Nathalie Nyst

Université libre de Bruxelles – ULB Museums Network

ICOM No. 37047

Nominators: Penelope THEOLOGI-GOUTI (Greece), Neil CURTIS (Scotland)

Biographical note

Doctor in Art History and Archaeology (1998), Nathalie Nyst teaches the Master of Cultural Management programme at the Faculty of Philosophy and Social Sciences at the Université libre de Bruxelles (Belgium), and more specifically the cultural politics and economy. She is coordinating the ULB Museums Network since 2003, network composed of more than 10 university museums and collections. Nathalie Nyst also works in the General Service of Heritage of the Ministry of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation of Belgium (Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles) since 2001. As such, she deals with museums, archives, archaeological and heritage associations, tangible and intangible cultural heritage. In this context, she was lead to manages a budget of about €13 million a year. Nathalie Nyst has (co-)edited about 20 publications, is the author of about 50 papers and has presented around 50 talks in various colloquiums and conferences devoted to various museum-related issues all around the world. She also organised more than 20 exhibitions inside or outside university. Link to CV.

Qualifications for the position

I’m member from ICOM since 2002 and from UMAC since 2004 and I have been lucky to attend most of the Annual UMAC Conferences since that time. Over more than 20 years, I have seen the development of UMAC and the increasing interest in our community as well as I have measured the importance UMAC can have for the university museums and collections all over the world. All these years I have also gained a good understanding of the university museums and collections all over the world. Indeed, during the two terms of office as treasurer that I served between 2016 and 2022, I have got a strong experience in financial management of an ICOM international committee and good knowledge of ICOM. This last point is important since ICOM has the status of an association (in the French sense of the law) in connection with 120 national committees and 34 international committees. Therefore, international committees as UMAC have to follow strict rules. Moreover, I’m used with this duty since I’m managing an annual budget of about €50.000 for the ULB Museums Network. Last but not least, I was the accounts auditor for the Belgian association ICOM-Belgium – Wallonia-Brussels as well as for the UNIVERSEUM Network some years ago. Therefore, according to my professional experience as well as my former position as treasurer of UMAC, I think I could be able to contribute to this effort as candidate for treasurer.

Main goals of candidacy

MAIN GOALS OF YOUR CANDIDACY (MAX. 500 WORDS) I step back three years ago from the board for personal reason. Through my past involvement in the board, I was happy to contribute to the strengthening and smooth running of UMAC. I would like to renew my commitment as treasurer in order to offer a rigorous and transparent management of UMAC’s annual budget. I am also convinced that UMAC has to get stronger: as a reference and help for all university museums and collections, by being present in more countries, and more relevant for small museums, by developing an enhanced efficiency of the governance and namely its board. The commitment of all the board members is very crucial. For the next 3 years UMAC has to work in three directions:
1) Increase its visibility and sustainability: for instance, the various tools of UMAC as UMACJ or UMAC Award should be emphasized.
2) To be more active to develop inclusiveness in our University and Collections community.
3) To be an actor in crucial issues such as science and society relations, climate and social justice and decolonization. Since the University museums and especially medical collections have human remains, UMAC should address this issue seriously. As an association (in the French sense of the law), ICOM has to comply with accounting rules. An ICOM international committee such as UMAC must therefore keep accurate accounts in accordance with these accounting (and sometimes delicate) rules. And the treasurer of such an international committee needs to know and follow these rules. I therefore undertake to keep my knowledge of the accounting rules in force within the ICOM international committees up to date in order to manage the accounts with the required rigour and the largest transparency.