Minutes of the 107th meeting of the Museum Council –
December 14, 2011, 12:15 – 2:15 PM, meeting room in the National Museum tower
Present: Margrét Hallgrímsdóttir, chair, Helgi Torfason, Halldór B. Runólfsson, Guðný Dóra Gestsdóttir, Jenný Lind Egilsdóttir, Rakel Halldórsdóttir, chairwoman. Guest at the meeting: Þóra Björk Ólafsdóttir, master's student in museology at the University of Iceland (internship with the museum council during the period).
1. Issues for discussion and decision:
1.0.The minutes of the 106th meeting will be signed at the next meeting.
1.1. Report of the Managing Director: RH article in Fréttablaðið, November 17, 2011. Ms. Stj. wrote an article that was published in Fréttablaðið on the new Museums Act and the importance of professional allocation of state funds for cultural affairs following the Althingi's announcement of a change in the Budget Committee's allocation to this area of matters, as the aim is for allocation to be increasingly based on a legal basis, such as through statutory funds. Interview with HT in Fréttablaðið, November 24, 2011. A press interview was published with Helga Torfason, director of the Icelandic Museum of Natural History, the leading museum in the field of natural history. The development of the museum has met with little understanding and funding has been scarce. The museum's issues have been discussed in the media quite a bit recently. It is important that a successful path is found for the museum and that its real development with the associated funding begins as soon as possible. The National Audit Office has begun an audit of the museum's status. Budget proposal 2012 – contributions to museum work in the 2011 budget. In total, direct funding for museum activities (museums, exhibitions, centers and related entities) in the 2011 budget amounted to just over 140 million. In accordance with the announced change in the Althing's emphasis on allocating state funds for cultural activities, funding for the Museum Fund should therefore increase considerably in 2012. Response from the Industrial Museum regarding the dismissal of the director and the future of the museum. A response was received from the chairman of the board of the Industrial Museum regarding the dismissal of the director and the future of the museum. A strategy is being developed regarding the future of the museum, among the items under consideration are increased cooperation or a merger of the museum with the Akureyri Museum of Art. EC software – ongoing challenges and progress. Continuing problems characterize the EC software service that handles website maintenance for the Museum Council. Despite attempts at improvement, the collection of information using the Museum Council's electronic application form for applications to the Museum Fund has not improved and there are significant flaws in the results of the collection, as well as in the use of the form. There is considerable work to be done to collect information that was not reflected in the electronic applications of museums to the Museum Fund in 2012, due to the aforementioned flaws. The Museum Council will, due to the aforementioned and repeated flaws, not pay for the work done to improve the form and a decision has been made to change the website maintenance service provider. The Minister of Finance will address this issue immediately. Copyright issues of collectionsÁgústa Kristófersdóttir continues to work on the progress of the project. Personnel matters. RH presented the status of projects at the Museum Council office, in addition to traditional projects, considerable additional work is expected at the office at the beginning of 2012. On the one hand, this involves work on transferring the Museum Council's web management to a new service provider and subsequently transferring all online information on the Council's websites to a new system, in addition to supervising the design of a new electronic application form. On the other hand, considerable work is expected to be done on collecting information that was lost from electronic applications to the Museum Fund in 2012 due to defects in the electronic application form. RH will be on a reduced workload from January 2012 according to a medical certificate due to pregnancy and recommended that assistance be obtained at the Museum Council office to be able to handle the tasks at hand. It was agreed to resolve the matter between meetings. Collection book 2012. An agreement on support for the 2012 Museum Book will be signed in the near future.
1.2. Disposal of remaining funds in the museum fund 2011. The allocation of the remaining funds in the 2011 museum fund was discussed. Only a few museums took advantage of the possibility of travel and continuing education grants from the 2011 museum fund. It was agreed to provide funding for a collaborative project between art museums on adapting SARPS 3 to the needs of art museums. It was agreed to set aside an amount for a comparable grant for natural history museums. It was also agreed to pay expenses for the year 2012 as funds were available. The aim is to have one common registration database for all museums in the country, which will in the future be accessible to the public for information and education.
1.3. Museum Council meeting schedule 2012. The new meeting schedule for the Museum Council for 2012 was approved as a guideline. It is anticipated that there will be some changes to the meeting dates.
2. Papers for discussion and decision.
2.1. Report from the Althingi – comments requested on a proposal for a parliamentary resolution on the Icelandic Online Archive, issue 121. The matter was worked on between meetings – a joint statement from the National Museum and the Museum Council was sent.
2.2. Application by Guðrún Ölda Gísladóttir for permission to export textiles from archaeological excavations for research purposes. It was agreed at the last meeting to use the authority of Act No. 105/2001 and oppose the export, cf. an expert's assessment. In accordance with the law, a formal position has been sought from the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science. No response has been received.
2.3. Request by the Icelandic Motorcycle Museum for recognition pursuant to Article 4 of the Museums Act. A report was received from the Icelandic Motorcycle Museum in Akureyri, requesting the Museum Council's recognition that the museum is a recognized museum according to Article 4 of the Museums Act No. 106/2001. The Museum Council discussed the matter. This is a new institution and there is not much experience with its operations, in addition, no Museum Council representative has visited the institution. It was agreed to request comments from the Akureyri Museum and the Akureyri Town Council's cultural representative on the activities of the Motorcycle Museum.
3. Next meeting and other matters
The next meeting was, according to the new meeting schedule, scheduled for Thursday, January 26, 2012 at 12:15, the meeting adjourned at 2:15 p.m./RH