Minutes of the 68th meeting of the Museum Council
February 14, 3:00 PM – 5:00 PM
National Museum of Iceland, Suðurgata, 101 Reykjavík
Present: Margrét Hallgrímsdóttir, chairman, Halldór Björn Runólfsson, Helgi Torfason, Karl Rúnar Þórsson, Sveinn Kristinsson, Anna Þorbjörg Þorgrímsdóttir
1. Minutes of the 66th meeting approved and signed. Comments were made on the minutes of the 67th meeting, which will be resubmitted for signing at the next meeting.
2. Allocation 2008 Continuation of the allocation meeting on Friday, February 8. The announcement of the allocation will be sent to museums before the end of the month. Decided to send out a press release from the Museum Council in parallel with the allocation and Sveinn Kristinsson will write an article about the Museum Fund and its importance for strengthening museums and the community. Report on a new calculation model discussed. Draft letter to museums with information about the calculation model was approved.
A report has been submitted by the Kópavogur Natural History Institute on the use of the 2007 grant for the development of a registration system for natural history museums. Helgi Torfason, together with the Deputy Chairman of the Museums Council, will closely monitor the progress of the project.
The Museum Council decided to write a letter to the owners and boards of the natural history museums in Neskaupsstaður, Djúpivogur and Bolungarvík and inform them about the changed working environment of the museums due to new laws on the Icelandic Museum of Natural History. The acting board of directors was tasked with writing the letter in collaboration with the director of the Icelandic Museum of Natural History.
3. Director's report. Two permits have been issued for the temporary transfer of cultural relics: On the one hand, there is a permit to the National Gallery of Iceland for the export of five paintings by Jóhannes S. Kjarval in connection with an exhibition organized by the Ministry of Education and Culture in connection with the presentation of Iceland in Belgium. On the other hand, there is a permit to Dr. Steinunn Kristjánsdóttir for all bones that have been found during archaeological excavations at Skriðuklaustur.
Kristín Huld Sigurðardóttir, director of the Icelandic Archaeological Conservation Agency, has rejected a draft agreement on cooperation between the Museum Council and the Icelandic Archaeological Conservation Agency on the export of specimens that was presented at a meeting of the Museum Council in January. The reasons are various, including that it is best to wait for the Althingi to approve a new National Heritage Act.
Other items from the Director General's report were postponed until the next meeting.
4. Museum Council Policy 2008-2012. The acting board of directors presented the first draft of the Museum Council's policy. The draft was discussed and the acting board of directors was instructed to continue working on the matter.
5. Official statistics on museums. The Museum Council is working to establish cooperation with Statistics Iceland on official statistics on museums. It was agreed to take into account a report from 2004 Museumsstatistikken. A review of definitions, quality and population. Where an article is prepared for the methodology of Abm-utvikling and SSB in a similar review of official statistics in Norway. Norwegian standards will be adapted to Icelandic conditions, but one of the Museum Council's goals is that official statistics on museums will be comparable with statistics in the other Nordic countries while also reflecting the conditions of Icelandic museums. The Museum Council will collect information, but Statistics Iceland will process the statistics. Questions will be answered electronically and the questions will replace Statistics Iceland's current questionnaire and a large part of the questions that are currently on the application form for the Museum Fund. In a statistical context, the definition of a museum is based on the collection itself, not on eligibility for funding from the Museum Fund. The acting Mskv.stj. has been instructed to continue working on the matter.
6. In connection with discussions on statistics, a new application form for the Museum Fund in 2009 was introduced.In addition to questions that applicants must answer and information about the documents that must be included with applications, the application form contains detailed information about the conditions that museums must meet according to law in order to be considered eligible to apply to the Museum Fund. It also states the criteria that the Museum Council sets to ensure that the conditions of the law are met.
7. Museum charters. The Museum Council is in the process of adopting new procedures when it comes to following the provisions of the Museums Act regarding the approval of charters by the Museum Council. A draft letter to museums introducing the change was approved by the Museum Council. The acting board of directors has been tasked with drafting guidelines on museum charters, which will be posted on the Museum Council's website.
8. Ministry of Education's response to the Museums Council's report on copyright issues in museumsThe Museum Council agreed to postpone the matter until the next meeting.
9. Presentation by The Netherlands Institute for Cultural Heritage. Inquiry about the preservation policy of Icelandic museums and the laws and regulations concerning it. Decided that the acting director of the museum would respond to the report and that a link to the Dutch report on preservation issues would be placed on the Museum Council's website.
10. Other issues: The acting board of directors was thanked for their cooperation (as well as Karl Rúnar Þórssson, representative of FÍSOS and vice-chairman of the Museum Council, for a job well done). The next meeting of the Museum Council will be held on Thursday, April 17th, from 3-5 pm.
There was no further discussion and the meeting adjourned at 5:00 PM.