Museum Schaffen: The changing face of work

The Winterthur Historical Society has recast its city museum based on this topic. Enabled by the Migros Pioneer Fund, the two-year pilot project «museum schaffen – under construction» has developed new, contemporary and participatory formats for communicating history. The public plays an active role in this process: the history of Winterthur is made tangible through personal biographies, and by involving the visitors they can experience it for themselves on site.

From 2017 to 2020 the setting for Museum Schaffen was an industrial warehouse on the Sulzer site, which itself wrote labour history. It formed a temporary stage for the activities and exhibitions. Insights gained from this process were shared openly, so that exhibition designers and museum specialists can discuss, apply and develop the approach further.

Participation by visitors has always been part of the museum’s agenda and of its reason for being. The museum found its first permanent home in the former warehouse in 2021. Museum Schaffen places the spotlight on people as workers and considers the past, present and future of work.