127th Museum Council Meeting

November 19, 2013, 12:30-2:30 PM 

in a meeting room on the 6th floor of the National Museum of Iceland

Present: Ólafur Kvaran, chairman, Ragna Árnadóttir, Guðbrandur Benediktsson, Haraldur Þór Egilsson (via computer), Sigríður Björk Jónsdóttir, Hilmar Malmquist, Margrét Hallgrímsdóttir, Halldór Björn Runólfsson and Ágústa Kristófersdóttir, executive director.

Minutes of the 126th meeting reviewed and approved.

Presentation case

  1. Press release regarding the appointment of the Director of the Museum Board, submitted and approved.
  2. Museum policy in the field of fine arts – Halldór Björn Runólfsson presented the status of the LÍ's policy. There was a general discussion about the policy of the main museums and the Museum Council. It was agreed that a proposal for a work process for the development of a joint museum policy for the main museums will be submitted before the next meeting of the Museum Council.
  3. A summary of the activities since the last meeting, reporting on work on the application form which is now available on the council's website.
  4. Status of the accreditation process, review of the collections that have submitted applications for accreditation. Approved that the Director General request additional documents from those applicants who did not submit the requested documents and grant a deadline of November 29th to submit them.
  5. The status of the museum fund was reviewed.
  6. The status of the policy work following a consultation meeting with museum staff was presented. A draft policy will be presented at the next meeting of the council.
  7. It was announced that the Museum Council's 2014 project plan will be presented at the next meeting of the council.

 

Matter for decision

  1. Approved to extend the application deadline for the museum fund to December 31st.
  2. Proposal for text for a museum recognition label submitted and approved.
  3. An application for a change in the use of a grant from the Hafnarfjörður Museum was submitted. The request was rejected. (SBH withdrew from the meeting during the handling of the case)
  4. An application for a change in the use of a grant from the Kópavogur Natural History Institute was submitted. The request was rejected. (The Ministry of Culture withdrew from the meeting during the handling of the case)
  5. A request from the Icelandic Film Museum to consider Act No. 137/2001 as the museum's charter has been submitted. It was agreed to recommend to the Icelandic Film Museum that it approve amendments to the Act, for example in the form of a regulation, which would include the missing elements so that the Act meets the Museum Board's requirements regarding the content of charters.
  6. Request from the City of Reykjavík for comment on the merger of museums submitted. Agreed that the Council not provide comment on the proposal but refer to the National Museum of Iceland, the main museum in the field of cultural heritage. (GB withdrew from the meeting during the handling of the matter)
  7. Proposal for the handling of charters submitted. Approved that the Museum Council will be responsible for publishing the charters of those museums that receive recognition according to the Museums Act in Section B of the Government Gazette. Any costs incurred will be paid from the museum fund.

 Other issues:

Proposal that the next meeting be held on December 17th from 12:00-16:00

 HM asked whether the Museum Council had discussed proposal no. 36 from the government's rationalization group on the merger of museum institutions. ÓK responded that the Council had not done so, and that it would not do so unless a formal request for comment was received from the government.

No further discussion and the meeting adjourned at 2:30 PM.