Ways of Telling Stories Outside During Lockdown

During lockdown of Denmark in the spring of 2020, the citizens of Skanderborg as in many other places turned to walks in their local area. Museum Skanderborg had to cancel numeral sold out guided tours, as groups were not allowed. Instead, the museum developed others ways of telling outside stories. This paper presents two examples as ideas for others to follow on ways of telling stories in Covid-19 and post Covid-19 times.
In the city of Skanderborg, a cooperation with the Municipality of Skanderborg resulted in 10 wooden benches along the main shopping road with historic photos, and a website where you could read about the people on the photos. The benches provided sitting spots for walkers and decoration in the street as well as a good story along the way. The benches were a re-use from another event. The only cost was the new pictures and a truck to put them in the streets. The benches were only a temporary concept and were removed before winter, but the museum and the municipality are using the knowledge of the project in further development of the city center.
In a forest and close to the city, we also wanted to provide stories for walkers. As we did not want people to walk around looking at their phones instead of nature, we did not want to make it digital. There was not budget to make proper signposts, but 20 old fashioned laminated posters were tied around big trees for people to read along their walks. People responded positively to the posters and went looking for them all. The posters were taken down in the autumn, as the string and the posters were worn out after the summer. The Municipality of Skanderborg has now decided to make the posters in to proper signposts.