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SPECIAL REPORT Museums and communities

HERITAGE IN DANGER Armed conflict

BEST PRACTICES Publishing

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ICOM news

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The 2013 edition of International Museum Day will mark 36 years of an event that has gathered impressive momentum over the last few decades. Be sure to join in the celebrations this year and send us your museum’s activity programme.

The ICOM General Conference, meanwhile, is a unique opportunity for the international museum community to come together and discuss this theme. With its fast-developing cultural landscape, Rio de Janeiro is a fitting backdrop for the event; the focus on community in many of the city’s neighbourhoods has given rise to the creation of ecomuseums and cultural institutions with a firm mission to honour collective cultural memory, thus helping local residents to reconstruct their identity.

The General Conference venue, the spectacular Cidade das Artes, has brought a new cultural dimension to the bustling suburb of Barra da Tijuca. On page 18, architect Christian de Portzamparc talks of his vision of a cultural complex, not only for concert-goers, but one the local community could feel free to explore.

We take this opportunity to wish you a very happy and fruitful International Museum Day 2013 and we look forward to seeing you in Rio de Janeiro this August!

Hans-Martin Hinz Julien AnfrunsICOM President ICOM Director General

he importance attributed to community involvement in museums today is evident through the increasing outreach by cultural institutions to their

local populations. The ICOM Code of Ethics for Museums states that ‘museums work in close collaboration with the communities from which their collections originate as well as those they serve’. This collaboration can take many forms, including community activities, use of collections from contemporary communities, and supporting organisations in the community.

In our Special Report (pp. 10-15) we provide examples of innovative actions carried out by museums around the world to promote and encourage local participation through a number of different approaches. From Bangladesh to Brazil, museums are working to reinforce their communities’ identities, with a view to enriching the lives of local residents, and in some cases helping to bring about social change.

Social change will be at the heart of the discussions and activities at two key ICOM events this year: the ICOM Triennial General Conference in Rio de Janeiro from 10 - 17 August and International Museum Day, held around 18 May. The theme of both events – Museums (Memory + Creativity) = Social Change — is expected to provoke constructive debate and creative activities with a view to bringing about positive changes in our society.

T 4Museum NewsEvents, openings and more

6Best PracticesPublishing

8In FocusMuseums (Memory + Creativity) = Social Change

10Special Report: Museums and communitiesGetting involved Creative collaborationOn the banks of the Brahmaputra

16Heritage in Danger Armed conflict

18General ConferenceRio 2013

20ICOM CommunityInternational Museum Day 2013IC MEMO Annual Meeting

22PublicationsTaking collecting to extremes

ICOM PRESIDENT Hans-Martin Hinz

DIRECTOR GENERAL Julien Anfruns

PUBLICATION DIRECTOR Aurélie Aubourg

EDITOR IN CHIEF Aedín Mac Devitt

DESIGN AND LAYOUT Agnès Quemper

TRANSLATIONSara Heft

CONTRIBUTOR Pablo Arribas Bulnes

ADVERTISING ASSISTANTS Mariana GomesMariam Hajji

PRINTING GraphiProd, 93290 Tremblay en France

©ICOM ISSN 1020-6418COVER IMAGE ©MAM SAÕ PAULO/KARINA BACCI

ICOM Maison de l’UNESCO1, rue Miollis 75732 Paris Cedex 15 France Tel +33 1 47 34 05 00 Fax + 33 1 43 06 78 62 [email protected] http://icom.museum

ICOM News is a magazine published by the International Council of Museums in English, French and Spanish, with the financial assistance of the French Ministry of Culture. Opinions expressed in signed articles do not commit ICOM in any way and are the responsibility of their authors.

Next issueIn Focus: Museums (Memory + Creativity = Social Change)Special Report: Commercial activitiesBest Practices: Stocking collectionsIf you wish to contribute to the next issue of ICOM News, please contact Aedín Mac Devitt at [email protected] for details.

EDITORIAL

4 ICOMNEWS | N°1 2013

DonationThe Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, UK, has received a donation of gold and silver objects from a private collector. The collection, consisting of nearly 500 pieces from the 15th to 17th centuries belonged to the late Michael Wellby, an expert in European silver of the period. The collection includes a rare lapis lazuli bowl (pictured), a silver gilt ewer, and other objects which incorporate ivory, agate and shell, among other exotic materials. Professor Tim Wilson, Keeper of the Department of Western Art said: “This is the most important accession of objects of this sort to any UK museum since the bequest of objects from Waddesdon Manor by Ferdinand Rothschild to the British Museum in 1898.

EventsThe School of the Future (2012 – 2013) is the third art festival taking place in the Museum-Gallery of Applied Ceramics and Art Creativity of Ilya and Alexey Burlai in Zaporozhye, Ukraine.This festival studies colour and colouration, fine arts in modern education, and the concept that aesthetic awareness is a prerequisite for spiritual enrichment. Meanwhile, the Museum and School project aims to promote the preservation of history of science and technology, parallel education in technical museums and the introduction of art as an aesthetic pleasure. The School of the Future festival is taking place during the academic year 2012 – 2013 and will be completed with a

thematic exhibition dedicated to the fifth anniversary of the museum-gallery.

OpeningsThe exhibition Oliver Reginald Tambo: The Modest Revolutionary opened on 20 March at the Iziko Museums, South Africa. Produced by the Apartheid Museum, it acknowledges Oliver Tambo’s contribution to the freedom struggle in South Africa, 20 years after his death. Oliver Tambo (pictured below with his wife in 1993)was the first Secretary General and one of the founding members of the African National Congress Youth League, together with Nelson Mandela and Walter Sisulu. In 1967, he was elected President of the African National Congress, following the death of Chief Albert Lutuli. The exhibition is a journey through Tambo’s childhood, education, career path and his relentless contribution to the isolation of the apartheid regime. It also highlights his progressive attitude with regard to women’s rights.

Built by the Heliopolis Society Association for the Children of Egypt, the


The town of Dudelange in Luxembourg may be better known for its steel-making past than its bustling cultural scene, but the Centre

National de l’Audiovisuel (CNA) and its two new sites — the Water Tower and Pumphouse — are turning that stereotype on its head.

The CNA was first created in 1989 in response to a steel crisis that had deeply affected the town of Dudelange given the popula-tion’s dependence on the industry. The centre’s challenge lay in bringing a cultural dimension to this town which, despite its pre-dominantly industrial nature, remained interesting territory for Lux-embourgish artists. Almost 20 years later, the CNA moved into a new building and today boasts six sites dedicated to photography, two cinemas and a media library.

The CNA’s most recent project was the renovation of a Pump-house and Water Tower, situated next to the centre and headed for demolition. Renovating the sites was the idea of Jean Back, Direc-tor of the CNA: “[The sites] are a symbol of the town and its indus-trial past,” he explains. “And sometimes demolition costs more than anything else.” The project was not without its challenges, howev-er: “There was a double challenge in restoring the Water Tower,” says Back. “First, restoring a water tower as a historic monument that belongs to a population, and second, integrating part of the restored collection, The Bitter Years.”

The Bitter Years is a photographic exhibition curated by Luxembour-gish artist Edward Steichen for the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City with a selection of images of rural America during the Great Depression. The CNA had to retrieve the collection from MoMA and curate it in a way that was faithful to the artistic talents of Steichen.

“Steichen’s art as curator was to put images of different origins in dialogue with each other in an intelligent and sensitive way,” says Back. “In this project, we had to get away from the traditional role of photography.”

The Pumphouse, meanwhile, is a centre for dialogue between the historic collection and contemporary photography. It will host temporary exhibitions, workshops and residencies.

The CNA was one of the best practice examples highlighted at the Culture Business conference, organised by communications agency AGENDA in Paris on 9 January, 2013. The conference, which was largely interactive, focused on innovation and risk-taking in the face of recession.

Opportunity in crisisChildren’s Civilization and Creativity Center in Cairo is the first children’s museum to open in the country. Inaugurated in 2012, the museum (pictured below) includes a garden and exhibitions from the Nile showing different landscapes, animals and flora. The architecture of the museum is a symbol of changing times in Egypt, with the sun, water and star clocks representing learning from the past, present and future. The museum houses four sections: the hidden treasure of Egypt, science, the development of modern Egypt, and archaeology and history; it also boasts a spectacular dome and a 3-D cinema.

The museum aims to collaborate with schools and teachers to provide the most up-to-date information and techniques as well as an exciting learning experience for young visitors. In May 2012, the museum won the UK’s Museum and Heritage International Award.

