Are museums political institutions? This question draws the attention of academic researchers as well as the broader public. In Sweden, where cultural institutions, even if state-funded, are officially autonomous from the ‘political sphere’, the discussion around museums, heritage and politics keeps emerging in traditional media, social networks, political communications, and academic debate.

Using analytical perspectives borrowed both from the political sciences and from the memory studies field, this article addresses the role of popular movements in Swedish museum practice and the emerging project of museum for migration and democracy (Museum of Movements) in Malmö as a possible arena for trying out a new form of museum as a civil society institution.