At the beginning of the summer, on June 25th, the annual consultation meeting of the Minister of Culture, Innovation and Higher Education and professional associations of museum workers took place at the premises of the Museum Council at Austurstræti 5.
A consultation meeting is a one- to two-hour local meeting that is usually called once a year and is intended to discuss issues related to museum work. The meeting is held in accordance with Article 7 of the Museums Act No. 141/2011 which the Museum Council shall convene annually with the Minister of Culture and representatives of the main museums, as well as the professional associations involved in the work of the museums operating under the Museums Act. The first consultation meeting between the Minister of Culture and the professional associations of museum work was held in November 2024, and this is therefore the second consultation meeting.
The following professional associations and institutions received invitations to the meeting: The Association of Archaeologists, The Association of Icelandic Naturalists, The Association of Icelandic Museum Experts, The Association of Folklore Scholars in Iceland, FÍSOS, The Association of Icelandic Museums and Museum Professionals, The Icelandic Department of ICOM, The National Gallery of Iceland plus its staff association, The Icelandic Art Society, The Department of Museum Studies at the University of Iceland, The Icelandic Museum of Natural History plus its staff association, NKF-Iceland – The Association of Nordic Preservatives in Iceland, The Museum Council, and its staff, The Icelandic Historians, SÍM – The Association of Icelandic Visual Artists, The Icelandic National Museum plus its staff association.
Logi Einarsson, Minister, Sigrún Brynja Einarsdóttir, Secretary of State, Arna Kristín Einarsdóttir, Director of the Office of Culture and Creative Industries, Halla Jónsdóttir, Assistant to the Minister, Vilhelmína Jónsdóttir and Hildur Jörundsdóttir, experts at the Office of Culture and Creative Industries.
The meeting was chaired by Þóra Björk Ólafsdóttir, Executive Director of the Museum Council, and Klara Þórhallsdóttir, a specialist in the Museum Council's office, wrote the minutes. The Museum Council was represented by Vilhjálmur Bjarnason, Chairman, Gunnhildur Ásta Guðmundsdóttir, Vice Chairman, Hlynur Hallsson, Guðrún Dröfn Whitehead and Jóhanna Erla Pálmadóttir.
Þóra Björk Ólafsdóttir, Director of the Museum Council, opened the meeting and welcomed the attendees. This was the first consultation meeting of the current Minister and the second consultation meeting that has been held. The meeting had an informal agenda, but the Minister opened the meeting with a presentation. Logi Einarsson, Minister, opened the meeting with a presentation. In it, he expressed his pleasure to take stock of the situation in the museum sector and to have a direct conversation with the professional associations and institutions at this consultation meeting. He discussed that the Ministry makes strategic decisions on the framework for museum work but does not participate in individual decisions or projects of the institutions. He believes that it is a common goal and goal of everyone at the meeting that professional museum work thrives here and that its framework is as good as possible at any given time. In his presentation, the Minister outlined various projects that are in progress within the Ministry.