A new art museum was inaugurated in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil by President Dilma Roussef on 1 March, 2013. Museo de Arte de Río, or MAR, is located in the heart of the city, overlooking the harbour. The museum consists of two major historical buildings connected by a footbridge and finished with a spectacular structure on top evoking a wave. MAR will hold temporary exhibitions, the first called River of Images, which contains old maps and pictures of the bay, the suburbs and

the city centre. It also houses an auditorium and classrooms where lectures will be given about art.

PeopleKim Sajet has been appointed Director of the National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C. From April she will lead a staff of 65 and be responsible for a collection of about 21,000 objects.

She has served as President and CEO of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania since 2007. The National Portrait Gallery, which is part of the Smithsonian Institution and opened in 1968, tells the history of the United States through the visual arts, performing arts and new media of individuals who have shaped its culture.

Eusebio Leal, historian and native of Havana, Cuba, was bestowed with the French Order of the Legion of Honour award on 30 January, 2013. The award —the highest decoration given by the French government and established by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1802— is granted in recognition of civil and military actions. Eusebio Leal received the award due to his continuous work to preserve Havana’s tangible and intangible heritage. The award also emphasises the friendship, relations and cultural links between Cuba and France.The ceremony was held at the Napoleonic Museum of Havana and was attended by Jean Mendelson, French Ambassador to Cuba;

Jean-Pierre Bel, President of the French Senate; and Cuban Minister of Culture, Rafael Bernal.

ResearchA self-portrait donated to the UK National Trust in 2010 has been identified as a painting by Dutch artist Rembrandt. The portrait, which was shown in Buckland Abbey in Devon, UK, was thought to have been painted by one of Rembrandt’s pupils until research carried out by Ernst van de Wetering, an expert on Rembrandt’s art, confirmed it to be a self-portrait of the artist himself. According to the National Trust, the Buckland portrait shows Rembrandt aged 29, is ‘signed’ Rembrandt and dated 1635. The painting is now valued at £20m, and will be displayed for the next eight months at Buckland Abbey before being taken away for cleaning and further investigation.

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The Bitter Years exhibition at the CNA’s Water Tower site

N°1 2013 | ICOMNEWS 5

Master of Advanced Studies in Cultural Heritage and Museology at the Universities of Geneva, Lausanne and Freiburg:

Professional training in the museum and architectural heritage conservation fields, recommended by the Swiss National Committee of the International Council of Museums (ICOM).

Academic year: 2013-2014

Registration deadline: 30 June, 2013

More information on the website: http://cms2.unige.ch/mas

Restitution France has agreed to return seven paintings, looted during World War II, to their heirs, according to the Commission for the Compensation of the Victims of Spoliation. The paintings, including works by Alessandro Longhi, Sebastiano Ricci, Gaspare Diziani, Salvator Francesco Fontebasso, Gaetano Gandolfi, François-Charles Palko and Pieter Jansz van Asch, were looted in Austria by the Nazis during World War II, then discovered in Germany by the Allies and taken to France. The works of art were part of Adolph Hitler’s plan to build a museum in Linz, Austria, where he spent his youth. The paintings were shown at the Louvre in Paris, and museums in Saint Etienne, Tours and Agen. n

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Hold an exhibition text workshop A text workshop allows exhibition text to be peer reviewed at an early stage in the drafting process to prevent costly restructuring and significant editing later on. Typically chaired by the exhibition’s project manager, these workshops include participants from publishing, exhibitions and curatorial depart-ments, the authors and any other interested party. The text is analysed on both a structural and a specific level. Questions include: Is the hierarchy of panels and labels working? Should another level be introduced or removed? Do the main text panels tell a coherent story? Does the text speak to its intended audience? With the benefit of this detailed feedback from a broad range of museum profes-sionals, curators can make the necessary revisions before providing final text for editing.

To print or not to print? In a budget-conscious environment, e-publishing is becoming a popular choice for institutions. But if hard copies are necessary, printing overseas can sometimes save money and offer excellent print quality. If printing offshore, you need to factor shipping time into your schedule and be prepared to accept delays due to complications with customs. For cultural institutions, this can mean disaster if catalogues are delivered after an exhibi-tion opening. Other potential pitfalls include errors in communicating, and less control over paper specifications (remember that environmental standards may not be the same in every country). Press checking at the printers is always advisable for a high-end production.

Making digital publishing accessibleAccessibility isn’t a technical issue; it’s embedded in the culture of an institution. Museums must be places where everyone can participate, regard-less of their abilities. Digital developers can work with designers to ensure that screen displays have sufficiently large typefaces and colour contrast for people with impaired vision. On the National Museum of Australia’s website we transcribe all audios on demand and provide captions in our videos. It takes commitment to ensure that these approaches are implemented when timelines are short and budgets reduced.

ASK THE EXPERTS

Julie Ogden is Publishing Manager at the National Museum of Australia. Her role includes managing the editing, design, production and fabrication of exhibition text, catalogues, magazines and books. Below is her three-point checklist of good publishing practices

The view from Chicago

of Art, which was contracted to work on the development of custom software with Art Institute staff from the European Painting and Sculpture Department, Conservation, Imaging, Museum Education, Publications, and Digital Information and Access. The initial success of the programme has been such that the AIC’s current director, Douglas Druick, has added expectations for catalogues devoted to the paintings and drawings by Paul Gauguin, Edouard Manet, Henri Matisse and Camille Pissarro, as well as AIC’s holdings of Native Indian art of the Americas and Roman art. The point of this programme is to take the rich content of scholarly catalogues once produced in limited quantity at great expense and, while preserving the rigorously academic nature of these volumes and maintaining the same high standards of editing, design, and production, release them through the internet, without charge, in a fully searchable, digital format that will ensure greater circula-tion worldwide. These online volumes would contain numerous high-resolution close-up views and more comparative illustrations

than are generally financially feasible in a printed edition. In addition, the online release of these publications will enable them to be corrected, updated, or augmented over time, as necessary.

Going forwardArt books replicate the beautiful and the distinctive, and therefore require the finest digital colour separations, paper that provides the optimal surface, and printers who can perform at the highest standards of quality, without charging the highest price for their services. Despite the development of online publications, museums—even art museums like the Art Institute of Chicago that have embraced online publishing—still remain committed to the printed book. To continue to attract potential buyers in a marketplace already crowded with competing products, museums must produce books that demon-strate excellent graphic design, contain well-written and well-edited content, and deliver a satisfying total package. These are the production values that will ensure the continuance of the beautiful book. n

T he death of the printed book and the demise of publishing have long been proclaimed, but the Art Institute of

Chicago (AIC) is as busy producing books as ever. The responsibility to publish is grounded in the museum’s mission statement and as a leading cultural institution, AIC also has an important educational role to fulfill, which is partly achieved by publishing on its perma-nent collections and exhibitions.

The Ar t Inst i tute’s Publ icat ions Department’s present staff of eight employees produce approximately 10 books per year. The staff are primarily assigned to just two of the essential aspects of publishing: editing and production. This decision allows AIC to focus on the quality of the text, working closely with colleagues in the museum’s 10 curato-rial departments who serve as either authors or project directors in charge of a particular publication. This also ensures the quality of reproductions, ensuring the all-important fidelity to the works of art themselves. While the design of smaller catalogues may be handled in-house by the museum’s Graphics Depar tment, larger books are placed with any of a number of independent designers. Several of the other important tasks of publishing—sales, marketing, and distri-bution—are handled through contractual arrangements with other publishers.

In 2005, under former director James Cuno, the Art Institute entered an exclu-sive distribution arrangement with Yale University Press for all its publications. One of the acknowledged leaders in art-book publishing, Yale had long been a regular partner in co-publishing deals with the Art

Institute on one or more titles per year. The present arrangement provides mutual benefits. Most importantly for the museum, it consolidates all of its publications into the hands of a single marketing, warehousing, sales, and distribution team that is familiar with its entire list.

Since the 2008 recession, AIC has set some limits on the number and size of its publications in order to control the total cost of its entire programme, and has estab-lished an ideal upper limit of 224 pages for an exhibition catalogue, with exceptions to this general guideline requiring explicit direc-torial approval. Over the past five years, AIC has published just over 50 titles, not counting several reprints of older works that sell steadily in the museum shop.

