30th Museum Council Meeting

Minutes of the 30th meeting of the Museum Council, 21 May 2004, 11:00-13:15, National Gallery of Iceland, Laufásvegur 12, 101 Reykjavík

Present were: Ólafur Kvaran, Margrét Hallgrímsdóttir, Álfheiður Ingadóttir, Sigrún Ásta Jónsdóttir and Rakel Halldórsdóttir. Gísli Sverrir Árnason was present by telephone.

1. The minutes of the 29th meeting will be signed at the next meeting.
    
2. Report of the Executive Director. The Director reported on the activities of the Council since the last meeting. The Herring Museum in Siglufjörður received the second main prize of the European Museum Forum, at the EMF general meeting in Greece on 3-5 May, but the Museum Council nominated the museum for the competition in February last year. The Director visited the Cultural Heritage Agency in Copenhagen on 28-30 April, to learn about Denmark's implementation of the Danish Museum Act, definitions in connection with the Museum Act, the Danish allocation system for state grants to museums, etc. That visit was extremely useful and successful. In addition to the allocation system, it was particularly interesting to learn about Denmark's methods for assessing the quality of museums and also methods for granting permits related to the export of cultural property and monitoring that export.
    
3. Allocation 2004. The council has received a letter from the Reykjavík City Cultural Affairs Committee, but the committee has instructed the city attorney to examine the status of the Reykjavík Art Museum, the Reykjavík Museum of Art and the Reykjavík Photography Museum in light of the reasoning stated in the Museum Council's letters to the museums regarding the decision regarding the granting of grants. Discussion continued on the submissions of the Akureyri Art Museum and the ASÍ Art Museum. With reference to the ICOM agreements, it was decided to refuse the Akureyri Art Museum a grant from the Museum Fund, as nothing in the Akureyri Municipality's service agreement with Art.is prevents profits from the activities from being paid out of the institution. The decision was made subject to the outcome of a legal assessment from the Ministry of Education and Culture on the possibility of the Museum Council referring to the ICOM agreements as justification for decisions. The council will send the museum a notification of the outcome after receiving the opinion of the MRN, otherwise the matter will be taken up again at the next meeting.
   The processing of the ASÍ Art Museum's report awaits the next meeting, as the chairman and the board of directors did not have the opportunity to visit the museum before this meeting.  
    
4. Idea for new emphases for allocation in 2005. The Board of Directors presented her ideas for new emphases for allocation in 2005. There was some discussion about the ideas and they will be discussed further at the next meeting.
    
5. Advertisement for the 2005 allocation – application form. The advertisement and application form for the 2005 allocation were approved. The advertisement for the allocation will be published in the main media after the next meeting, when the ongoing discussion on new emphases has been completed.
    
6. EMF spokesperson/membership in EMF. An issue was raised regarding the EMF spokesperson/membership in EMF v. encouragement from Örlygur Kristfinnsson, director of the Herring Museum, who received an award from the organization in early May. It was agreed that the Museum Council became a member of EMF with general membership.
    
7. Next meeting and other matters. The next meeting according to the meeting schedule is May 27th, but it was agreed to meet next in mid-June. 

   Other issues:
   Removal of cultural property from the country. In continuation of the visit of the Minister of Culture to the Cultural Heritage Board, there was some discussion about the role of the Museum Council according to Act No. 105/2001 on the removal of cultural property from the country and the return of cultural property to other countries. It was agreed that the Minister of Culture would write a general article in Morgunblaðið drawing attention to the provisions of the Act that apply to the public and institutions, stating that formal permission must be sought for the removal of cultural property, as defined in the Act, from the country.

   Aquarium. The Icelandic Parliament presented a proposal for a parliamentary resolution on the establishment of an Aquarium in Iceland. The proposal was submitted to the Transport Committee and opinions were sought from the Icelandic Tourist Board, the Icelandic Chamber of Commerce, the Icelandic Tourism Association and the Marine Research Institute. Since the Museum Council's opinion was not sought, the Council agreed to send a request to the Ministry of Education and Culture, drawing attention to the matter and asking about the involvement of the Minister of Education and Culture and the Museum Council in it. 

   NODEM conference 2005. It was decided that the Institute of Natural History, which holds the position of the lead museum in the field of natural history, would participate in the management of the NODEM conference 2005, together with the National Gallery of Iceland and the National Museum. A request for cooperation was received by the lead museums and the Museum Council from the Association of Icelandic Museums and Collectors, a NODEM partner.

 There was no further discussion and the meeting adjourned at 1:15 PM/RH.