Minutes of the 70th meeting of the Museum Council
April 21, 12:00 – 14:00
National Museum of Iceland, Suðurgata, 101 Reykjavík
Present: Margrét Hallgrímsdóttir, chairman, Halldór Björn Runólfsson, Helgi Torfason, Sveinn Kristinsson, AlmaDís Kristinsdóttir and Rakel Halldórsdóttir.
1. The minutes of the 67th, 68th and 69th meetings were approved and signed.
2. Director's report. New members of the Museum Council. Following the change of board of directors at the Association of Icelandic Museums and Collectors, the Ministry of Education and Culture has appointed new representatives of FÍSOS to the Museum Council in accordance with the association's nominations. AlmaDís Kristinsdóttir has been appointed as the association's main representative and Eiríkur Páll Jörundsson as its deputy representative. Helga Bjarnadóttir has been appointed as the deputy representative of the Icelandic Museum of Natural History, nominated by the museum. Halldór Björn Runólfsson, director of the National Gallery of Iceland and the museum's statutory main representative on the Museum Council, has been appointed as vice-chairman in place of Karl Rúnar Þórsson, who has resigned from the council as the main representative of FÍSOS. The new representatives were welcomed to work with the council and the outgoing representatives were thanked for their work well done on behalf of the Museum Council. Museum work.is. The information website safnastarf.is, maintained by the Icelandic Museums Council, has been put into use. The site contains a list of museum activities in the country, museums, exhibitions and centres, but the institutions themselves are responsible for registering, maintaining and updating information on the site with a password. Already, thirty museum institutions have registered on the site. Accessibility for everyone. A meeting of the National Museum and the Museum Council on accessibility issues in museums will be held on April 23, 2008. Representatives of museums throughout the country will present projects aimed at improving accessibility to museums in the country. Representatives of the Icelandic Disabled Association and Alðjoðahús will also give presentations on the accessibility of their clients to museums. Reviews. The Minister has identified the Museums Council and the Icelandic Museum of Natural History as professional bodies with regard to opinions on issues in the field of cultural and natural heritage that are under discussion in the Althingi. The Minister also identified the Association of Icelandic Museums and Museum Owners and the Association of Icelandic Museum Experts as commenting bodies. Structure of a master's program in museology at the University of Iceland. The Ministry of Education and Culture is leading a working group on the development of a master's degree program in museology at the University of Iceland, which has been in operation since spring 2006. Funding the establishment of the program has been the main task of the working group since the beginning. An important milestone was reached in April when the University of Iceland agreed to provide 4.5 million ISK per year for 4-5 years for the position of assistant professor in museology at the Faculty of Social Sciences. The money is part of a multi-year agreement between the Ministry of Education and Culture and the University of Iceland on increased funding for the school. The plan is to offer the program from autumn 2009. This will be an important step towards the professional development of museum work in Iceland. Official statistics for museums. The Minister of Culture met with Ragnar Karlsson at Statistics Iceland to discuss the possibility of collaboration on the collection and processing of statistical information on museum work in the country. The Minister of Culture will work on a proposal for a questionnaire in the Questionpro web system, to which the Museum Council is a subscriber, and submit it to Ragnar for approval. Institutional Agreement for the Museum Council. In continuation of the decision of the last meeting, the Chair spoke with Viðar H. Jónsson of the National Audit Office about the importance of having an institutional agreement for the Museum Council. Viðar did not consider an institutional agreement necessary for the Council as it stands today. Icelandic Museum Awards – hosting. ICOM in Iceland and FÍSOS requested to suggest that the Museum Council be the host for submissions for the Icelandic Museum Awards. MH, chairman, agreed that the Museum Council office would host submissions for the associations. The attendees unanimously agreed to that decision.
3. Museum service agreements – guidelines, museum charters – guidelines, Guidelines for operating grants from the Museum Fund. The Board of Directors presented draft guidelines on museum service agreements, museum charters and operating grants from the Museum Fund. The guidelines were largely prepared by Anna Þorbjörg Þorgrímsdóttir, the current Board of Directors from August 2007 to February 2008. The guidelines were approved with amendments.