Publishing onlineIn 2008 the Art Institute released its most recent scholarly catalogue of paintings in the permanent collections, a 476-page

assessment of northern European and Spanish works before 1600. Later that same year, the museum published a 416-page scholarly study of the European tapestries held by the

museum’s Textiles Department. The sheer cost of these publications—their high retail price and even higher unit cost to produce—, their small print runs and limited circulation, their need for substantial subventions (from the Getty Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation), and the likelihood that they would never be revised and reprinted, brought this part of the institute’s publishing programme under serious scrutiny. Fortunately, as other institutions faced

identical concerns, the Getty Foundation addressed the questionable sustainability of such publications by inviting nine museums to take part in a programme that would explore the potential benefits of online publishing by asking each institution to develop one online programme independently by creating a software platform or digital template. At the Art Institute, this Getty-funded programme, Online Scholarly Catalogue Initiative (OSCI), was launched in 2009 with plans for digital volumes on the museum’s collection of paintings and drawings by Impressionists Claude Monet and Pierre Auguste Renoir. While these first two catalogues are both still under development, scheduled for release in 2014, the software platform that will make their complete content (in-depth scholarly entries, conservation study, notes, compara-tive illustrations, bibliography, etc.) is available to the public without charge and has already been completed and pilot tested with signifi-cant approval ratings. Created largely with open-source tools, this digital platform was developed in collaboration with the IMA Lab, a division of the Indianapolis Museum

BEST PRACTICES PUBLISHING

Online volumes contain close-up views and

comparative illustrations that are not financially

feasible in a printed edition

An aerial view of the Art Institute of Chicago and its Modern Wing

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The Art Institute of Chicago’s approach to the beautiful book

by Robert V. Sharp, Executive Director of Publications, the Art Institute of Chicago



How can social change be achieved by presenting the history of a people in a creative way? This challenge

was, without doubt, one of the biggest concerns when inaugurating the Cathedral Museum in Arequipa, Peru in 2010. The idea was to develop a cultural space aligning two important concepts in today’s society: the promotion of tourism and evangelism, without favouring either one, appealing to different audiences, and in such a way that visitors would gain a lesson in living history and a feeling of respect for art, regardless of their religious beliefs, if any.

A new museum for a new eraAs an institution born out of the Catholic Church, but with a deep respect for the cultural and spiritual diversity of its visitors, it was important for the Arequipa Cathedral Museum to avoid contradictions or taking an unnecessary stance when pursuing its objectives. It therefore employed a range of creative solutions to consolidate the Cathedral Museum space.

Given the museum’s religious nature, it was a challenge to present its permanent exhibition without imposing the religious beliefs on the visitors or lack thereof. Training the tour guides and other staff so that they could identify with the exhibition and pinpoint the target audience was essential.

A heavy investment was therefore made in a training programme, which included instruction on the history of the Church itself, as well as the use and meaning of each object in the exhibition and the historical context in which it was developed, the period during which it was used, etc. Eleven tour guides receive motivational speeches every two months, which allow them to broaden their knowledge.

In a similar way, the Metropolitan Council of Canons, the governing body of the museum and of the main chapel, invested in the renovation of communal worship areas, such as the central nave, the Holy

Sacrament Chapel and the Chapel of the Lord Almighty. Some extraordinary artefacts such as the Pulpit and the Loret Organ — one of the largest and best preserved in Latin America — have been or are set to be restored.

Having established the true religious usage of the Basilica Cathedral and the preservation of the museum spaces in the three thematic halls the museum then turned its attention to planning the timetables for religious worship and tourist visits.

Most of the foreign visitors come from European or North American countries, have different religious beliefs or practices, and are aware of the fact that the catholic religion is widespread in Latin America. However, they are grateful when the museum guides provide them with useful and accurate information, as well as detailed explanations on the uses and customs associated with items in the exhibition.

Various offerings have been introduced for local and foreign visitors with the aim of promoting culture amongst families, adolescents and children, allowing them to get involved in and feel connected to their Cathedral. These activities demonstrate how religious art contributes to culture in general by providing a special type of history that is

shared with others on a universal basis.Education is also an important objective,

and to this end various promotional rates are available for local secondary school and university students and for foreign students travelling to Peru from other countries.

The role of the mediaIn order to highlight the museum’s activities an alliance was formed with the local media to promote culture and art in a city where tourism represents a large source of financial income.

Respect is key when reaching out to an audience that seeks to learn more about a people’s art and culture. In the three years that the Cathedral Museum has been running, this principle has become

embedded in such a way that visitors tend to feel welcome and valued, and discover the beauty of religious art, without the particular belief system being imposed.

The ultimate goal of the museum in 2013 is to enhance the creativity used to present history in a way that contributes to social development. This could be achieved through continued renovation and by humbly presenting four centuries of the Arequipa people’s faith. n

Building the futureCreative methods of presenting four centuries of faith

by Patricia Chávez Indacochea, Communications Manager, Arequipa Cathedral Museum, Peru

IN FOCUS MUSEUMS (MEMORY + CREATIVITY) = SOCIAL CHANGE

Imagining the Balkans History museums in South-East Europe are working towards

an inclusive re-interpretation of their national historiesby Philippos Mazarakis-Ainian, Senior Curator, National Historical Museum, Greece

of National Museums (EUNAMUS). Two major European museums with experience in similar international projects were also involved: the Museo Nazionale del Risorgimento Italiano (Turin, Italy) and the Deutsches Historisches Museum (Berlin, Germany).

In preparing the exhibition, an object-oriented approach was taken to ensure that exclusive or diverging interpretations would not be a distraction while devising the story-line. The concepts presented have been devised through the selection and examina-tion of objects, not the other way round. The result achieved has provided confirmation that these concepts are compatible with, while not governed by, the findings of major comparative historians.

There is every hope that Imagining the Balkans: Identities and Memory in the Long 19th Century, which will tour the region and beyond for the next three years, will prove beneficial to all the participating museums, who having had the opportunity to redefine their identities and policies, will now gain in international visibility and credibility. n

The Imagining the Balkans exhibition is scheduled to be inaugurated by the Ministers of Culture of South-East Europe on 8 April, 2013, in Ljubljana, Slovenia in the presence of UNESCO Director General Irina Bokova and

S tandardised narratives of history, through competing national prisms, have for generations formed the

basis of most identities in countries around the globe. Today conditions are ripe to permit museums to rethink identities and question collective memories in a rigorous but creative way, thus promoting inclusive perceptions of ‘otherness’ within society.

As part of a strategy to encourage inter-cultural dialogue among history museums in South-East Europe on the subject of national history and identity in the region, a cooperative initiative among museums in the Balkans was launched by UNESCO in 2010. This initiative, an exhibition entitled Imagining the Balkans: Identities and Memory in the Long 19th Century, is founded on the obser-vation that the Balkans, while forming part of the European continent, display specific problems. Although these sometimes arise in an acute form, and contrary to well-established stereotypes, the premise of the exhibition is that the Balkans has been a troubled region, not because of any innate barbarism by its inhabitants, but due to major external forces. The exhibition title is derived from the groundbreaking book, Imagining the Balkans (Oxford 2009) by Maria Todorova, history professor at the University of Illinois, combined with the late historian Eric Hobsbawm’s notion of the long 19th century, during which nationalism took hold of collective identities worldwide.

It is well established that, on a global level, museums of national history have been created and often still function as levers promoting national ideals. The exhibition at tempts to develop new communication among museums, which usually hold conflicting national worldviews. Collaborative work on such issues can be decisive in establishing future transnational

communication between museums and curators and may have a positive impact on the respective visitor groups.

The exhibition tackles the different ideological, socio-political and technolog-ical leaps that were experienced worldwide during the 19th century, and which led the region from being divided among multi-ethnic, autocratic empires, to its breakdown into smaller, more homogeneous repub-lics, focusing on the nation as the primary marker of identity. The thematic and consci-entiously non-chronological approach intends to illustrate common phenomena with artefacts from all countries, and thus, by the plain juxtaposition of visually similar

and mutually recogni-sable items, highlight the commonal i t ies that govern the parallel historic evolutions of societies, which today

see themselves as disconnected. The exhibition design, by Slovenian designer Ranko Novak, underlines through a colourful scheme these commonalities in an optimistic fashion.

