226th Board of Trustees Meeting

Monday, October 9, 2023, from 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM
Meeting Location: National Museum, 41 Suðurgata 

Present: Vilhjálmur Bjarnason, Chair; Gunnhildur Ásta Guðmundsdóttir, Vice Chair; Helga Lára Þorsteinsdóttir; Inga Lára Baldvinsdóttir; and Hlynur Hallsson.  

Representing the main museums, the following attended the meeting: for the National Gallery of Iceland, Ingibjörg Jóhannsdóttir; for the National Museum of Iceland, Harpa Þórsdóttir. The National Museum of Natural History of Iceland did not send a representative. 

Staff of the Board of Trustees: Þóra Björk Ólafsdóttir, Executive Director, who is recording the minutes.

1. Matter for presentation

  1. Overview of the council's activities since the last meeting.  
  2. The funding for the museum fund and the museum council was presented and discussed in the 2024 budget bill.  
  3. All Icelandic data from the MOI! project have been added to the museum council's website. The evaluation framework will be presented to museums in the coming months. 
  4. Applications for the 2024 main distribution of the museum fund opened on September 15th, and the deadline for applications is November 1st. The call has been advertised in Morgunblaðið and Heimildin, as well as through Facebook ads, and reminders about the deadline will be sent regularly via email.  
  5. The next steps in the action plan for the Strategic Plan for Collection Activities and the budget for certain of its elements were discussed. The plan will be published and presented soon. 
  6. The focus of a consultation meeting with the Minister of Culture was more on planning. 
  7. A response from the Industrial Museum was discussed regarding the matter the museum board sent to the museum last April following the inspection of accredited museums. 
  8. A response from the Municipality of Kópavogur and the director of the Kópavogur Natural History Museum was discussed, regarding a matter the museum board sent concerning the future of the Kópavogur Natural History Museum. 

2. Matters for Decision

  1. The timeline for the 2023 supplemental allocation was approved. Applications will open no later than October 23 and the application deadline will be November 30. 
  2. An application for museum accreditation was received from one museum. The Museum Council agreed on a recommendation that will be sent to the Minister of Culture for a decision.  
  3. Four supervisory reports were approved. These are visit reports from the Bustarfell Folk Museum, the Eastland Museum, the Skógar Folk Museum, and Sagnheimar in Vestmannaeyjar. 

3. Other matters

  • The matter of a single accredited museum was discussed, and the time for the 227th Council of Museums meeting was set.
     

 

Meeting adjourned at 12:30 p.m. /THB