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ICOM-Europe: Activity-Report 2003
Thanks to our colleague Jens Brienegaard
from Denmark who took the initiative last year
to revitalise Europe’s regional committee,
there was ICOM-Europe’s board election at
the end of 2002. Most of the chairpersons of the
European national committees took part in the
election. As its result, the board members are
as follows: Ebba Brännback from Finland,
Ralf Ceplak Mencin from Slovenia, Nick Merriman
from the U.K., Agrita Ozola from Latvia, Michel
Praët from France, Theresa Vella from Malta
and myself from Germany as chairperson.
The board met already twice this year. The first
meeting was held in Berlin on 30th March 2003,
the second on 1st June in Paris.
In a letter to all chairpersons of the national
committees of ICOM in Europe, dated April, the
newly elected board explained the results of the
board discussion concerning the board’s
policy for the coming years.
First of all, we pointed out that all national
committees which belong to Europe according to
the official UNESCO definition, are automatically
members of the regional organisation of ICOM.
In so far, the rules have to be worked over since
application procedures are not necessary.
The board of ICOM-Europe recognised that there
are already several international working groups
within Europe, such as Central European ICOM (CEICOM),
organised by the countries along the former Iron
Curtain, the Lake Constance Conference, a triennial
meeting of the three German-speaking committees,
ICOM-Nord, the working of the five Scandinavian
countries and also the working group of the three
Baltic states. As the all-European regional committee,
ICOM-Europe would appreciate if information about
the work of the international working groups inside
Europe could be shared with all European members.
The respective members of the national committees
in charge are kindly asked to provide ICOM-Europe
with dates and themes about their work to allow
ICOM-Europe to distribute such information through
ICOM-networks in Europe.
Since ICOM-Europe is more than the countries
of the European Union, EU-Europe is one of the
focuses of ICOM-Europe’s work, but not the
only one. One of the suggestions is that ICOM-Europe
should work as a lobbyist in Brussels and should
support all members with information. This is
of course a good idea, but realisation seems to
be impossible since ICOM has no budget to pay
for a consultant in the EU-capital. However there
is the idea of working closely with NEMO, the
Network of European Museum organisations, which
is organised by the national museum organisation
and which already has close links with Brussels.
They meet approximately twice a year with representatives
of the EU-Commission as well as with members of
Parliament. ICOM-Europe is in contact with NEMO
and NEMO has accepted with pleasure to work together
on topics concerning the European Union. There
will be an official meeting between NEMO and ICOM-Europe
this year and we will provide the members with
more information about the results as soon as
possible.
ICOM-Europe will pay attention to the eastern
and southern areas of Europe, especially those
countries which do not belong to the EU. Experience
tell us that museum colleagues from those countries
often do not feel well recognised by the rest
of Europe. ICOM-Europe will bridge this gap and
has already asked the chairpersons, what can ICOM-Europe
do for them. First reactions show that workshop
topics like looted objects or repatriation of
cultural property displays in wartime should be
offered. Since there have been just a few reactions
to our April-letter, we will wait for a while
and then decide how to organise a common activity
about an international topic which would also
help to link the eastern part of Europe with the
rest of the continent.
ICOM-Europe offers partnerships for international
museum activities in Europe. Member committees
can apply for ICOM-Europe’s patronage. If
the application is accepted, the respective exhibition
or conference can use the name of ICOM-Europe
as a partner of the activity. In the meantime,
there are already a few partnerships between ICOM-Europe
and high standard international projects, such
as the MUSEDOMA, an awareness conference in Berlin
(late March 2003), an international conference
series about history museums in post communist
times in Russia (April 2003), Belarus (September
2003) and Germany (2004), an international conference
about “Illegal Archaeology” in Berlin
(May 2003) as well as an international summer
school of museology in the Baltic states (2004).
Another aspect of ICOM-Europe’s work is
cooperation with other regional organisations,
especially Europe’s neighbour region, represented
by ICOM-Arab. It is not just the recent political
conflicts but a deficit of knowledge about each
other that ICOM-Europe is interested in closer
contacts to the Arabian world.
In the meantime, ICOM-Arab and ICOM-Europe are
discussing joint activities as well as patronages
for museum activities. Probably, there will be
a workshop in the Mediterranean, where themes
of common interests will be discussed.
Several other questions were discussed among
the board members such as the state indemnity
for exhibition exchange. We tried to find out
which of the European countries offer already
state indemnity and on what level (national, regional,
local) and whether state indemnities are accepted
among museums from different European countries.
Another point is the problem that ICOM’s
international Museum Day which is celebrated around
18th May, and Spring Museum Day which is celebrated
always during the first weekend in May in some
of the European countries, differ in dates and
themes. We asked all members if this is a problem
for the respective country. We do not have enough
answers to make a statement, but as we heard,
there are problems especially in border regions
of those countries who celebrate different museum
days. As a result, cross border projects cannot
be realised. ICOM-Europe wants to find out if
both Museum Day-organisers are flexible enough
to merge dates and themes which allows the national
ICOM-committees to bring museums together.
The newly elected board of ICOM-Europe hopes
very much to strengthen the links between all
members of the regional organisation and supports
the European ICOM-family with ideas as well as
activities in order to develop international understanding
which allows the museums of our continent to offer
attractive exhibitions and other activities.
Dr. Hans-Martin Hinz
Chair
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