A collaborative effortThe project has gathered museums and universi t y professors f rom 12 dif ferent countries (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Greece, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, and Turkey), some of which are still involved in serious bilateral disagreements. Organisations that participated in a supportive and advisory capacity include ICOM and its International Committee for Exhibition Exchange (ICEE), the Council of Europe, the International Association of Museums of History (IAMH), the European Association of History Educators (EUROCLIO) and the European Project for the Evaluation

Today conditions are ripe to promote inclusive

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Respect is key when learning about

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Media coverage of the renovation of the Cathedral’s Pulpit

Representative images and objects from the exhibition, by Ranko Novak

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SPECIAL REPORT MUSEUMS AND COMMUNITIES

who come to the museum are also spending time visiting the town. “Shopkeepers are quite surprised to see tourists walking the streets and making purchases; the town is already benefiting from the museum’s arrival,” she says. To encourage visitors, entry is free for most of the museum.

Healing war woundsInvolving populations that have suffered through armed conflict or natural disasters in a museum’s programming can contribute to the healing process. The Liberation War Museum (LWM) in Bangladesh was established in 1996, largely with the help of the local community, as the nation was approaching its 25th anniver-sary of independence. Bangladesh emerged as an independent state on 16 December, 1971, following a nine-month long liberation war, where three million people were killed, 10 million had to leave the country and seek refuge in India and 300,000 women were made victims of sexual violence.

In this context, a Trustee Board took the initiative to establish a museum to remember this dark period in Bangladeshi history. Trustee Mofidul Hoque explains: “A two-story colonial house was rented for the purpose and an appeal was made to the community not only for funds, but most importantly for documents, memorabilia, artefacts, etc.”

The building is now no longer adequate to house the museum’s collection, and in 2008 LWM was allotted a piece of land in a prime location by the Bangladeshi government. It is expected that the new museum will be functional at the end of 2014.

One of the main aims of LWM is to tell the story of this period to the younger generation, to those who were born after the liberation war of 1971. To this end, the museum has organised a school outreach programme, where students from Dhaka city are provided with transport in order to visit the museum in groups. LWM has also created a mini-museum inside a long-haul bus which travels to educational institutions in remote areas, bringing history to the students.

Since 2004 an innovative history project has been added to the museum’s programming. Hoque explains: “The students who have taken this journey into history are encouraged to identify a witness from their family or neighborhood, a person who witnessed the nine-month war. The students write down what they hear and send the eye-witness accounts to LWM through their teacher.”

So far, LWM has received 20,000 eye-witness accounts and the number is growing. The museum has made a promise to all students providing accounts that each one will be preserved in the museum, in the ‘Archives of Memory’ and the student can consult it if he visits the museum even 10 or 15 years later. “LWM has been therapeutic for the victims who feel that their [oppression] has been recognised,” concludes Hoque.In Côte d’Ivoire’s economic capital, Abidjan, the cultural scene has been developing in recent years, but at a relatively slow pace compared to Senegal or South Africa. In the context of a limited art scene and a lack of visibility for Ivorian artists, Cécile Fakhoury

set up her own gallery, Galerie Cécile Fakhoury, with the aim of promoting the work of local and international artists and providing a space where they can discuss and exchange ideas.

In order to ensure greater visibility for local ar tisits, Fakhoury believes there is a need to rethink museums in the country, not necessarily in the traditional European format but by finding structured alternatives. With this in mind, she is organising a series of conferences in 2013, school visits are already taking place and actions beyond the gallery’s walls are being prepared.

“The principle is simple: invest in the long-term and reach a wide audience,” says Fakhoury. “In Abidjan, for most people, the idea of

visiting cultural venues does not come naturally, so you need to raise awareness, to explain that galleries and foundations are free spaces open to all. This last point is often overlooked. The desire to start up projects beyond bricks-and-mortar locations, literally on the street, is linked to the quest for visibility; art must be accessible for those who want it.”

But in a country recovering from a major social and economic crisis, raising awareness of art is not necessarily considered a priority.

“The public is curious and eager to see a rich cultural scene develop. [...] Art may not be seen as a priority in a country like this, but I think it’s time to act now, to propose relevant, stimulating and engaging actions. Art is a way to communicate, to offer another perspective on what’s happening in the world, and in a country like Côte d’Ivoire, provoking debate through art, to me, seems important,” she says.

Street credAs a significant street art hub, São Paulo, Brazil is a meeting point for talented graf fiti ar tists. The city’s Museum of Modern Art (MAM), which was one of the first museums to welcome street art in accordance with its mission to preserve social memory, organised a graffiti workshop to celebrate International Deaf Day, which was accessible to all audiences including people with physical and mental disabilities, those in socially vulnerable situations, and the general public. This experience will be repeated for International Museum Day 2013, when the museum will offer workshops on sidewalk drawing and a DJ set event with sign dancers and guests. MAM is just another example of Brazilian museums’ ability and willingness to actively involve their communities. Two Rio de Janeiro-based museums – Favela Museum and the Museu da Maré – have been instrumental in reconstructing local identity in the city’s favelas.

Regardless of geographical location, the possibilities for community engagement with museums are clearly numerous. By keeping the needs and wishes of its communities in mind, museums can tap into the potential that exists in engaging local resources, creativity and energy to reinforce museums’ role as advocates for social progress and harmony. n

Possibly the greatest paradigm shift in museums over the past few decades has been the notion of valuing the visitor over the collection. Museums are responding to this shift by creating spaces that connect visitors through activities that promote knowledge and opportunities for

dialogue and collaboration. At the heart of these changes is the museum’s additional need to actively respond to its communities through a variety of programmes that allow them to be active partici-pants. As educational institutions, museums have a responsibility to their communities, to focus on what is meaningful in their lives, and to demonstrate to them their importance in society. Community involvement is not only the domain of history or ecomuseums, however. All types of museums can work with communities to

identify strengths and create synergy. Community involvement can also take many forms, from participation in the development of cities and towns, to local school outreach, training programmes and co-production (see pp. 12-13).

The new Louvre museum in the northern French town of Lens is a strong example of a museum’s efforts to revitalise a town that has suffered repeated economic crises. The museum’s ambition is to inject new cultural energy into a town, which boasts one of the youngest populations in France and has its sights firmly set on the future.

Inaugurated on 4 December, 2012, it is a little too soon to estimate what impact the museum has had on the town but Catherine Ferrar, General Administrator at the Louvre-Lens, told participants at the Culture Business conference held in Paris in January that visitors

Getting involved A global perspective on how museums are engaging with communitiesby Aedín Mac Devitt

All types of museums can work with communities to

identify strengths and create synergy

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Participants in a graffiti workshop during the celebrations of International Deaf Day at MAM, São Paulo, Brazil




The term ‘community’ refers to any sized group of people who choose to identify with one another. Communities can be defined according to: geography (for example the community

of London’s Notting Hill district); culture (Pacific Islander communities); common or similar circumstances (refugee communities); social and economic conditions (socially excluded communities); or hobbies and interests (Harley Davidson owners). A museum community also exists based on shared professional interests and work context.

Principle six in the ICOM Code of Ethics for Museums acknowl-edges the need for museums to work with communities. Two forms of community are evident in this principle: ‘source’ communities and communities ‘served’.

‘Source’ communities (also known as ‘originating’ communities) are those that represent the countries, cultures, regions and faiths from which museum collections were derived. Source communities can be distant from the museum, as in Australian Torres Strait Islander communities whose cultural heritage is housed at the University of Cambridge, UK. They may also live close to the museum, as in the African Diaspora communities involved in Manchester Museum’s Myths about Race exhibition (Lynch, B. & Alberti, S., 2010).

Communities ‘served’ are those groups to which museums have a responsibility given their role as public cultural institutions. Museums ‘serve’ these communities through programmes for individual improvement, social change, access and social inclu-sion. Examples are Tyne and Wear Museums’ Making History project targeting people experiencing social exclusion, and the Greater Pollock Kist project with a public housing community in Glasgow, Scotland (Newman, A. & McLean, F., 2006).

Modern use of the term ‘community’ assumes its universal value. It is a powerful symbol of goodness, integrity and unity. However, it is important for museums to realise the complexity of the notion of community. Any individual will have multiple, possibly even conflicting, community allegiances. Community membership is often voluntary; however, it can also be assigned — for instance being part of a socially excluded community. Communities differ in terms of their resources, capacities, culture and behaviour. This diversity exists both between — and within — communities.

Co-production: an equal partnership As publically funded institutions, with a community service obliga-tion, museums may approach community participation from the perspective of co-production. Co-production requires users and professionals to work in equal partnership in order to design and deliver public services. In the context of museum and community participation co-production can be defined as museum practice

conducted jointly with communities to shape or modify an activity so that it becomes something else.

