Minutes of the 36th meeting of the Museum Council, January 13, 2005, 11:30-13:00,
National Gallery of Iceland, Laufásvegur 12, 101 Reykjavík
Present were: Ólafur Kvaran, Margrét Hallgrímsdóttir, Sigrún Ásta Jónsdóttir, Álfheiður Ingadóttir, Jónína A. Sanders and Rakel Halldórsdóttir.
Jóhann Ásmundsson, former member of the Museum Council, who died on December 31, 2004, was remembered at the beginning of the meeting. Jóhann was chairman of the Association of Icelandic Museums and Collectors and was a member of the Museum Council from April 3, 2002 until his death.
1. Minutes of the 35th meeting signed.
2. Report of the Managing Director. Applications are being processed, and a considerable group still has to submit some of the supporting documents with their applications. The 2005 service agreement with the National Gallery of Iceland has been signed, which is a similar agreement to that for 2004. A draft budget was presented. In 2005, a somewhat more extensive campaign to strengthen Icelandic museum work financially and professionally is expected than in recent years. One major symposium is expected during the year and the publication of the Museum Council's annual report for 2004, along with professional articles on museum affairs.
3. Presentation from the Icelandic Tourism Association. The presentation was forwarded by the Ministry of Education and Culture and discusses the Icelandic Tourism Association's idea of extending the peak season in tourism. The Museum Council believes that this is an issue that each museum institution must take a position on and that the Icelandic Tourism Association should work towards that end.
4. European Museum of the Year Award 2006. It was unanimously agreed to nominate the National Museum of Iceland for the 2006 European Council of Museums competition, for the successful restructuring and redesign of exhibitions and activities. MH, the National Museums Commissioner, did not participate in the decision-making process.
It was agreed that the Board of Directors will develop a process for the annual nomination before the next meeting. The process is based on the search for nominations beginning in the fall and the idea of seeking potential candidates from the Association of Icelandic Museums and Archivists, the Icelandic Section of ICOM and the main museums.
5. Humar öðar fréðð's Articles of Association. In accordance with the request of the representatives of Humar öðar fréðð, the Museum Council took a position on whether the provisions in the Humar öðar fréððð's Articles of Association were sufficient to allow the institution's operating form to be recognized as a museum, but the institution is run by Smekkleysa SM, which is a private limited company. In accordance with the Articles of Association of the International Council of Museums, ICOM, profits from the activities of a museum shall be used to develop the museum, and the Museum Council has therefore questioned whether the private limited company form is suitable for the operation of a museum. The Museum Council comments on Article 10 of the Humar öðar fréðððð's Articles of Association, which states that the board of Smekkleysa SM ehf. shall determine how the collection will be disposed of if the museum is closed down. The Museum Council agreed that in order to recognize the operating form, Article 10 would have to be amended in such a way that it would state that the collection would be placed in another museum if the museum is closed down. The Council considered that the current provisions of Article 10 conflict with Article 3, which states that all profits shall be used undividedly to develop the museum. The Council agreed that the current operating form was adequate for the museum's operations in accordance with Article 3, provided that Article 10 was amended in accordance with the Council's proposal. This agreement does not change the fact that Humar ór fðrðð has not been considered to fall under the Museums Act as a museum. The Council will take a position on this later.
6. Amendments to the Museums Act No. 106/2001.
The Museum Council is preparing a formal report to be sent to the Ministry of Education, in which the Council specifies which issues need special emphasis regarding the revision of the Museum Act. The Minister of Culture will check with the Ministry when the matter will be formally taken up by the Ministry. It was agreed that discussion on the matter should continue at the next meeting.
7. Minimum requirements for museum operations that meet Article 4 of the Museums Act. This is a draft of the Museums Council's definitions of the concepts of the Museums Act and professional museum work. The draft will be examined in more detail in accordance with the legal basis (a meeting will be held with Ragnheiður H. Þórarinsdóttir for that purpose). More reference will be made to laws and regulations, for example regarding accessibility and building facilities. Accessibility issues were discussed in this context and it was agreed that the Minister of Culture would inquire about this with the ÖBÍ process committee about the status of the Nordic project on accessibility in Iceland.
8th Museum Council Symposium 2005 on museum policy and cultural policy.
ÓK presented ideas for the symposium. It will be an Icelandic-Nordic symposium and speakers will be drawn from the other Nordic countries. The focus will be mainly on political power and the topic of discussion will primarily be information about and analysis of the societal role and value of museums.
The role and value of museums is narrowly defined in Iceland and is often tied to ethnicity. However, emphasis should be placed on the role of museums in creating modern welfare for society. One of the goals should be to demonstrate that current funding for Icelandic museums is too low.
It is intended that invitations to the symposium will be sent out in April. The symposium agenda will include representatives of the central government and municipalities that have policy-making authority over budgets, such as the Budget Committee, the Education Committee and the Association of Icelandic Municipalities, and will request that these parties outline the policy of the relevant committee/association with regard to museum work in Iceland.
9. The salary of the Managing Director, who has now worked for almost two years at the Museum Council, was discussed. The Managing Director withdrew from the meeting. A new salary range for the Managing Director was approved.
10. Next meeting and other matters.
The next scheduled meeting is January 27th.
There was no further discussion and the meeting adjourned at 1:00 PM/RH.