4. Meeting schedule May - December 2008 and field trip. Since new representatives have taken their seats on the Museum Council, the Chairperson submitted a proposal for a meeting schedule for May-December 2008, along with a proposal for a field trip by the Council to museums in 2008. The proposals were approved. The field trip was scheduled for Monday, August 18 and Tuesday, August 19, 2008, and museums and centers in East Iceland will be visited on these days. The Museum Council has previously visited Reykjanes in 2003, South Iceland in 2004, North Iceland in 2005, and Akureyri and the surrounding area in 2006. The Council considers the field trips to be an important way for the Council members to gain insight into the activities and facilities of museums and centers around the country.
5. Proposals for the reorganization of museum affairs in Akranes. The Museum Council received a proposal for a reorganization of museum affairs in Akranes for comment. No substantive comments were made on the policy and new organization in question, but the council strongly recommends that the Regional Museum in Görður maintain its independence, cf. Museums Act No. 106/2001, in the future development of cultural and museum affairs in Akranes. MH undertook to send the council's comment to the mayor of Akranes, along with the unanimous comment of the National Museum of Iceland.
6. German Foreign Ministry's plan for the preservation of cultural heritage. The Ministry of Education and Culture sent the report to the Museum Council for presentation. These are terms and conditions for support for projects in the field of the German Foreign Ministry's program for cultural preservation. It was agreed that the Minister of Education and Culture would present the program on the Museum List.
7. Information from museums following the postponement of allocations from the 2008 Museum Fund. Information was received from the Whale Center in Húsavík, the Sheep Center and the East Skaftafellssýsla Regional Museum. Based on additional information, the following operating grants were approved: 1.7 million ISK to the Whale Center in Húsavík, 1.7 million ISK to the East Skaftafellssýsla Regional Museum and 1.6 million ISK to the Sheep Center.
8. Message regarding allocations 2008. Submissions were received from the Living Museum and the Icelandic Herring Museum. Based on additional information, an operating grant of 1.7 million ISK was approved for the Living Museum. The operating grant for the Herring Museum was similarly increased from 1.7 to 2.5 million ISK based on additional information. A response to a message from the director of the Hvols Regional Museum in Dalvík was approved. It was approved to request from Eirík Þorláksson, a specialist in the field of museum affairs at the Department of Art and Museums of the Ministry of Education and Culture, that the ministry grant authorization for a meeting between representatives of the Museum Council and the chairman of the Budget Committee. The Council considers it extremely important that the budget for the Museum Fund be increased to meet the needs of the museums and build up professional work. Furthermore, that state budget allocations for museum work be increasingly directed through the Museum Council, with professional discussion and supervision.
9. Application for a grant for the NODEM conference in Iceland. The Reykjavík Museum submitted a re-application to the Museum Fund in 2008, requesting a project grant for a large-scale project on the NODEM conference in Iceland in December 2009. It was agreed to grant 300 thousand ISK for the project. It was agreed not to grant project grants to the Skagfjord Museum of Local History and the Icelandic Agricultural Museum, but it had been decided at the time of allocation to withhold the decision on project grants to these museums until operating grants had been allocated.
10. Application by the National Gallery of Iceland for permission to temporarily export a work of art on display at the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA, USA. A permit was applied for for the temporary export of the work LÍ 418 Jóhannes Kjarval, Summer Night at Þingvellir, 1931, (100 x 150 cm). In accordance with the recommendation and approval of HBR, the director of the LÍ museum, the Museum Council approved the export. The application will be referred to the Minister of Education for processing in accordance with the law.
11. Copyright issues of collections. In continuation of the discussion at the last meeting: a response was received from the Ministry of Education and Culture, which reiterated that the Museum Council is the right forum for consultation between museums on copyright issues and referred to the authorization in the Museums Act to allocate funds from the Museum Fund for projects related to the operation of the Museum Council. It was agreed to have Erla Árnadóttir from LEX law firm examine the matter and the possibilities related to it. Subsequently, a working group of representatives of the Museum Council and the main museums will make a decision on progress.
12. Next meeting and other matters. No other matters were discussed. The next meeting of the Museum Council was scheduled according to the new meeting schedule for Monday, May 19th, from 3-5 p.m.
There was no further discussion and the meeting adjourned at 2:00 PM/RH.