The anniversary exhibition 2011

The exhibition in the Museum Building is open to the public in the period 18 March - 31 December 2011, while the exhibition in the Lyche Pavilion is open from 18 March - 30 October 2011.

The anniversary exhibition is the official exhibition for the celebration of Drammen's 200 years as a city. A city is a complex size that changes and expands, and is experienced as an interaction between the people who live there, events in the urban spaces and in relation to the physical design of buildings, streets, squares and parks. Much of what happens in a city is unremarkable events that quickly turn into oblivion of the past. In order to understand a city and be able to grasp it as a meaningful, dynamic whole, one must become acquainted with and use the arenas and places that have a certain physical permanence and that have a meaning over a longer period of time. Places that many people visit and use and which make it possible to form community ties, create memories and give identity. In order to be able to show in an exhibition what Drammen is and has been, we have therefore selected some themes that can help to give the city's citizens a common knowledge and understanding of how the city has developed into it. it is today.

In the Museum building, important areas of society are presented through pictures, texts, objects and paintings. Important topics such as shipping, port activities, shipbuilding, sailmaking, lumber and industrial production are devoted to separate departments at the exhibition. In all areas of society, social environments and self-understanding have developed, not least through association life, cultural life, church life and outdoor life. The history of the school and the religious history of the city are presented. Among the distinctive themes that are highlighted is the city during the war and how the liberation of women behaved with us. The last section in the chronologically structured exhibition in the Museum building is devoted to diversity, where recent immigration is seen in the perspective of Drammen's long immigration history.

In the Lyche pavilion, it is the city's physical design and architectural history that is the theme. With city plans and surveys as a basis, the public can see how the city has grown. The important periods in urban history are emphasized, such as the classicist and baroque wooden houses in the 18th and 19th centuries, over the historic brick town that was built after the city fire in 1866, the great school building from 1893-1919, and the neo-baroque and neoclassicism of 1910 - and the 20s which around 1930 went into function. Drammen is an important functional city in the Norwegian context, and this is clearly evident at the Anniversary Exhibition. This is continued in a broad presentation of the major modernization of the city center in the 1950s and 60s and the expansion with garden towns and New Towns in the city's fringe zones. Finally, some of the most important newer city plans and the new given are shown by giving new life to the river banks and the construction of modern apartment blocks and institutional buildings along the river and in the middle of the city center.

In addition to several hundred large photographs specially produced for the exhibition and info texts, profiles have been made of some individuals who have helped to make their mark on the city. There are also 9 flat screens that show complementary picture games where the city's history is told digitally with a total of approx. 1000 pictures. The exhibition is also disseminated on an ipod that the public can borrow while going through the exhibition. The museum has designed a completely new exhibition architecture in the Museum building and a color and design program has been developed that is repeated in all printed material, as an organizational principle in the exhibition and on banners and flags for the new flagpoles and wall sails that will call attention and invite the public in. to experience Drammen's history through 200 years.

The entire museum's staff has been involved in giving form and content to this project. We have had Jo.Sellæg as an external employee in the production team and both the environment around the school historical collections and the local historical environment at Tangen and Åskollen have lent objects and pictures and helped to give the exhibition its form.

This is an exhibition with so many reminders and so many angles and newly produced knowledge of the city's history, that it will take a long time to digest it. The exhibition therefore invites to several visits throughout the anniversary year. The exhibition is open every day for many months and it provides a first-class opportunity for Drammen residents to get to know their city, about how it has been and how it has developed into what it is today. Older and young, new and old Drammen residents will be able to find things to enjoy, and the Anniversary Exhibition will offer new perspectives and experiences for everyone who comes to see it.

The project leader has been Åsmund Thorkildsen, but the various actors have each had responsibility and freedom to shape the content and presentation in their departments.