First raised in public administration spheres in the US in the 1980s, there has been a recent resurgence of interest in co-production, particularly in the UK. Part of the current emphasis on co-production is a push for reform in public services. The contribution of community wisdom and experience is seen as a way to overhaul public services, making them more effective and efficient—and therefore more valued. In the process, the capacity of both individuals and communities grows.

Within museums, ‘source’ communities bring unique knowledge and skills through their link to the intangible aspects of artefacts. They offer resources that are not necessarily available within museums. For communities ‘served’, co-production offers the redesign of museum services in ways that profoundly raise the value and public benefit they provide.

Co-production sits at the higher end of the spectrum of activity that can be classed as community participation, and is illustrated through The Making of the Galgi-ngarrak Yirranboi Tree exhibition at Museum Victoria’s Immigration Museum. The Immigration Museum worked in collaboration with members of the Hume City community to produce a temporary exhibition for museum visitors and other communi-ties. In this example the museum partnered with a community that

Creative collaborationThe promise and challenge of community involvement in museumsby Anne Kershaw, Lecturer in Arts Management, Deakin University, Australia

could be defined as both ‘source’ (given its high level of cultural diversity) and ‘served’ (acknowledging the high level of socio-economic disadvantaged individuals within the community).

Challenges and obstacles Regardless of the approach, community participation can be difficult for museums. Despite identifying examples of innovative participatory practice, Museum Consultant Dr Bernadette Lynch’s evaluation of community engagement in UK museums found: “For most of the organisations, engagement is ‘contained’ at the level of ‘consultation’ rather than ’collaboration’, and even consultation is not always what it seems’ (Lynch, B., 2010).

A f law in many participatory projects is that their impact on museum work is contained or limited. Museums commit to good commu-n i t y par t ic ipat ion processes—but the outcome of the work remains the creation of the museum alone. Lynch describes this as ‘rubber stamping’ noting: “while an illusion of creative partici-pation is on offer […] decisions tend to be coerced, or rushed through on the basis of the organisation’s agenda or strategic plan, manipulating a group consensus of what is inevitable, usual or expected. In these cases, the experience described by the community partners is frustratingly […] ‘empowerment-lite’.”

Research and evaluation of community engagement—in museums and related sectors—identifies the range of challenges this work presents. Some of these factors are external to museums: funding arrange-ments, government policy, professional standards and accreditation schemes all play a role in driving or inhibiting community participation in museums. A community’s resources, skills and aptitude will also affect their capacity to participate with museums. However, most of the factors that impinge on community participation are internal to museums: organisational policy and culture; ability to work in partnerships; and innovation and entrepreneurship.

The policy environment and organisa-tional culture in which a museum operates

have a significant influence on its capacity for community participation. The mission of a museum, its business plan and leadership team need to be committed to this type of work, understand its complexity and ensure it is properly resourced and supported.

C o m m u n i t y p a r t i c i p a t i o n a l s o requi res museums to have excellent relationship-building skills. Par t icular ly higher order forms of pa r t i c ipa t ion — co l labora t ion and co-production—require substantial trust and commitment on the part of both the museum and the community. Richard Kurin, Director Emeritus of the Smithsonian Centre for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, describes these museum skills as follows: “Cultural

brokers coordinate horizontally in webs of relationships, rather than ver tically and hierarchically through chains of command. For cultural brokers, cultural representa-

tions […] are negotiated and emergent, the result of strong knowledge, respect, a bedrock of good practice, and a lot of luck.” (Kurin, R., 1997)

Co -product ion and communi t y collaboration challenge the traditional role of museums. To embrace these ideas museums also need a capacity for change and entrepreneurship. The shift requires museum workers to evolve into facilita-tors or ‘orchestrators’ of projects, with the ability to harness community skills and coordinate complex networks or alliances.

While community participation presents many challenges and obstacles to museums, it also offers many incentives. Increased resources, greater relevance and value, and even profound social change are on offer to those museums that are flexible and respon-sive enough to work with communities. n

Co-production and community collaboration

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Kurin, R 1997, Reflections of a Culture Broker: A view from the Smithsonian, Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington.Lynch, B 2010, Whose cake is it anyway? A collaborative investigation into engagement and participation in 12 museums and galleries in the UK, Paul Hamlyn Foundation, London.Lynch, B. & Alberti, S 2010, ‘Legacies of prejudice: racism, co-production and radical trust in the museum’, Museum Management and Curatorship, vol. 25, no. 1, pp. 13-35.Newman, A. & McLean, F 2006, ‘The Impact of Museums upon Identity’, International Journal of Heritage Studies, vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 49-68.


actual number of species under threat is closer to 100 with approximately 25 species now extinct in Bangladesh. Although Bangladesh shares the world’s largest river delta, comprising the outflows of the Brahmaputra and Ganges, its river systems are rapidly being depleted by over-fishing, impacting on fish recruitment and placing many species under threat of extinc-tion. The collection of wild shrimp and prawn post-larvae for stocking in culture systems, for example, leads to an estimated 100 small fish, caught as a by-catch, being dumped for every post-larva caught. Education on sustainable fishing practices and conservation is therefore urgently needed if such deleterious practices are to stop. Fishing in Bangladesh is not, however, a recreational activity but plays a crucial role in rural subsistence, with all ages involved in fisheries-related activities. We knew how effectively education and conserva-tion initiatives could protect endangered species, as well as providing for the sustain-able management of others to meet the nutritional demands of a rapidly expanding population, but we felt there was an urgent need to promote a greater understanding

and appreciation of Bangladesh’s natural history and its vanishing aquatic resources among the local community. It was at that moment that we discovered we shared a common dream, that of establishing a museum, an open-access education

centre dealing with conser vat ion and f isher ies manage-ment and serving to raise awareness of Bangladesh’s rapidly

disappearing aquatic fauna. The conversa-tion quickened and ideas began to emerge. We talked of displaying fish in Mostafa’s office – the museum didn’t have to be big, did it?

A wonderful gift Within 18 months of that discussion, the Fish Museum and Biodiversity Center (FMBC) opened to the public in August 2010. There was heavy press attendance and a 30-minute documentary about the museum later appeared on national television in Bangladesh. It seemed fitting to establish a museum here in the university grounds, just a short walk from the river and the sanctuary. In October 2009, BAU donated a building that we could use for the purposes of establishing a museum. Thanks to our

The Brahmaputra was dying a slow death

from over-fishing

W e sat quietly by the river under the shade of an old jack fruit tree on sun-bleached plastic chairs. Two old friends savouring cups of sweet Sylheti tea sharpened with the

tang of crushed ginger. The stillness was broken by the groaning engine of a large river barge, burdened with sand dredged from the banks of the Old Brahmaputra river, which passed in a miasma of swirling diesel fumes. From our riverside vantage point, we watched the rise and fall of a small lift-net and the slow nods of buffalo grazing pasture on the distant bank as two small boys, their ages difficult to tell, fished by hand at the river’s edge, feeling carefully beneath submerged stones for fish fry and shrimp for their evening meal. It was difficult to believe that despite all the evident activity, this branch of the Brahmaputra was dying a slow death from over-fishing. A little further downstream, we could just make

out the grey bamboo stakes and bright red and yellow flags of the tiny sanctuary that we had visited earlier that afternoon. This was a fish sanctuary in its strictest sense, a protected zone for fish breeding not to be confused with other ‘sanctuaries’ resulting from the local fishing practice of submerging branches to attract insects and greedy shoals of fish, only for the latter to be harvested out at some later date. The Matshya Rani or Mermaid sanctuary had been established in 2007 by my tea-drinking companion Mostafa A.R. Hossain, Professor at the Department of Fish Biology and Genetics, Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU), with the participation of local fisher families. The aims of establishing this sanctuary were the conservation of aquatic animals in the Old Brahmaputra, the improvement of the livelihoods of the local fishermen, and a gentle introduction to the concept of conservation to the surrounding community. This small sanctuary measured only 200m x 25m, but was of a sufficient size to prevent local fishermen from gaining access to that stretch of the river.

Annual surveys assessed the recruitment of aquatic life within this sentinel site and on that March afternoon in 2009, the number found had risen from the 27 fish and crustacean species found in 2007 to 35, including the near threatened species Wallago attu. Another survey the following year would see a further increase to 42 with species like Labeo calbasu re-appearing for the first time in many years.

