Minutes of the 4th meeting of the Museum Council, at Lyngás 7, Garðabær,
February 22, 2002, at 1:00 PM.
Present were Anna Guðný Ásgeirsdóttir, Margrét Hallgrímsdóttir, Gísli Sverrir Árnason, Álfheiður Ingadóttir (attended the first half of the meeting), Jón Gunnar Ottósson (attended the second half of the meeting), Ólafur Kvaran, Jóhann Ásmundsson (secretary), Thorgeir Olafsson was absent.
Agenda:
Documents distributed (minutes of the last meeting, proposals for allocations from the museum fund, 3rd draft of the allocation rules for the museum fund).
First team According to the agenda, the 'Draft Regulations' was postponed due to the absence of ÞÓ.
Other teams The agenda item "Draft allocation rules for the museum fund and application form" was postponed.
Third item. Presentation by directors of the collections in the respective fields (OK, MH, JBG)
MH presented the collections in the field of heritage preservation and reported on the work of the steering group on the 2002-2007 museum policy for that sector.
The main objective of that work is to:
· Increase the professionalism of the museums in all their areas of operation.
· Reduce the professional isolation of museum staff and increase collaboration among museums.
· Better utilize limited funds.
Increase the operating funds of the museums by all available means.
For reference, there is a report from the Ministry of Transport on cultural tourism, which considers the activities of museums to be very important for the development of this type of tourism.
The task force's role is to draft a report, which will then be presented to municipal officials and museum staff across the country. After that series of meetings, the report will be finalized and submitted.
MH mentioned that there are about 60 museums in the country, which can be divided into three main categories: folk museums, specialized museums, and museum exhibits.
ÁI and JGB discussed natural history museums. According to the Museums Act, it is provided that the National Museum of Natural History of Iceland will serve as the lead museum in the field of natural history. That museum has not yet been established, but the Icelandic Museum of Natural History is serving as the head museum of natural history on a temporary basis, or until the National Museum of Natural History of Iceland is up and running. The Natural History Museum of Iceland is the exhibition arm of the institute, and the institute also operates the Akureyri Natural History Museum, which is owned by the City of Akureyri. The National Museum of Natural History has a much broader role than in the museum sector, in accordance with the law on the National Museum of Natural History. However, according to the law, the institution is required to support the development of exhibition museums dedicated to natural history.
Within the framework of the Natural History Institute are so-called Nature Centers, which can consist of up to five centers in each quarter, each with its own independent budget. The institutes are not museums, but they serve a role similar to that of the National Museum of Natural History, except they are local.
AI submitted a list of several natural history museums, but a complete list of them has not been compiled.
ÓK reported on the status of the National Gallery of Iceland. The museum is beginning to tackle a new role in accordance with new legislation as the lead institution in the field of art museums, and many questions have arisen regarding this new position of the museum, including what the museum's service role is toward other art museums and whether these additional duties will be met financially.
ÓK mentioned that the National Gallery of Iceland had no overview of the country's art museums, since their role as a national museum had not been defined until the new law. It is clear, however, that there are very strong collections throughout the country, although they are often not independent institutions. The National Gallery of Iceland plans a meeting with art museums next spring. At the meeting, the status of the museums and, not least, their expectations of the national museum will be discussed. Ties between art museums have been rather limited.
OK mentioned that LÍ was having difficulty handling this new role, as it entailed new responsibilities for which the museum had neither the manpower nor the funding. Some discussion took place on these issues, and it became clear that the operations of the main museums must be reviewed in light of the new legislation.
Fourth item, Applications for grants from the 2002 collections fund.
The attendees agreed that since there were no clear rules for the distribution from the collection fund when applications were solicited last fall, the distribution practices of previous years should be taken into account. Therefore, the criteria currently used for the distribution are not binding in any way for future distributions from the fund.
It is necessary for the museum council to operate according to a clear definition of what a museum is, but according to the interpretation of the law, only museums have the right to apply for operating and project grants. Section 4 of the Museums Act No. 106/2001 defines a museum as: "A museum, according to this Act, is an institution, open to the public, whose purpose is to collect materials concerning humanity, its history, the environment, and the country's nature, to preserve them, to research, to disseminate information, and to exhibit them so that they may be used for research, education, and entertainment?".
According to Section 10, all museums subject to the law may apply for project grants, but to be eligible for operating grants, they must meet additional statutory requirements. National museums and other state-run museums are not entitled to grants from the Museum Fund.
There was some discussion about how to interpret the definition in Article 4 of what constitutes a collection. It was pointed out that in the broadest sense, the definition is very broad, as the requirement to "collect materials" does not necessarily refer to tangible objects, but can also refer to the collection of information about the "objects," which is then researched and shared with the public in the form of an exhibition. The counterargument was that such activity falls under the definition of a "museum" but not a "collection." In the allocation of funds, a clear distinction must be made between a museum and a collection, and the law applies only to collections, not to museums.
MH presented a list of grant applications and proposals for allocation. She also noted that the Budget Committee had requested a special allocation from the fund for several museums. MH said she had checked with Mrn. whether such a request from the Parliament's budget committee was binding on the Museum Council. Mrn.'s response was that the Museum Council is entirely unbound by the committee's wishes. Parliament approves it as an undivided allocation in the budget.
In the proposals that were submitted, a specific allocation item called "Sarpur" was included. A more detailed explanation of that line item was requested. MH reported that this is a grant for preparation and/or registration in the national heritage database Sarp. This line item was included in the grants awarded by the National Museum of Iceland to museums under the previous museum act. The museums had therefore budgeted for this grant, as it was applied for before the new museum act was enacted. It was agreed to provide a grant to Sarp in this distribution year, but the museum board reserved the right to remove it from the next distributions, since allocations will then be made according to the new regulation.
It was asked whether grants should be provided for the purchase of items. No decision was made on the matter, but under the law, items fall under neither projects nor operations.
General Criteria for Allocations 2002
The Council does not provide a grant from the fund if the museum receives project or operating grants directly from the budget.
· A clear distinction is made between the collection and the exhibition. Grants are for collections only.
· Grants awarded for Sarps, but the item will be removed from future allocations.
· Grants for start-up costs are not provided, as the Althingi provides direct funding for them from the budget in accordance with the Museum Act.
The criteria for the 2002 grants are not binding for future allocations, as new allocation rules being developed by the Collection Council will be taken into account.
Next, each application was reviewed individually and discussed and evaluated. GSÁ and JÁ left the meeting when the grant applications from the museums they direct were evaluated. Various comments and changes were made to the initial proposals, and MH was tasked with sending the revised proposals to the museum board by the 5th meeting, when final decisions would be made on the 2002 allocations from the museum fund.
Meeting adjourned 5:00 PM/YES