Sjæklen 2017

167 Summary 50 years of big dreams and local connections 2018 is the year in which the Fisheries and Maritime Museum celebrates its 50th anniversary. This article is about the founda- tion on which the museum was created, about the dreams and plans that the museum’s first three directors brought with them, and about the anniversary year as a symbolic portal through which we look to both the past and the future. The museum was created with a clear set of values: to be alive, dynamic and outward-oriented, and with the clear objective of being part of local business life. By going back to newspaper articles on the early work of the first three directors, one can see how the primary focus of the museum has changed over the first 50 years of its life. From an initial emphasis on collecting objects and conducting research related to them, the focus has shifted towards the human as- pect, exhibitions, topical problems and modern methods of communication. The year 2018 can be viewed as a portal that links past and fu- ture – because the museum is launching a number of projects that look both backwards and forwards. They include a new ex- hibition on the golden days of the fishing industry in Esbjerg and one on the first fifty years of the museum. In addition, the museum is publishing a coffee-table book on Esbjerg Harbour over 150 years. These projects concern the past. The museum’s forward-looking initiatives involve the way in which the museum will be rethinking the design and content of its exhibitions and major plans to restyle and extend the entire museum.