from 17. 8. until 18. 9. 2023, Krakovski nasip Ljubljana
Sports Museum: Safeguarding Sports Heritage
In a panel exhibition on the Krakovo embankment on the Ljubljanica river, the Sports Museum presents its work, its collection policy and the breadth of Slovenia's sporting heritage. Through a selection of the museum's objects, it encourages visitors to preserve the sports heritage and emphasises the importance of donating materials and objects to the museum, their protection and the role of the Sports Museum in preserving the memory of sporting achievements.
In Slovenia, the interest in sports heritage reaches almost as far back as the emergence of organised sport. Therefore, it is no wonder that collecting, preserving, interpreting, and exhibiting objects from the sporting past began very early on. A significant milestone in this respect was the year 1922 when the first Sokol showcase was put on display in Ljubljana, laying the foundation stone for further work. The development was halted by World War II but afterwards continued in amateur and semi-amateur form, and also as fully organised collecting and exhibiting of sports heritage or sports-related heritage. This was demonstrated by increasingly numerous exhibitions and collection campaigns organised by sports organisations and other official institutions, which grew almost exponentially from decade to decade. With the growing diversity and number of exhibitions, the idea to establish an official Sports Museum was born in the mid-1980s. Despite the efforts of various individuals and groups both within and outside sports, the idea was left unrealised for a long time. Eventually, the Sports Museum Public Institute was established in April 2000 and became operational in November 2001 in the premises at Kopitarjeva 4, Ljubljana, where it still has its offices today. Nevertheless, the museum and, with it, also the efforts in sports heritage were still facing uncertain and occasionally turbulent times. In 2013, the museum as an independent institute was closed and removed from the museum register. It was transformed into a department of the Institute of Sports of the Republic of Slovenia Planica, a status it retained until 2022 when it was made a unit of the Slovenian School Museum.
The committed work of collecting, preserving, and exhibiting sports heritage, which was initiated by sports societies, zealous individuals, and some other museums, is now continued with devotion in the Sports Museum. Our work in the field includes recording interesting and invaluable materials for the museum, which consist not only of objects but also books, written documents, photographs, and, last but not least, testimonies. When possible, we seek to secure such materials for our museum collections. We document and research each acquired item and then include it in a museum collection. Based on expert assessment, some of them are also declared cultural monuments.
Our primary objective is to cover all areas of sport and as many disciplines as possible. For each of them, we seek to acquire objects that have marked each area the most and are crucial to understanding its history. The procedure of accepting an item into our collections involves a thorough conservation inspection of its condition. Should an object have any deficiency, these are carefully noted and if the condition permits, eliminated. With minimal intervention, we wish to give them their former appearance. The conditions and manners of storage are then specified for the restored and impeccable objects to ensure that they are kept most appropriately in the designated repositories. Another part of working with objects is to ensure that their condition is monitored and inventoried on a regular basis.
The same attention that is given to the work with objects is also given to the work with the public. Thus, we continue the pioneering work of our predecessors while also fulfilling the tasks to be expected of a modern museum. We strive to present museum objects to the public in the most varied and modern ways and to ensure access to cultural values and information contained in each of the items. The primary means of communication applied in the Sports Museum is through permanent, temporary, and visiting exhibitions. However, there is far more to our work with the public than this. We seek to bring closer to the public museum objects as well as sports heritage and past through various educational programmes for children and adults, round tables, lectures, researches, articles in publications intended for the general public and experts, and other types of content. Finally, we make sure that information on museum items and Slovenia’s sporting past is readily available and accessible to our visitors and users.
Here in front of you is one of the results of our efforts to bring the sports heritage and the sporting past closer to the public. The exhibition Sports Museum: Safeguarding Sports Heritage presents a range of disciplines based on photographs from our extensive photo library and selected museum items. Some of them can be seen in the premises of the Slovenian School Museum (Plečnikov trg 1), but most of them are safely stored in museum repositories. We have chosen to present the sports events that are richly documented, i.e., those we can claim to have covered satisfactorily, at least with objects and photographs. Other highlights include Stanko Bloudek, after whom the highest sports achievement award has been named since 1965, and the collection in the Planica Nordic Centre, to which the Sports Museum provides professional support in museum activities.
As we want to build on our collections and to present and preserve the heritage of Slovenian sports fittingly, we invite you to become part of the Sports Museum by helping us supplement our museum objects. If you have a piece of our common sports heritage at home and would be willing to donate it to the Sports Museum, please get in touch with us.
Exhibition authors
Project manager: dr. Aleš Šafarič
Authors: dr. Aleš Šafarič, dr. Tadej Curk, Maja Hakl Saje
Design by: Franci Virant
Photos by: Franci Virant
Copy-editing and translations by: Alenka Ropret
Exhibition was produced by Sports Museum (operates as a unit of Slovenian Scool Museum).
Exhibition was made possible by: Turizem Ljubljana, Ministrstvo za vzgojo in izobraževanje in Ministrstvo za gospodarstvo, turizem in šport.