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Update on UMAC 2022 Prague

Dear UMAC community,

This year, our annual conference will happen in August, in Prague, Czech Republic, included in the 26th ICOM General Conference.

This year’s ICOM General Conference will be a hybrid conference, in other words you will be able to register to attend in person or remotely. As always, registrations will be handled centrally by ICOM and should open soon.

As for UMAC 21st Annual Conference, it will be shorter than usual and have two parts:

PART 1 – 22-23 August: we will have a joint meeting with colleagues from three other ICOM committees: NATHIST (natural history museums), ICME (ethnography museums) and ICR (regional museums)

A Call for Papers for this is opening now.

PART 2 – 25 August: UMAC will meet separately at the Faculty of Sciences of Charles University (Hrdlicka Museum)

UMAC will give a limited number of grants to help cover travel and accommodation costs of members traveling to Prague. Please make sure you’re eligible.

You can find all the information about UMAC 2022 here: http://umac.icom.museum/activities/conferences/

We’re excited with our conference this year and we look forward to meeting you in Prague.

Warm regards,

Marta Lourenço, University of Lisbon

UMAC Chair

PS As mentioned earlier, this year’s Annual General Meeting will not happen in Prague. It will be 19th September, online.

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Participate in the ICOM Museum Definition CONSULTATION

ICOM is revising the museum definition dating from 2007. UMAC invites the global community of university museums and collections to participate in the ICOM consultation.

A summary of what is happening

In 2019, the ICOM Extraordinary General Assembly held in Kyoto approved to postpone the vote on a new museum definition, deciding to enter into a process of consultation and improved cooperation between committees. Since then, committees around the world have led activities of consultation with their members. In December 2019, the Executive Board decided to expand the MDPP to include over 20 members, incorporating figures who represent varying opinions on the matter. In February 2020, with the committee renamed MDPP2 to reflect the change, members entered into a phase of establishing a new methodology for proposing a museum definition for the 21st Century. This process has had to take into consideration the specificities of different regions and specializations represented by the many ICOM committees, regional alliances and affiliated organizations. Continue reading from the ICOM Advisory Council Report.

Members of ICOM Define

The new methodology was presented by ICOM Define at the webinar “Defining the museum in times of change: a way forward” (10 December 2020). If you missed it, click on the image below.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Participate in the consultation

UMAC invites the global university museum community (members and non-members) to participate in the public consultation.

Please fill out the brief survey here BEFORE 14 March, 2021.

References

‘The future of tradition in museology’, ICOFOM Study Series, 48 (1), 2020

‘Defining the museum: Challenges and compromises in the 21st century’, ICOFOM Study Series, 48 (2), 2020

CAMOC Review No. 1/2020

Marta C. Lourenço, UMAC Chair: Defining the UNIVERSITY MUSEUM today: Between ICOM and the ‘third mission’, Speech 8 May 2019.

 

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International Museum Day 2021: THE FUTURE OF MUSEUMS

The year 2020 has been like no other. The COVID-19 crisis has swept the whole world abruptly, affecting every aspect of our lives, from the interactions with our loved ones, to the way we perceive our homes and cities, to our work and its organisation. Some already pressing issues have been exacerbated, questioning the very structure of our societies: the call for equality is stronger than ever.

Continue reading in ICOM’s website.

Download  poster and  banner for IMD2021.

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IMD 18 May 2020: New website and tools from ICOM

On May 18th, museums all around the world will join in to celebrate ICOM’s International Museum Day under the theme “Museums for Equality: Diversity and Inclusion”. ICOM is proud of the global impact this event has made in its past 40 years of existence . 
ICOM has made available a website to centralise access to IMD events  from all over the world.
Two highlights are the Communications Toolkit and the interactive global map where museums can share their programs.
UMAC strongly encourages university museums around the world to commemorate  IMD 2020.
Happy and successful International Museum Day 2020!
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News from ICOM: ICOM VOICES

The ICOM website serves as a communication platform for museum- and heritage-related projects, experiences and discussions about the sector. It promotes themes that are at the heart of the museum’s mission today such as sustainability, local development/community, heritage protection, intangible heritage and working conditions for museum professionals.

To encourage the exchange of experience and expertise among museum professionals, ICOM has created a new editorial space on its website for this purpose, called ICOM Voices. We are inviting all ICOM members to submit articles on the aforementioned themes in English, French or Spanish.

We welcome articles from all ICOM members on the following key topics:

  • Sustainability
  • Heritage protection
  • Intangible Heritage
  • Local Development and Communities
  • Museum Profession

Articles can be case studies, field reports, book reviews, exhibition or conference reviews; opinion pieces, etc.

Read more and submit here.

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ICOFOM Consultation with National and International Committees on the new Museum Definition

For over forty years, the ICOM International Committee for Museology (ICOFOM) has been charged with fostering theoretical debates and circulation of knowledge in museum theory and practice. We have been actively engaged in addressing ICOM’s goal to establish basic concepts and definitions for the museum field. Most recently, we have been involved in the project of defining the museum in the 21st century that was initiated by ICOM in 2016 after the adoption of the 2015 Recommendation Concerning the Protection and Promotion of Museums and Collections, Their Diversity and Their Role in Society , and developed since 2017 by the Standing Committee on the Museum Definition, Prospects and Potentials (MDPP).

Understanding that the ICOM museum definition is the most structural and operational tool for the organization to express its central values and mission to the museum world, we, the International Committee for Museology Chair and Board members, would like to consult the ICOM community using a dialogical methodology to collect our various viewpoints on the current proposed definition.

ICOFOM therefore invites all National and International Committees to survey their members and express their views to us on the new proposed museum definition. Our goal as a committee is to collect a wide range of opinions representing the cultural diversity of ICOM members, including those who have not yet had the opportunity to participate fully in this debate. Gathering this greater range of diverse viewpoints, we will then present and publicize a general report, in keeping with our mission within the ICOM network.

ICOFOM, November 2019

 

All UMAC members are strongly encouraged to contribute to this debate by replying to the ICOFOM’s questionnaire below UNTIL 26 January 2020.

We will forward all replies to ICOFOM, and they will be taken into account in their report to the ICOM’s General Assembly, Paris, June 2020.

Questionnaire in ENGLISH

Questionnaire en FRANÇAIS

Questionario en ESPAÑOL

UMAC Board, November 2019

 

 

 

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UMAC 2019 final program is out!

The program for the 19th UMAC Annual Conference in Kyoto was just published and can be accessed here.

If you are presenting a paper (oral or poster), or just participating, make sure you read our Useful Information section. It has everything you need — from guidelines to speakers, instructions for posters, how to find your way in Kyoto, maps of the conference locations, and much more.

Safe travels and see you in Kyoto!