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Examples
of Activities
A
number of conferences were held to mark the event,
and entrance to museums was free in most countries.
ICOM-Andorra offered reflections on two themes,
"Museums, indigenous communities and globalisation"
and "Culture and cultures".
ICOM-Malta organised a conference on "Museums
and Globalisation" in association with heritage institutions.
A number of posters and brochures were produced for
the event.
ICOM-Spain published a special International
Museum Day poster and brochure in conjunction with
the Casa de la Moneda, and
Croatia produced a poster containing information
about the event.
In
Puerto Rico, International Museum Day witnessed
the official launch of the Puerto Rican Museums Association.
ICOM-Japan distributed copies of the report
on the Barcelona ICOM General Conference, ICOM's Statutes
and the ICOM Code of Ethics to all its members. A
list of suggested activities was published
in
Peru, whilst in
Greece, the
Netherlands Antilles,
Panama and
Guatemala, a whole series of events were organised
- guided tours, lectures, exhibitions and educational
activities. International Museum Day activities in
the
Czech Republic centred on demonstrations of
restoration work. The living arts museum of
Burundi, which chose to focus on "Museums as
a reflection of national identity", organised a demonstration
of traditional dances.
Azerbaijan and
Uzbekistan sent cards to celebrate the event.
In
Argentina, participants were invited to reflect
on two broad themes - "Museums, communications, new
technologies and Internet" and "Cultural Heritage
Day", and an "ideas marketplace" provided museum professionals
with an opportunity to share their expertise.
In
Morocco, a "heritage month" and a week of international
meetings on preventive conservation in museums were
scheduled around International Museum Day.
Uruguay also held a museum week, which included
numerous public lectures.
In
Brazil, an awareness-raising campaign on the
theme "Voce tem memoria" (The Voice of Memory) was
timed to coincide with International Museum Day, and
the "Carta de Rio Grande" manifesto asking for a national
policy on musems and heritage to be drawn up was sent
to election candidates. Many educational activities
were organised, notably in
Mozambique, where an international project
for children twinned the National Art Museum of Maputo
with the Moderna Museet de Stockholm. At the Yula
Museum in
Nigeria, children and their schools performed
plays on such topics as education, culture and AIDS.
The Education Museum in Cape Town,
South Africa, mounted an exhibition entitled
"connect.com", about educational activities that make
use of the media, Internet and other means of communication.
Many countries celebrated International Museum Day
by holding exhibitions: the National Museum of
Costa Rica mounted an exhibition of posters
from museums all over the world to raise awareness
of the need to protect national heritage;
Russia's National History Museum joined forces
with the Ministry of Culture for the first in a series
of exhibitions with the overall title "True Museum
Friend";
Paraguay's National Museum of Fine Art ran
an exhibition on traditional leather-working techniques;
and in
Kenya, museum posters, flags and objects from
twenty countries were displayed in Nairobi Museum.
In
China, a two-hundred-metre
polyptych depicting the museums of Beijing and the
rest of the world was erected in the centre of the
capital city.
Museums continue to take part in International Museum
Day with undiminished enthusiasm, and the events organised
demonstrate what a wide range of activities are going
on in museums and how extraordinarily diverse the
world's museums are today. It is time to start preparing
for International Museum Day 2003, on 18 May, whose
theme is "Museums and Friends".
Article
published in: "ICOM News", Volume 56 - 2003
N°1
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