Talk held at Urban History Exhibited. Seminar at Den Gamle By in Aarhus, Denmark. 25th October 2011. Paul van der Laar, Director of Collections/Professor of Urban History at Historical Museum, Rotterdam/Erasmus University Rotterdam Abstract: Nowadays, many city museum curators realize that in order to present urban narratives, considerations of authenticity are becoming less important than representations and should develop new urban story telling and imaginative strategies. New heritage models and concepts are needed as well, together with new professional qualifications for urban curators. They should expand their expertise beyond the classical driven collection based scholarship. Recent developments in urban history will be beneficial in enlarging the professional standards of city curators. They could benefit from new developments in urban history, in particular academic and museum historians are challenged by the concept of the transnational city and developments in urban visual history.

1. NEW PARADIGMS IN CITY MUSEUMS The transnational city and its heritage PAUL VAN DE LAAR Museum Rotterdam/ Erasmus School of History, Culture & Communication, Rotterdam

7. Transnational museum triangle Urban and heritage communities City Museum (urban knowledge centre) Museum representations CURATOR AS HERITAGE BROKER

9. Social Economic Status of the city of Rotterdam, 2006 (ca. 600.000 inhabitants)

21. Roffa 5314

38. Urban Neighbourhood model

66. Women “Van de Velden”: social community in reconstruction areas