ICOM-Europe
Minutes
of the Second Board Meeting
Term 2003 - 2005
1st June 2003,
3 - 6pm
Paris, home of Michel van Praët
Participants:
Ebba Brännback (Finland)
Hans-Martin Hinz (Germany, chair),
Ralf Ceplak Mencin (Slovenia)
Agrita Ozola (Latvia),
Michel van Praët (France),
Theresa Vella (Malta),
Johanna Westphal (Secretariat, ICOM-Europe)
Excused: Nick Merriman (United Kingdom)
__________________________________________________________________
Agenda, n° 1: Report of the Chairman
Hans-Martin Hinz gave a report about what happened
since the first board meeting on 30th March 2003
in Berlin:
Minutes: To the draft version of the minutes of
the first board meeting a few remarks by board
members were added. This was done by emailing
in April. The final - now signed - minutes will
be distributed to all members of ICOM-Europe as
well as the chair of the Advisory Committee and
the Secretariat of ICOM. As soon as there is a
homepage of ICOM-Europe, the public will have
access to the minutes as well as to other ICOM-Europe
documents. In case of a fruitful cooperation between
ICOM-Europe and NEMO in future, ICOM-Europe should
offer the exchange of minutes between the two
networks.
NEMO: The chairman informed the members, that
he is in contact with the chair of NEMO. He pointed
out that in his letter ICOM expressed the intention
to work closely together with NEMO, especially
when it comes to EU-affairs. NEMO has accepted
with pleasure to work together with ICOM-Europe
and there should be a common meeting this year.
The board of NEMO will meet 10th and 11th June
2003 in Brussels. Because this seemed to be too
early for a common meeting, the annual conference
of NEMO, which will be held during the last weekend
of November 2003 in Berlin, will be a chance for
an official meeting. In any case, an official
meeting seems to be worthwhile because most of
the members of the board have no idea of the work
of NEMO. Ebba Brännback from Finland offered
to distribute NEMO-newsletters to all members
of the board since the chairperson of NEMO is
also from Finland. The members of the board of
ICOM-Europe asked the chairperson to continue
his correspondence with the chairperson of NEMO
in order to find out, if NEMO will start officially
with cooperation of the two organisations. If
there is any indication for cooperation, the board
of ICOM-Europe and the board of NEMO should meet
officially during NEMO’s annual conference
in Berlin later this year. ICOM-Europe could recommend
a correspondent for NEMO’s regular talks
in Brussels concerning EU-affairs. Michel van
Praët (ICOM-France) expressed his interest
to work in such a position for the board of ICOM-Europe.
ICOM-Arab: The chair pointed out that - after
the first board meeting in Berlin - he got in
contact with ICOM-Arab. Since the chairwoman of
ICOM-Arab, Mrs Boukli (to whom he addressed his
letter as well as to the Secretary of ICOM-Arab,
Mrs Annabi) was seriously ill, in fact, he was
in contact with the Secretary of ICOM-Arab. In
a letter, dated 15th April 2003, he explained
the idea of ICOM-Europe to cooperate with the
neighbour region in order to learn from each other
and to check if common activities like workshops
or patronages concerning European-Arab themes,
are also of interest in the Arab countries. Mrs
Annabi responded in a letter dated 28th April
2003, that ICOM-Arab is very much interested in
such projects. In a further letter of 6th May,
Hans-Martin Hinz went into more detail by explaining
the background of ICOM-Europe’s activities
concerning the common work of the two regional
organisations (copies of all three letters were
distributed among ICOM-Europe’s board members).
There was a discussion among the board members
about the standards of high quality activities
for which ICOM-Europe as well as ICOM-Arab could
give patronage. Just in case members will apply
and ask if activities will meet such expectations,
the board indicated the following standards:
- the activity should involve two or more countries
- ICOM-representatives from different countries
or regions should be involved
- the applicants should describe how their plans
achieve a high standard
- these activities should meet the standards of
the ICOM Code of Ethics
- activities mean: international exhibitions,
international conferences, international research
programs or educational programs.
In case ICOM-Arab and ICOM-Europe decide to organise
a workshop on a topic that should be worked out
by the two organisations, Malta is the favourite
host country of our committee. All members of
the board should check, which organisations could
function as a supporter of a European-Arab conference
like this. Such a conference could also be open
for NEMO if good cooperation seems to be possible.
(Note: During the meeting of the Advisory Committee
of ICOM, there have been first talks between ICOM-Arab
and ICOM-Europe. Hans-Martin Hinz asked Chédlia
Annabi to introduce ICOM-Arab’s work since
ICOM-Europe has only very little knowledge about
the work of the neighbour region. Mrs Annabi reported
that ICOM-Arab offers conferences every two years
for the members as well as an annual newsletter
and would be happy if there could be a joint conference
or workshop in Malta. ICOM-Arab would appreciate
if the first conference or workshop offered a
very practical topic. ICOM-Arab accepted also
with pleasure, that the international exhibition
“Saladin and the Crusaders”, prepared
by the Reiss-Engelhorn-Museen in Mannheim and
the National Museum in Damascus for 2005/2006,
will get ICOM-Arab’s/ICOM-Europe’s
patronage. If there are any possibilities to organise
Arab/European workshops in Mannheim as well as
in Damascus during the time of the exhibition,
it would also be a good idea. The chairs of ICOM-Arab
and ICOM-Europe will bring these ideas to paper
and will start with preparation.)
