Q&A | ‘Despite an increase in spontaneous memorials, little attention is paid to their impact’

Museums and Spontaneous Memorials. A Museology of Trauma is an international study into the collection, documentation and curation of spontaneous memorials after traumatic events by museums and other heritage organisations.

The study is led by Kostas Arvanitis, a senior lecturer at the University of Manchester, and is part of his Research, Development and Engagement Fellowship, funded by the UK’s Arts and Humanities Research Council.

Arvanitis told Museums Journal more about the study – and how it aims to address many of the ethical implications of collecting and documenting spontaneous collections.

What are spontaneous memorials?

Spontaneous memorials are grassroots mourning practices that appear after tragic events, such as terrorist attacks and disasters. They are not a new phenomenon.

From the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995 and Hurricane Katrina in 2005, to the 2014 Shanghai stampede and the Winter Cherry mall fire in the Russian city of Kemerovo in 2018, there are numerous instances of intensive, collective trauma leading to large-scale spontaneous memorials. Although labelled “spontaneous”, they have now become an expected expression of public grief and memorialisation.

Spontaneous memorials often consist of thousands of flowers, candles, written messages, soft toys, flags, clothes, art and craft, and other objects. They are temporary and in many cases are collected by museums or other cultural organisations.

In the UK, Manchester Art Gallery collected about 10,000 items left in St Ann’s Square and other places in the city after the 2017 Arena bombing.

Elsewhere in the UK, the Box in Plymouth similarly collected spontaneous memorials after the Keyham shooting in 2021, Southwark Council collected items after the 2017 London Bridge attack and West Sussex Record Office holds the “Shoreham Community Archive” of memorial items following the Shoreham Airshow Disaster in 2015.

International examples include collections of spontaneous memorials after mass violence events or disasters in Barcelona, Spain (2017), Boston, USA (2013), Brussels, Belgium (2016), Christchurch, New Zealand, (2019), Nice, France (2016), Orlando, USA (2016), and Stockholm, Sweden (2017), among others.

Many of these collections have been digitised and are available online – for example the Memorial for La Rambla 17A in Barcelona and the digital collection of spontaneous memorial items after the Paris 2015 attacks. 

What does the study look to address?

Despite the increasing frequency of spontaneous memorialisation around the world, little attention has been paid to the impact of such memorials on the policy and practice of museums and other cultural organisations that subsequently house them. This project, which launched in February and runs until July next year, addresses this gap.

Working in collaboration with the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Reference Centre for Psychosocial Support, as well as cultural professionals and organisations, the project will address the following questions:

• What conceptual, practical and ethical challenges and issues do the formation, collection, and curation of spontaneous memorials present to museums and other cultural and heritage organisations involved?
• How can cultural professionals and organisations involved in curating such collections be supported to mitigate secondary and vicarious trauma?
• How can “ethics of care” and “trauma-informed practice” inform the field of trauma museology?
• How can this work help shape the development of relevant policies, practices, resources and training for cultural professionals dealing with collections of trauma?

The project aims to foster contextualised and sustainable cultural policy and practice in collecting, documenting and curating spontaneous memorials that consider the sensitivities and needs of different stakeholders – including bereaved families, survivors and the wider public).

What ethical considerations must museums employ when engaging with spontaneous memorials?

In the early stages of dealing with spontaneous memorials, museum professionals are often driven by a consideration of the longer-term value and purpose of collection as well as the more immediate expectations or needs of affected communities.

Employing an ethics of care approach and other care-led and trauma-informed practices can help in such cases.

Ethics of care highlights the values of attentiveness, responsibility, competence and responsiveness. By assuming responsibility and drawing on their professional competence, cultural professionals could attend to and address the needs of affected individuals and groups.

For example, when bereaved families visited the Manchester Together Archive in Manchester Art Gallery on the first-year anniversary of the Arena bombing, they were invited not just to go through the collection, but also take away any items they felt would give them comfort.

Similarly, in the case of the spontaneous memorials created in the aftermath of the 2016 Pulse Nightclub Shooting in Orlando, Florida, the Orange County Regional History Center put together a private online collection of some of the items for bereaved families who were not able to physically visit.

However, there is often a blurring of boundaries of personal, social and professional responsibility in discussions about whether, what and how to collect and document spontaneous memorials in the aftermath of tragic events.

What are the psychological implications of such collections on museum workers?

Museum and cultural professionals often see their work with spontaneous memorials as part of the broader societal response to the event and of the process of post-event community healing.

But collecting, documenting and curating spontaneous memorials, being exposed to a range of emotions communicated via them, and engaging with affected groups (such as bereaved families, survivors and emergency services) can be not just an emotive, but also a potentially traumatic experience.

This emotional labour can lead to anxiety, stress, fatigue and exhaustion and raises the risk of secondary and vicarious trauma for cultural professionals, volunteers and members of the public.

An ethics of care approach should target audiences, communities, members of staff and volunteers. Not everyone in the organisation should or could be involved in the work with spontaneous memorials.

In several cases, organisations have decided not to collect, at least not straightaway, in order to protect their staff from the psychological impact of the work involved.

It is ethically paramount for organisations to consider their preparedness, training, support structures, resources and capacity to embark on collecting and documenting spontaneous memorials.

This is even more important, because this kind of work is not just “urgent” or “rapid-response” but raises raise longer-term challenges for conservation, storage, public access and wellbeing for staff and audiences.

What outputs can we expect from your study and how do you hope they will be used?

The project will produce a “one-stop shop” interactive website and online guide for cultural professionals and organisations.

These will be used in different stages and contexts of the work with spontaneous memorials: from the early stages of deciding whether and what to collect and document; to the use of spontaneous memorial collections in anniversaries; and how to mitigate for the risks of secondary/vicarious trauma for staff (including volunteers), stakeholders and the wider public.

The exact scope and nature of the resources will be decided in conversation with cultural professionals and other communities of interest over a series of workshops and events.

For now, the following resources are being considered as part of the online guide:

• Emergency tools for cultural professionals who find themselves dealing with the challenge of considering, collecting and documenting spontaneous memorials, including a psychosocial ‘first aid kit’ on secondary/vicarious trauma;
• A knowledge base with personalised search, customisable flowcharts, policy and guidance templates, checklists and an animated guide video.
• A portfolio of case studies that cover wide geographical and cultural areas and types of traumatic events; and
• Planning and Preparedness Procedures that cultural organisations can use to prepare for such events in advance.

The project will also produce a Feasibility Plan for a Global Support Network of experts and support organisations that can provide guidance to museum and cultural professionals, researchers and local/national authorities when needed.

How can people get involved?

There are various ways that people can get involved. In the first instance, it would be great if cultural professionals that have dealt with spontaneous memorials considered completing this survey before the 22 July 2024. 

We’ll also be arranging follow-up interviews with cultural professionals to get a more in-depth understanding of people’s experiences with spontaneous memorials.

The survey and the interviews aim to identify and document practices and challenges of collecting, documenting, curating and engaging people with spontaneous memorials, including the psychological impact of this work on staff, volunteers and the public.

These will be followed by two workshops for cultural professionals to help co-design the policy and practice resources and guidance, and an International Symposium in the summer of 2025.

To express your interest in participating in the interviews, workshops and the Symposium, please contact Kostas Arvanitis. To join the International Network of Spontaneous Memorials, please visit the network's website.