A shared dreamIn addition to establishing the sanctuary, Mostafa had, since 2001, been conducting a survey of Bangladesh’s fish fauna. Bangladesh reputedly has 265 freshwater fish species of which 54 are listed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as critically endangered, endangered or vulnerable. Mostafa believes the


own fundraising, five rooms were rapidly renovated and exhibits of Bangladeshi fish were tentatively displayed.

The initial response to this new museum has been overwhelming and the number of visitors continues to rise, with notable visits from Bangladeshi and foreign dignitaries. Those visiting are not only university students but parties of children of all ages and villagers from as far away as Nepal.

The museum is now not only about fish but sets out to consider all branches of natural history.

In fact, when speaking to custodians of other natural history collections, we often ask if they have any skele-

tons in their cupboards. We are not alluding to their own dark secrets though but literally asking if they have any skeletons to spare? We have the cupboards, but as the museum runs on charity, much of our free time is spent hunting down further exhibits. The local community have provided fantastic support by providing local specimens, while further specimens have come from a variety of overseas organisations. British Council Bangladesh has also played a pivotal role in supporting our activities. Talk of the museum spread quickly through the local community and soon fishermen were donating unusual specimens that they had caught in their nets such as a large, rare goonch, Bagarius bagarius, and a Ganges river dolphin, Platanista gangetica.

The Fish Museum and Biodiversity Center will be three years old in August this year and already there is talk of expanding the museum to a 10-acre site and estab-lishing a germplasm centre. Through the FMBC, we hope to inspire, support and assist in the education of millions of Bangladeshis, young and old, raising their awareness of their native fauna and of the benefits to be reaped from its proper management to ensure a rich diversity of species for all their tomorrows. n


On the banks of the BrahmaputraBangladeshis’ love of fish is reflected in the national saying Machh-e- Bhat-e-Bangali (fish and rice make a Bengali), but this love comes at a cost. The country’s indigenous aquatic species are catastrophically threatened due to increased and indiscriminate fishing practices. The newly opened Fish Museum and Biodiversity Center aims to raise public awareness of the benefits of conservation initiatives and to help educate Bangladeshis on their native fauna and its sustainable management

by Andrew Shinn, senior lecturer in aquatic parasitology at the Institute of Aquaculture, University of Stirling, UK and Mostafa A. R. Hossain, Professor in the Department of Fish Biology and Genetics, Bangladesh Agricultural University

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Bagarius bagarius (devil catfish or goonch) caught in a fisherman’s net and donated to the museum

Lift nets, common in Bangladesh, are an effective way of catching small fish



Iraq: 10 years onThe role of the military in protecting cultural heritage in conflict situations

by Peter Stone, Professor of Heritage Studies, Newcastle University, UK

The 20th of March, 2013 marks the 10th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq by the US- and UK-led Coalition.

In addition to the terrible human tragedy that followed and continues, Iraq’s cultural heritage has suffered significant devasta-tion in the intervening 10 years.

In the months leading up to the invasion archaeologists and other museum and cultural heritage experts tried to draw atten-tion to the potential damage that could be done to heritage in Iraq if its protection was not part of the Coalition’s mitigation planning. The horrendous images of the looting of museums, libraries, archives, art galleries, and archaeological sites across the country remain ingrained in many people’s minds. The theft of objects from Iraq’s museums and libraries was an appalling loss but the real catastrophe was the looting of unknown quantities of archaeological material, and the associated loss of contextual information.

I was drawn unexpectedly into these issues a few weeks before the invasion when I was approached by the UK’s Ministry of Defence to help identify archaeological sites and museums that should be protected. The approach was far too late to be really helpful but it showed the military starting to take the protection of cultural property seriously. The failure to properly protect Iraq’s cultural heritage provoked a few academics and cultural heritage experts to devote time and effort in trying to educate the military to take cultural property protection more seriously.

Ten years of activityThe first step was to investigate what had gone wrong in Iraq. As is so frequently the case, a number of things had combined to allow the cultural damage to happen;

three are particularly relevant. First, the individuals planning the invasion simply did not see cultural heritage as a priority. Second, the Coalition had insufficient troops

to effectively overcome the Saddam Hussein regime and to provide a safe environment in which a new govern-ment could develop. Cultural property protec-tion (CPP) was low on a

list of things that might have been nice to do if the resources were available, but sadly they were not. Third, and perhaps most damning, the cultural heritage community had failed to maintain the close links with the military that had saved so much European cultural property at the end of the Second World War. If we do not work with the military and tell them what is important, then how can we criticise them for allowing property to be destroyed?

of local people; second they do not allow a trade to develop in illicit antiquities, the proceeds of which are frequently reinvested by combatants into purchasing arms and ammunition to fight occupying forces.

Changes in NATO and its member states’ military doctrine since 2003 have opened the door to cultural property experts working more closely with the military; what is needed is a framework.

Four-Tier approach to CPPThe four-Tier approach starts from the premise that CPP cannot be introduced into the minds of the military or other agencies (for example, the police and customs) as a conflict develops. Rather it needs to start with long-term training

appropriate to differing ranks. This should be supported by Tier two—immediate pre-deployment training that would focus on the cultural property of the region in question. Tier three is CPP during conflict and Tier four CPP during post-conflict stabilisation. Each Tier requires different expertise and skills on the part of cultural heritage experts and greater or lesser direct military involvement. NATO is interested in adopting the approach and it provides a framework for future collabo-ration with the intention that CPP will be integrated as a core element of military planning in the future. In other words, we cannot sit back and wait for the next catas-trophe, but rather must plan to mitigate the impact of the next war. n

Since then, numerous conferences and workshops have been held and articles and books published. The primary piece of international legislation relating to CPP is the 1954 Hague Convention on the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict and its two protocols of 1954 and 1999. In 2003, of the three major combat-ants, only Iraq had ratified the Convention – and it ignored it. The USA ratified the Convention, but not the protocols, in 2009; sadly, despite a number of public state-ments committing to ratification, the UK has not yet ratified it.

The international organisation that should be leading this work, the Blue Shield, created in 1996, has grown stronger. In 2008 the Association of National Committees of the Blue Shield (ANCBS) was formed and has been able to co-ordinate activity in Germany, following the collapse of the Cologne Archive; in Haiti, following the earth-quake; and in Egypt and Libya following the revolutions there. A number of other groups with greater or lesser influence and levels of activity have sprung up, including CHAMP, an informal liaison group between interested military and the Archaeological Institute of America; Saving Antiquities for Everyone (SAFE); and the World Association for the Protection of Tangible and Intangible Cultural Heritage (WATCH). In 2009, the International Military Cultural Resources Working Group (IMCuRWG) was established to enhance military capacity to implement CPP across the full range of operations, provide a forum for international co-operation and networking for those working within the military context, identify areas of common interest, share best practices and lessons learned and raise awareness of military commitment to CPP, both tangible and intangible. To date, IMCuRWG participants are primarily from Europe, North America and the Middle East, but the group is seeking to establish a network in all regions.

The military have also begun to accept that if they protect cultural property two things happen: first, they do not lose the goodwill

Cultural property protection was low on a list of things to do if the

resources were available

Discussion of the issues surrounding the destruction of cultural property in times of conflict has become a key issue for debate around the world. Winner of the 2011 Archaeological Institute of America’s James R Wiseman Book Award, this book provides a historical statement as of 1 March, 2006 concerning the destruction

of cultural heritage in Iraq. In a series of chapters it outlines the personal stories of a number of individuals who were — and in most cases continue to be — involved. These individuals are involved at all levels, and come from various points along the political spectrum, giving a rounded and balanced perspective so easily lost in single-authored reports. It also provides the first views written by Iraqis on the situation of archaeology in Iraq under Saddam Hussein and an overview and contextualisation of the issues surrounding the looting, theft and destruction of the archaeological sites, the Iraqi National Museum and the libraries in Baghdad since the war was launched in 2003. Beyond this, it examines our attitudes towards the preservation of cultural and heritage resources and, in particular, the growing political awareness of their importance. Although related to a single conflict, taking place at a specific time in history, the relevance of this work goes far beyond these self-imposed boundaries.

