to be available for the broadest audience. Also, it was a time of many cultural institutions being housed in the buildings of the Old Town so the museum moved to a 3-storey former 17th Century granary that was restored and adapted for the purposes of applied art, design, Soviet Estonia, industrial art, design museum Estonian Museum of Applied Art and Design (EMAAD) presents an interesting case in Estonian design history from several aspects including the reception of applied art and design in the Soviet Union, as well as institutional changes related to it from the mid1950s onwards. Relying on the example of the EMAAD I will give an overview of how and in which context developed the ideas of finding and building up a museum focused on collecting and preserving material related to applied art and design. The starting point for this contextualisation lies in the institutional system of Soviet art. I will follow the changing attitudes towards applied art and design over the course of time in order to explain how these processes played a role in the formation of the museum and its collections. If in the 1950s discussions on the reorganisation of everyday life were based on handicrafts and applied art, then from the mid 1960s however industrialisation and the changed course in the production of mass consumer goods brought to the centre the notions of industrial art and design. Parallelly with these processes in the society, there emerged discussions on the necessity to establish a museum specialized on applied art, discussions that were related to applied art becoming a popular genre in representing Estonian culture in the all-Soviet exhibitions, from the second half of the 1950s onwards. The rigid separation between applied art and design that emerged in the 1960s, led to the institutionalisation of applied art (the museum becoming one of the means for this) and a general neglect of design during the late-Soviet period. It is only in the late 1990s and early 2000s, that design has re-appeared as a popular subject in the society, allowing now to take a new look also at the material from the Soviet period. Building design history. Estonian Museum of Applied Art and Design Kai Lobjakas kai@etdm.ee Estonian Museum Of Applied Art And Design Blucher Design Proceedings