Letter to the members: Hans-Martin Hinz pointed
out that all members of ICOM-Europe (chairpersons
of all national committees) were sent a letter
in April, providing all issues discussed by the
board of ICOM-Europe during its March-meeting
in order to find out if ICOM-Europe’s board
policy for the coming years is accepted by the
members. A questionnaire as an appendix was also
prepared but just a few answers have arrived in
the meantime. Therefore, copies of the letter
and the questionnaire should be distributed during
the coming Advisory Committee again. As soon as
more than half of the members have responded,
the board of ICOM-Europe should decide about activities
like: an all-European workshop concerning the
middle-east and eastern European interest in themes
like looted objects, former Jewish property, repatriation
of objects during the wartime etc.
The board of ICOM-Europe also would like to know
more about how to deal with two international
museum days in Europe (ICOM’s international
Museum Day and Spring Museum Day), long-term loans
of objects, movements of collections as well as
state indemnities. Since the Advisory Committee
as well as the Executive Council will decide about
the topic of the international Museum Day 2005
just a few days after the board meeting, the chair
of ICOM-Europe will raise the question during
the meeting of the international committees, on
how to deal with the two museum days in Europe.
ICOM-Europe wants to find out if the organisers
of the two museum days are flexible enough to
find solutions for common dates and themes.
Patronage: The chair of ICOM-Europe informed
about a conference series in Russia/Belarus/Germany
about museums in post-communist times. The first
conference was already held in Russia a few weeks
ago and the chair of ICOM-Europe was present.
He could talk to the participants and explain
the work of ICOM-Europe. For the organisers of
the three conferences it was extremely helpful
that ICOM-Europe offered patronage for the events.
ICOM-Europe was also partner of an international
conference about “Illegal Archaeology”,
organised by the State Museums of Berlin and held
during 23rd until 25th May in Berlin. As a result,
there is the “Berlin Resolution 2003”
dated of 25th May 2003 (copies of the resolution
were distributed among the board members).
International European projects: From 18th until
21st May there was the triennial international
Lake Constance Conference of the three German-speaking
committees. The conference was held in Bregenz,
Austria, and the theme was “Museums in Danger,
catastrophes - thefts - terror” and there
was also a resolution which pointed out that a
lot of museums are neither well-equipped nor prepared
to prevent these dangers (resolution was distributed
among the board members).
Agenda, n° 2, Activity Report for the ICOM-Advisory
Committee (4th June 2003)
The members of the board accepted the draft version
of the activity report which will be given by
the chairperson on 4th June during the meeting
of the advisory committee of ICOM (the draft version
was distributed in advance among all board members).
Agenda, n° 3, General Conference in
Seoul 2004 (ICOM-Europe’s Role)
After a discussion about ICOM-Europe’s
role during the general conference of ICOM next
year, there was a recommendation for the following
activities. The chairperson should contact ICOM’s
vice-president Yani Herremann (responsible for
regional organisations of ICOM) to find out if
there could be an interregional meeting of the
board members of all regional organisations in
Seoul as well as meetings of the members of the
respective regions separately (note: ICOM’s
vice-president as well as the taskforce of national
committees accepted that idea with pleasure and
will include it into the program for the next
general conference of ICOM).
Agenda, n° 4, next Board Meeting
The board of ICOM-Europe will meet again in Berlin
during the last weekend in November 2003 and will
also have - if possible - a common meeting with
NEMO.
Agenda n° 5, others
The chair distributed an email-letter by the
Minister of Education, Culture and Sciences of
the Netherlands, dated 28th May 2003. The ministry
told ICOM-Europe, that during the second half
of 2004 the Netherlands will chair the European
Union. During its presidency, the Netherlands
would give special attention to the mobility of
collections within EU-Europe. As a result, the
government would stimulate long-term loans. The
Dutch government wanted to find out if this meets
the interest of the museum community all over
Europe.
The board discussed this letter and pointed out
that for most of the museums, long-term loans
could possibly be too expensive for museums because
they had to pay for restoration, transportation
as well as insurance. State insurance is not offered
in every country and in most of the countries
just for institutions on a national level. ICOM-Europe
will put up to discussion if the EU is able to
raise funds for such museums which are not able
to pay for long-term loans and to limit bureaucratic
burdens for such an exchange (“Schengen”-treaty
for museum objects), ICOM-Europe would appreciate
this very much. ICOM-Europe will ask the Dutch
government if politicians would support museums
that want to work with long-term loans.
(Note: During the meeting of the ICOM’s
Advisory Committee (2nd - 4th June 2003), there
was also a discussion between the chairs of ICOM-Europe
and ICOM-Aspac (Asia-Pacific). Aspac is going
to prepare an interregional workshop in Hanoi/Vietnam
for late 2005 and would appreciate if ICOM-Europe
and ASPAC could work as partners. Themes could
be “Museums and Cultural Diversity”
as well as “Museum Economy”. The chair
of ICOM-Europe accepted the invitation with pleasure
and declared that a joint meeting with ASPAC colleagues
will offer a good chance to bring both regional
organisations closer together. These two boards
intend to talk about this offer during their next
meetings.)
Berlin, 17th June 2003
_____________________________
Dr Hans-Martin Hinz
Chair Executive
Johanna Westphal
Secretary
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