The Destruction of Cultural Heritage in Iraq

Palace walls at Umma destroyed (left); Iraqi looters set up home in old excavation trenches to be near to their work and readily available for visiting dealers (right)

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by Peter G Stone and Joanne Farchakh Bajjaly (eds )Publisher: Boydell PressFirst published March 2008 (hardback); August 2009 (paperback)

HERITAGE IN DANGER ARMED CONFLICT


The brainchild of esteemed French architect, Christian de Portzamparc, Rio’s brand-new cultural complex, Cidade das Artes, will host the ICOM General Conference in August this year. Home to the Brazilian Symphony Orchestra and hailed the largest modern concert hall in South America, Cidade das Artes is an exciting new addition to Brazil’s cultural scene. Christian de Portzamparc tells

ICOM News about his ambitions for the complex and why it’s a project close to his heart

ICOM: How did you get involved in the Cidade das Artes project?Christian de Portzamparc: I was approached directly to design Cidade das Artes without entering a competition […because] I was considered a specialist in this type of project. [The commissioners] then took me to the site in a helicopter without revealing its location. We flew around Corcovado heading toward the West Zone and I saw a large triangle, which was a motorway interchange. “That’s it,” they announced.

ICOM: Were you already familiar with the Barra da Tijuca district?CdP: I knew that it was a large new district. I knew the long motorway and the town that had developed over 20 years, with large industrial parks, private residences, offices, shopping centres, etc. The area has developed very quickly but its urban design isn’t terribly attractive. You need a chip card to enter the neighbourhoods, and if you forget the newspaper or bread, you have to take the car and get back on the motorway to run to the shopping centre. This type of urban planning has the flaws of the era, which are extremely difficult to correct. The surrounding residents said to me, “it’s wonderful that you’re doing something here”. But in the beginning, I admit that I thought [the site] was a bit kitsch.

ICOM: What attracted you to the project?CdP: I realised that it was important to bring something different to the area, that the land was free and it was a vast empty space belonging to the city. The mayor [at the time, Cesar Maia] wanted

it to be a cultural space representing the community, but nothing administrative. There had been no public investment in the district for 20 years, and he had the bright idea of saying that a symbol of civic life was needed. The fact that the venue is devoted to music was also important for me. When I got to the site, I saw a hill and climbed up right away. From 10 metres up, the sea and the mountains are visible and all of a sudden, the area is beautiful. So I said to myself, it’s essential that visitors are brought 10 metres high. On ground level, you’re surrounded by cars. But 10 metres up, you’re back to Rio’s stunning scenery. It allows you to appreciate the area in a new way, and it becomes almost beautiful.

ICOM: What were your ambitions for the project?CdP: I started off making a “perforated brick” – a space in which cavities were dug, creating a contrast between the pure volume and the cavities scattered within. Large concert halls have to form closed spaces for acoustic reasons, but I didn’t want everything to be closed; I also wanted the venue to be open to the public. I raised the site to a height of 10 metres, then decided that it should be raised to 30 metres. There’s a veranda, the concert halls, and between the halls, a 20 metre-high terrace. You can see far into the distance from there. There’s the possibility to see and be seen – and therefore, the idea of fullness and void.And below, there’s a sculpture garden, a cooling space with water passing through. The garden also offers an invitation to stroll and spend the afternoon there. To my mind, the site is not only designed for attending concerts. I also planned a bar and a restaurant, which have yet to open, and the site will house the Barra library and three art-house cinemas.

ICOM: What do you think of the ICOM General Conference being hosted at the venue? CdP: I’m delighted that this event is being held there.This project is one of the major undertakings in my life. I’ve done many things and there are many projects that I love. Cidade das Artes was a challenging endeavour, but the site also led me to do something truly exceptional.ICOM choosing to come here is a great thing for the project. Your event and others of such calibre [strengthen] the city’s image.

Rio 2013As the date of the ICOM General Conference approaches, this issue highlights the high-profile venue,Cidade das Artes, and provides tips on how to get the best out of the event

PROGRAMME HIGHLIGHT

Plan your participation in advance

• Registration is open on the conference website: http://rio2013.icom.museum;

• A limited number of rooms near the conference venue at preferential rates are reserved for conference participants;

• The programme is regularly updated on the conference website;

• Events tickets are sold on a first-come, first-served basis.

Explore what Rio and Brazil have to offer

• Choose an itinerary for the Excursion Day: museums and other cultural sites, walking tour of the city, etc.;

• Extend your stay in Brazil by choosing from the pre- and post-conference tours.

Examine the conference programme to spot events of greatest interest to you

• Choose from the meetings and activities of ICOM’s 31 International Committees;

• “Jump” from one session to another to be sure to attend one on the exact topic that interests you;

• Attend the keynote speeches every day following lively discussions in small groups, embrace visionary and provocative insights and begin another conference day full of ideas.

Meet as many people as possible, outside of the meeting rooms

• Register for networking sessions: thematic lunches, receptions by National Committees, etc.;

• Make new contacts everywhere: during coffee breaks, lunch breaks, even in queues…;

• Don’t visit the city alone, explore it with fellow-participants.

• High-profile speakers providing insights on multidisciplinary subjects concerning the international museum community;

• Scientific discussions among ICOM’s 31 International Committees, who debate the conference theme;

• A Museum Trade and Institutional Fair where suppliers and museums showcase their latest projects and products;

• Informal networking events promoting dialogue and exchange among fellow professionals;

• Cultural activities to discover and explore the treasures of Rio de Janeiro and Brazil;

• Administrative sessions to summarise and evaluate the actions conducted over the past three-year period and to initiate the new working term.

HOW TO MAKE THE MOST OF YOUR ICOM GENERAL CONFERENCE EXPERIENCE

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N°1 2013 | ICOMNEWS 2120 ICOMNEWS | N°1 2013

T he theme for this year’s event is the same as that of ICOM’s triennial General Conference in

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: Museums (Memory + Creativity) = Social Change. This truly optimistic theme in the form of an equation gathers several concepts that are essential to defining what a museum is today, highlighting the universal nature of those institutions and their positive influence on society. It summarises the complexity of museum tasks and recalls their remit to contribute to community development and unity.

To help museums organise the event and develop an activity programme linked with the theme, ICOM suggests five sub-themes:• Informal education structures Museums educate in a recreational

way; they are places of initiation without obligation that foster knowledge through continually renewed means.

• A social space rooted in its territory Museums play a role in the identity

and dynamism of their ter r i tor y. Through their action, they contribute to promoting the past of their territory and building its future.

• An intergenerational link Museums keep the relationship between

a community and its history alive. They are spaces for dialogue between generations.

• Displaying heritage in a modern way Museums have quickly seized the communication opportunities offered by new media and have broken away from the old-fashioned image they once had.

• Innovative practices for better conservation

Conservation devices are improving and the museum is becoming a real laboratory where work techniques continue to evolve.

For the third year in a row, ICOM is a patron of the European Night of Museums, which is held every year on the Saturday closest to International Museum Day. In 2013, the events will coincide since the European Night of Museums will take place on Saturday 18 May, on the same day as International Museum Day. Furthermore, ICOM is partnering with UNESCO’s Memory of the World Programme, which is devoted to the preservation of the world’s documentary

heritage, proving that both share the same conviction on the importance of digitisation to facilitate access to documentation.

Museums willing to participate in the event will find tools and documents on the IMD website: http://imd.icom.museum. The customisable poster, postcard and page banner are also available in more than 30 languages, and a preparation kit can be downloaded, which provides useful information for museums wishing to organise activities on the day. The event is now also on Facebook (International Museum Day) and Twitter (#JIM2013 and #IMD2013). All participating museums are therefore inv i ted to send their programmes to [email protected]. This will allow us to communicate on the events worldwide. After the event, be sure to send us by e-mail photos or media articles on the topic, allowing us to spread your achievements and announce the next edition.

We count on your participation to make this cultural event, once again, a rousing, dynamic and unifying moment and we wish you a very happy International Museum Day 2013! n

International Museum Day will once again take place this year around 18 May. The event aims to raise public awareness on the importance of museums in the development of society. In 2012, some 32,000 museums from 129 countries on the five continents participated in the event

International Museum Day 2013Museums (Memory + Creativity) = Social Change

Memories of the Border, Exiles, Internments and Humanitarian Help was the theme of the annual meeting of the ICOM International Committee for Memorial Museums in Remembrance of the Victims of Public Crimes (IC MEMO) held on 7-9 November, 2012 in Perpignan, France.

Organised under the leadership of Chair Jon Reitan, and in cooperation with several French and Spanish partner institutions, the meeting was centred on museums and memorial sites in the French-Spanish border region of the Pyrénées orientales, which has been particularly marked by National Socialism and the Vichy and Franco regimes.

