{"id":5124,"date":"2025-12-16T14:21:47","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T14:21:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/safnarad.is\/?page_id=5124"},"modified":"2025-12-17T15:15:32","modified_gmt":"2025-12-17T15:15:32","slug":"248-safnaradsfundur","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/safnarad.is\/en\/um-safnarad\/fundargerdir\/2025-2\/248-safnaradsfundur\/","title":{"rendered":"248th Board of Trustees Meeting"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thursday, October 23, 2025, 2:00 PM - 4:00 PM 
Meeting place: 5 Austurstr\u00e6ti, 4th floor <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Present: Vilhj\u00e1lmur Bjarnason, Chair; Gu\u00f0r\u00fan Dr\u00f6fn Whitehead; Hlynur Hallsson; J\u00f3hanna Erla P\u00e1lmad\u00f3ttir; and Gunnhildur \u00c1sta Gu\u00f0mundsd\u00f3ttir, Vice Chair, who participated via Teams. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The meeting was attended on behalf of the principal museums: for the National Gallery of Iceland: Ingibj\u00f6rg J\u00f3hannsd\u00f3ttir; for the National Museum of Natural History of Iceland: Ragnhildur Gu\u00f0mundsd\u00f3ttir; for the National Museum of Iceland: Harpa \u00de\u00f3rsd\u00f3ttir. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Staff of the Board of Trustees: Th\u00f3ra Bj\u00f6rk \u00d3lafsd\u00f3ttir, Executive Director, who writes the minutes, and Klara \u00de\u00f3rhallsd\u00f3ttir. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Presentation case<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

1.1.<\/strong> Overview of the council's activities since the last meeting. Among other things, the submission of the Annual Report for accredited museums was discussed; a report was given on a meeting of the Council's monitoring group; the status of the dashboard for museum statistics was reported; a meeting with the University of Bifr\u00f6st and the Creative Industries Research Centre was reported. The status of two state-owned accredited museums that will merge with other state institutions was also discussed.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1.2.<\/strong> The 2025 Museum Professionals' Field School was held in Selfoss from October 1-3, and there were about 160 participants this time. The Museum Council hosted two events at the Field School this time.\u00a0Th\u00f3ra Bj\u00f6rk gave a lecture on Wednesday to all participants about statistics and trends in museum visitor numbers since 2016.-2024, which is the result of a study of the council's data\u2014the same data that will be published in a dashboard on the council's website. Additionally, the main findings from the lecture will be published as a news story on the council's website.\u202fOn Thursday, the Museum Council held a seminar in collaboration with the Museum Studies Program and F\u00cdSOS. There was great interest in the seminar, with a record number of nearly 60 people registering. The workshop was designed as a brainstorming session where facilitators led discussions and group work in the form of speed dating and group work. The participants were then divided into groups where they could discuss among themselves and delve a little deeper.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1.3.<\/strong> To follow up on the status of the Strategic Plan Action Plan, the Council of Museums has created a checklist that the Council and the major museums will complete jointly.\u00a0The checklist is scheduled to be published in the first half of next year, in order to be ready for the review in the second half of the year.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1.4.<\/strong> The Council has been in discussions with Digital Iceland and the Ministry of Culture about utilizing the application systems that Digital Iceland operates for government entities. It was not possible to complete the project for the application processes currently underway, but it is hoped that the system can be used for reports and applications next year, provided that solutions are found for certain bottlenecks.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1.5.<\/strong> Applications are now open for both the 2025 supplemental distribution and the 2026 main distribution. An informational session was held on Teams on Wednesday, October 22, for museum directors, museum staff, and other stakeholders.\u00a0The application deadline for the 2025 Supplementary Allocation of the Museum Fund is 4:00 PM, Thursday, November 13. November 2025, and for the main allocation of the Collections Fund 2026 is 4:00 PM, Thursday, November 20, 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1.6.<\/strong> There was discussion about museum ownership policies and what should be in that document, but the Strategy states that \u201eA key point is to clarify the responsibility of museum owners. They shall establish an ownership policy that seeks to clarify their role and responsibility. The ownership policy needs to reflect how to support the museum's operations and ensure its operational foundation in the best possible way.\u201c The Executive Director is tasked with creating a list of the items the ownership policy should include.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Matters for decision <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
    \n
  • No cases for decision <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    3. Other issues <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
      \n
    • The National Museum of Iceland submitted a pruning plan from the Reykjav\u00edk City Museum of Urban History to the council for review. There were no comments, so it was approved.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
        \n
      • Harpa \u00de\u00f3rsd\u00f3ttir announced that she was inviting the directors of accredited museums to a webinar to strengthen dialogue between the museums and to support work on joint projects, and this meeting format is likely here to stay.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
          \n
        • The situation of museums that rely on cruise ship tourists and the anticipated loss of revenue from the hotel tax was discussed. In a meeting between Harpa and the museums, museum directors voiced concerns about its impact on the museums' revenue.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
            \n
          • Timing of the next board of trustees meeting\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

            Meeting adjourned at 4:00 PM \/ THB <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

            Thursday, October 23, 2025, 2:00 PM\u20134:00 PM Meeting location: Austurstr\u00e6ti 5, 4th floor Attendees: Vilhj\u00e1lmur Bjarnason, Chair; Gu\u00f0r\u00fan Dr\u00f6fn Whitehead; Hlynur Hallsson;\u00a0J\u00f3hanna Erla P\u00e1lmad\u00f3ttir and Gunnhildur \u00c1sta Gu\u00f0mundsd\u00f3ttir, vice chair, who participated via Teams. Representing the national museums at the meeting were: for the National Gallery of Iceland: Ingibj\u00f6rg J\u00f3hannsd\u00f3ttir; for the National Museum of Natural History of Iceland:\u00a0Ragnhildur Gu\u00f0mundsd\u00f3ttir; on behalf of the National Museum of Iceland: Harpa \u00de\u00f3rsd\u00f3ttir. Museum Council Staff: \u00de\u00f3ra Bj\u00f6rk \u00d3lafsd\u00f3ttir, Executive Director, who is recording the minutes, and Klara \u00de\u00f3rhallsd\u00f3ttir. 1. Matters for Information 1.1. Overview of Activities \u2026<\/p>","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"parent":4706,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-5124","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/safnarad.is\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/safnarad.is\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/safnarad.is\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/safnarad.is\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/safnarad.is\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5124"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/safnarad.is\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5124\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5125,"href":"https:\/\/safnarad.is\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5124\/revisions\/5125"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/safnarad.is\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/safnarad.is\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}