European museum collections as a conference theme
Europe will try to exhibit more of the collections housed in the thousands of European museums and to make them more accessible to visitors. The Finnish Minister of Culture Tanja Saarela and Commissioner Jan Figel' will open the discussion at an expert meeting arranged at the National Museum of Finland on 20 and 21 July.
The conference is organised by the Finnish Presidency in cooperation with the European Commission. It will convene around 150 representatives of ministries responsible for culture and museums from all the EU countries.
The mobility of museum collections is one of the five priorities in the Council Work Plan for Culture for 2005-2006. The Helsinki Conference will discuss the relevant action programme, which is projected to be finalised and adopted during the Finnish Presidency.
The aim is to facilitate cooperation between museums and museum professionals, agree on common practices and standards for loans and to encourage the development of long-term loans and state indemnity schemes in order to promote the mobility and loan of museum collections.
The recommendations concerning the mobility of collections are based on the expert report ‘Lending to Europe – Recommendations on Collection Mobility for European Museums’, which was written during the Netherlands and Luxemburg Presidencies in 2004-2005. The recommendations were discussed during the UK Presidency in the latter half of 2005.
The action plan for collection mobility, provided for in the Council Work Plan, has been drafted over two years by the Netherlands, Luxembourg, the UK, Austria, Finland and Germany. The implementation of the action plan and the work of the relevant working groups will continue during the German Presidency.
Participation in the Encouraging the Mobility of Collections Conference is by invitation only.
For more information:
- Ms Pirjo Hamari (National Board of Antiquities), tel. +358-(0)9-405 09221, +358-(0)50 440 1363
- Ms Päivi Salonen (Ministry of Education), tel. +358-(0)9-160 77431