This year's museum workers' field trip was entitled What is the point? Transformation in museum work and took place from 2nd to 4th October in Akureyri. The professional conference for museum workers is both a forum for discussions about what is most important in museum work, but also an opportunity for further education. At this 36th FÍSOS Travel School, there wasA varied program is available.
Museum staff are always looking for ways to meet new challenges in an ever-changing society and find ways to ensure public access to cultural heritage. The museum environment has changed dramatically in recent years, including the new reality of technology that is overwhelming in our time. But this also includes new opportunities that need to be explored and understood, for example, how can artificial intelligence be used in museum work? This was one of the topics on the agenda of the Farskólinn this time in the numerous talks, workshops, panels and professional groups that were offered. Not to forget the great entertainment and tours of the Akureyri museums.
The main program of the Farskólinn took place in Hof and among the first speakers was Dagrún Ósk Jónsdóttir, an employee of FÍSOS, with the talk Museum attendance – what is the vision of museum staff?There, Dagrún discussed, among other things, the project The 2024 Museum Visit which concerns how to raise awareness of the important work that is done in museums, and during the year four workshops were held across the country. Museum staff from each region were invited to the meetings to discuss and make decisions, and the discussions and ideas that emerged at the meetings were presented by Dagrún in her lecture, and subsequently a museum interest group was established.
A panel discussion with the directors of the main museums discussed the role of the main museums and where the museum work is headed, immediately followed by General Meeting of FÍSOS.
One of the world's largest ratified treaties, United Nations Global Goals, was introduced by the President of the United Nations Association, Eva Harðardóttir, and museum professionals were encouraged to reflect on global citizenship. Þóra Björk Ólafsdóttir, Director of the Museum Council, reviewed Museum Council Action Plan and how numerous functions are related
The Sustainable Development Goals in both direct and indirect ways. Sverrir Heiðar Davíðsson, a software engineer at Reykjavík Energy, led the museum visitors in the truth about artificial intelligence and what the solutions that artificial intelligence could bring to museum work are. New Sarpur - rush for a new Sarpur Ágústa Kristófersdóttir's lecture, which museum professionals are eagerly inviting to try, was called Inclusion: The Dream and the Reality, and Sigurjón Baldur Hafsteinsson, professor of museum studies at the University of Iceland, reflected on the concept of inclusion in his talk Inclusion: The Dream and the Reality.
MOI – self-assessment for museums was introduced by Klárá Þórhallsdóttir, a specialist at the Museum Council, and is a practical tool for museums to conduct self-assessment work and can be found on the Museum Council's website. Digital facial recognition of photographs is one of the major technological advances that museums can take advantage of, and Hörður Geirsson, curator of photography at the Akureyri Museum, discussed the possibilities there in the field of photography museums. In the talk Cloud cities of the future Þóra Sigríður Ingólfsdóttir, curator of the Icelandic Film Museum, and Gunnþóra Halldórsdóttir, project manager for preservation, discussed the collection, which is a difficult task to preserve, as the collection spans different technological periods in history that require a variety of solutions. Ragnheiður Vignisdóttir spoke about the project Visual acuity – training in visual literacy at the National Gallery of Iceland, and this was accompanied by the publication of educational materials that are an important bridge into the school system.
There were so many other interesting things on offer besides all the workshops that took place throughout the town where museum professionals could share their advice on numerous professional areas of museum work.
The Museum Council, together with Nathalie Jacqueminet, curator, and Björk Hólm, director of the Dalvík Regional Museum, held a workshop and presentation on emergency response plans and newly published guidelinesVarious aspects of contingency planning were discussed, as it is a multifaceted discussion that affects all areas of museum work.
Museums in Akureyri were of course visited, including: Akureyri Museum, Industrial Museum, Icelandic Aviation Museum, Akureyri Art Museum etc. You can view the full program here. here.
It is safe to say that an ambitious Farskóli is behind us with 17 talks and 19 workshops and that the participants benefited from the diversity and certainly that new ideas were created about how museums can deal with the ever-changing society in which they live and move. In museums we learn about ourselves, where we come from and what soil we are shaped from. Museums also tell about their contemporary times, but at the same time as they reflect the past, they can also be like a map for the future because museums are a good platform for connecting all groups in society.
