Aarau City Museum, Switzerland
The City Museum Aarau combines local history, photography, and industrial heritage with participatory practice to create a dynamic cultural platform that engages diverse audiences in dialogue and shared cultural responsibility.
With its reopening and expansion in 2015, the Aarau City Museum transformed from a traditional local history museum into a dynamic cultural platform. The permanent exhibition 100xAarau reinterprets the city’s past through 100 selected stories and objects, while the medium of photography, developed as the central art form of the 20th century, forms a focal point of exhibitions, collaborations and events. A close partnership with the Ringier Image Archive has since established the museum as a centre of expertise for the preservation, cataloguing and communication of photographic heritage.
Participation lies at the heart of the museum’s mission. The museum views itself as an open forum for dialogue where communities and individuals of all ages can meet, share experiences, reflect and co-create visions for the future. This approach integrates contemporary themes into the historical context, making the institution a living, responsive part of civic life.
The museum’s distinctive projects include the Meyerstollen, a rediscovered 19th century tunnel system built beneath Aarau by industrialist Rudolf Meyer Sohn, now open to the public with a small exhibition and cultural events, as well as the nationally significant Kern Collection, which documents Switzerland’s technological and industrial heritage.
As a 2024 DASA Award candidate, the City Museum Aarau exemplifies how regional museums can combine historical depth with participatory practice, photography and industrial heritage to engage diverse audiences and foster shared cultural responsibility.