Denis Peschanski, project manager of the memorial site Camp de Rivesaltes, and his colleague Nathalie Fourcade, presented in several phases the camp’s history in the context of the 20th century.

The camp, which is situated near the French town of Perpignan, is currently under construction and will be transformed into a national memorial site by architect Rudy Riciotti, with the opening scheduled for 2015. Initially it served as a transit casern for French colonial troops and from 1939 became a detention centre for Spanish civil war refugees.

During World War II, German, Austrian and Polish Jews, Sinti, Roma and other “undesirable” groups were sent to the camp. Following the decision to deport 10,000 Jews in the summer of 1942, Rivesaltes became a collective camp for the deportation of Jewish internees from the “free zone” via Drancy (near Paris) to Auschwitz. Following the Algerian war (1954-1962), Rivesaltes then served as an assimilation camp for several thousand Harkis (Algerians supporting French presence in Algeria during the war) and their families.

Denis Peschanski emphasised the fact that the camps do not feature prominently in the French collective memory, and spoke about the notion of Memorialisation,

IC MEMO annual meeting

ICOM COMMUNITY

which meant that priority was given to those groups that could easily be integrated into collective memory: the heroes of the French résistance, for instance, or victims represented as Jews, but not Spanish refugees who, until the recent past, were considered a fifth column, a group of people who undermine a larger power in favour of a foreign one, in this case communism. When questioned about the future significance of the emerging memorial site, Denis Peschanski argued that it was part of a bigger development project to raise awareness and provide facts on a long-neglected part of history.

Across the border, in Spain, creating a collective memory of the civil war and the Franco regime was complex, unwanted even. According to Iratxe Momoitio Astorkia, Director of the Guernica Peace Museum, the Spanish town of Guernica became a national icon following its destruction by the Condor Legion in 1937. However, civil war, mass exodus and Francoism today remain taboo. Both Jordi Guixé, Barcelona University, and Jordi Font Agulló, Director

of the Museu Memorial de l’Exili in La Jonquera, see few opportunities for an open and self-critical culture of memory in the country.

Meanwhile, a presentation by Dr Eric Villargordo of the University of Montpellier, provided new perspectives, looking at the specific role that art can play in creating historical and cultural memory. He also presented the long-forgotten photographs of Manuel Moros, which, in compelling black-and-white images, plainly illustrate the human suffering during the Retirada, the exodus of Spanish civil war soldiers across the Pyrenees.

The annual meeting of IC MEMO featured high-level and constructive intellectual dialogue between 30 museum professionals from Europe, the US and Japan. The meeting demonstrated the importance of intercultural exchange. n

For a detailed conference repor t (in English): www.gedenkstaet tenforum.de/fileadmin/forum/Projekte/2013/Perpignan_2012.pdf

by Prof. Dr. Rosmarie Beier-de Haan, Head of Collections and Exhibition Curator, German Historical Museum, Berlin

1- Bulgaria – Plovdiv Regional History Museum: workshops for children; 2- South Africa – Durban Natural Science Museum: museum visits for students; 3- Moldova – National Museum of History: organised workshops; 4- Cameroon – Musée des civilisations, Dschang: school museum clubs

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Excursion to Camp de Rivesaltes Memorial Site

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ICOM International Committee for Museums and Collections of Science and TechnologyTechnical museums as guardians and educators: proceedings of the CIMUSET Conference, 6-10.6.2011, held at the Tech-nical Museum in Brno, Czech Republic. CIMUSET; Marie Gilbertová (ed.). Brno: Technical Museum in Brno, 2012. 76 p., ill. ISBN 978-80-8641-388-4 The ICOM International Committee for Museums and Collections of Science and

Technology (CIMUSET) has published the proceedings of its 39th annualconference, held in Brno (Czech Republic) in June 2011. The conference focused on the educational role of technical museums by looking at their history and relationship with visitors. Participants thus examined the history of these institutions and conservation methods for technical and scientific heritage, as well as the future of technical museums and dis-covery centres, and the challenges faced in carrying out their mission for the public, particularly younger visitors. Order from: [email protected]

ICOM International Committee for Regional MuseumsRegional museums and the post-industrial age / Susan E. Hanna (editor in chief); Goranka Horjan (foreword) Metka Fujs (photographs). Murska Sobota: Regional Museum for the ICOM International Commit-tee for Regional Museums (ICR), 2012. 129 p., ill. ISBN 978-961-6579-18-6 During its 2008 annual meeting, held in Pitts-burgh and Johnstown (US), ICR asked partici-pants to study three questions: what strategies must regional museums adopt to be devel-oped in a globalised economy? How might regional museums encourage communities to get involved in the study and preservation of cultural and physical landscapes undergoing transfor-mation? What does the future hold for regional museums? This publication brings together the work presented during this meeting, divided into three categories: sustainable development; challenges and achievements; and the future of regional museums.Order from: Otto Lohr, [email protected]

Available online: http://network.icom.museum/fileadmin/user_upload/minisites/icr/pdf/PostIndustrialAgeKNJ-web.pdf

National Gallery of IrelandThe challenges facing museums on-site and online in the 21st century and Future forecasting: the challenges facing museums and cultural institutions. Proceedings of the roundtable and symposium. / Marie Bourke (ed.). Dublin: The National Gallery of Ireland, 2012. 115 p., ill. (National Gallery of Ireland Series; 9 & 10). ISBN 978-1-904288-45-9 This publication brings together the pro-ceedings of the roundtable and sympo-

sium organised by the National Gallery of Ireland in 2011 and 2012 on the challenges facing museums in today’s context. Given the economic crisis affecting Ireland and the world, cultural institutions must display creativity and find new resources, notably with the help of publications, online services and special events. Museums need to innovate in order to adapt to the demographic evolution of the public as well as the new tools available, including digital media and online sharing platforms. Emphasis is placed on the fact that online live streaming of events and social network coverage have expanded their scope, increasing the number of virtual par-ticipants, and giving them the opportunity to interact with speakers. Order from: National Gallery of Ireland, [email protected]

Available online: http://www.nationalgallery.ie/en/Learning/Lifelong_Learn-ing/~/media/Files/Education/roundtable_symposium.ashx

PUBLICATIONS

Review by Léontine Meijer-van Mensch, lecturer in heritage theory and professional ethics at the Reinwardt Academy, the Netherlands

day professional museological conduct. The museum as an institu-tion and the collecting function have gone through some fundamental changes in recent years; museum collecting is therefore not so mainstream and stuck in 19th-century paradigms as the editors of this publication would have us believe.

Extreme Collecting is made up of three parts. The first few articles deal with difficult topics, such as objects from the Holocaust and human remains. The second part reflects on the future historical importance of contemporary mass-produced goods. The rather eclectic third section deals with extreme matters, ranging from plastic objects to the “extreme” method of time-capsule collecting. Despite the large variety of articles, and a resulting lack of focus, the contributions are interesting and worthwhile. One gem is Robert Opie, collector of cans and founder of the Museum of Brands, Packaging and Advertising in London, in conversa-tion with J.C.H. King. In this almost poetic interview the future importance of contemporary collecting to society becomes very clear, as do the implications for conservation in the future due to the unstable nature of objects. Most striking is the emphasis placed on the importance of private “extreme” collectors. The collecting profession has always needed, and still needs, such alternative souls that have fallen in love with objects. This very-British publication would have benefited from case-studies embed-ded in a more international discourse, but Extreme Collecting is neverthe-less a must-read for every museum professional and student.

Extreme collecting: challenging practices for 21st century museumsEdited by Graeme Were and J. C. H. KingPublisher: Berghahn Books

espite the diversity of muse-ums, in terms of content and appearance, there is one

common denominator: the collection. Extreme collecting: challenging practices for 21st century museums is therefore in essence a must-read publication for today’s museum professionals. The publication, which came about following a series of four workshops organised by the British Museum in 2008, supported by the The Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), consists of theoreti-cal and practical articles that explore the processes of collecting “which challenge the bounds of normally acceptable practice”. The contribu-tions reflect on collecting practices that are considered non-standard, hence “extreme collecting”. But how can we define acceptable and mainstream collecting? The book’s description of a “normally accept-able collecting practice” feels out of sync with recent developments in the international museum field and contemporary collecting practices. The book reflects on collections and collecting practices from a critical museological perspective and editors Graeme Were and J.C.H. King share their knowledge of this critical discourse. There is a consensus today that reflective and critical museum practice is one of the most important cornerstones of present-

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