www.icom.museum

This article was sourced from the Asia-Europe Museum Network

In May 2011, the International Council for Museums (ICOM), the ICOM Ethics Committee and
Germany’s central office for the documentation of lost cultural property jointly compiled the checklist on ethics of cultural property ownership.

The Ethics Checklist is a supplemental document for ICOM’s Code of Ethics for Museums. 

Considering the complexity of the ethical questions affecting the work of museums today, the Checklist is a tool for two purposes: it sets out the 8 organising principles that shape the detailed articles of the ICOM Code, as well as providing orientation and support in dealing with these complex topics; and it offers a list of contacts for further advice on particular questions.

Museum Ethics Checklist 8 organising principles:

• Museums preserve, interpret and promote the natural and cultural inheritance of humanity
• Museums that maintain collections hold them in trust for the benefit of society and its development
• Museums hold primary evidence for establishing and furthering knowledge
• Museums provide opportunities for the appreciation, understanding and promotion of the natural and cultural heritage
• Museums hold resources that provide opportunities for other public services and benefits
• Museums work in close collaboration with the communities from which their collections originate as well as those they serve
• Museums operate in a legal manner
• Museums operate in a professional manner

Download the Ethics Checklist for Museums here.

Vietnam Heritage field school, Halong Bay

Vietnam: International Field School in Museums & Sustainable Heritage Development

The International Field School in Museums and Sustainable Heritage Development has been running for seven years. It aims to provide first-hand experience to graduate students and Professional Development Program participants in locating culture in sustainable development in a rapidly globalising world. Museums and heritage places kinds are considered in the context of sustainable economic, environmental and social development, with a focus on documented case studies and real-life examples in Vietnam.

Participants will consider how museums, cultural institutions, and heritage tourism can play a role in the revitalization of local culture and economy, and how international conventions for heritage protection, governance structures, and local area planning intersect within holistic heritage management frameworks. The course provides a critical introduction to cultural mapping, gender and youth issues in community engagement, poverty alleviation and Millennium Development Goals. It also examines the challenges posed by the conflicts between conservation and development, particularly in World Heritage Areas.

This Field School provides practical field experience not only to graduate students and researchers in museum, heritage and environmental studies, practicing museum and heritage professionals, but will also be of interest to those involved in archaeology, anthropology, planning, postcolonial studies, sustainable development and cultural heritage law.

Contact us: http://inclusivemuseum.org/contact/

Click here to enjoy a photos of the Vietnam Field School by a former participant: Dr Tomke Lask, Director, Laboratory of Anthropology of Communication (LAC), University of Liege, Belgium

Read a paper titled ‘Transnational Educational Experiences in Anthropology: Orienting Students to the Discipline’s Changing Geography‘, presented at the session Education and Institutional Practices, May 14, 2009 during the Annual Conference of the Canadian Anthropology Society (CASCA) 2009 by J Joanne Kienholz, MA Student, University of British Columbia 2009, Alumna of the International Field School in Museums and Sustainable Heritage Development, University of Queensland 2008.

• Sustainable community engagement: workshop at the Vietnam Museum of Ethnology on the participation of indigenous and minority groups in the conservation and interpretation of tangible and intangible heritage and their representation in different contexts.
• Critical investigation into the positive and negative effects that tourism has had on the traditional ways of life and heritage values of indigenous and ethnic minority groups in Northern, Central and Southern Vietnam.
• Women and youth issues in culture and development – seminar at the Vietnam Museum of Women in Hanoi and Women’s Museum of the South in Ho Chi Minh City – addressing issues of gender, representation and participation in environmental education, and globalization.
• Challenges in the practical implementation of the UNESCO World Heritage Convention, including workshops with management in Hue, Hoi An, My Son and Ha Long Bay World Heritage Areas.
• Post-conflict heritage management, peace and reconciliation in Vietnam, with case studies in Ha Long Bay, Hue, My Son, Cham Island, Danang Museum in Danang City and Cu Chi tunnels and museums in Ho Chi Minh City and Dong Nai Province.
• Urban development and heritage conservation – evaluation workshop with the Vietnam Institute of Archaeology examining the future development and management of Ba Dinh Archaeological Site and Thang Long Citadel in the heart of Hanoi, and the sustainable heritage development of Hanoi Old Quarter. Workshop at the Ho Chi Minh City Museum on the layers of significance of urban heritage.
• Roundtable at the Vietnam Museum of Fine Arts in Hanoi to interrogate the construction of the aesthetic discourse and its contemporary globalisation through biennales and triennials.
• Study of the Vietnam Temple of Literature as Documentary Heritage
• The significance of Object ID, Vietnam National Cultural Heritage Law and minimization of illicit traffic in cultural property and UNESCO & CITES Conventions with seminar at the Cham Museum in Danang.
• Ecomuseums and holistic heritage management: participation in a planning workshop bringing together floating fishing villages and curators, site managers and conservators to evaluate the construction and development of the world’s first floating museum in Ha Long Bay World Heritage Area and the Hoi An Ecomuseum development bringing the Cua Lao Cham UNESCO Biosphere Reserve and World Heritage Area together through integrated local area planning.
• Evaluating heritage and environmental policies, cultural mapping and integrated sustainable systems methodologies and intercultural dialogue in development and poverty alleviation.
• UNESCO Conventions on Cultural Diversity and Safeguarding of Intangible Heritage and the integration of intangible and tangible heritage in museums and World Heritage Areas.

Contact us: http://inclusivemuseum.org/contact/
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The Pacific Asia Observatory for Cultural Diversity in Human Development is a project of the

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http://www.icom-cc.org, 2011

Hello: An interesting development in the museum field: I just received the following news from Prof. Amareswar Galla, who was an ICOM-CC Keynote Speaker during our Plenary Sessions of the 2005 ICOM-CC 14th Triennial Conference in The Hague, where he spoke on the theme ‘Involving society in the conservation of cultural heritage’ . — Carole

Source: International Committees of ICOM (International Council of Museums)

Dear all,

I am in transition with establishing the International Institute for the Inclusive Museum (www.inclusivemuseum.org) which brings together 10 relevant universities and 15 museums across the world. It will have hubs in Chicago, Mumbai, Paris and Sydney. It will bring together several knowledge communities that are currently accessible under different urls or at least provide an easy gateway to access them: Cross Cultural Task Force, International Council of Museums, Paris; Pacific Asia Observatory for Cultural Diversity in Human Development (UNESCO Project): www.ijih.org ; www.onmuseums.com ; www.onsustainability.com; www.on-climate.com & several others.

Thank you for your kind attention.

Prof. Amareswar Galla, PhD Executive Director, International Institute for the Inclusive Museum

P.O. Box – 246, Kallangur QLD 4503, Australia

Email: director [at] inclusivemuseum.org; a.galla [at] yahoo.com.au

Web: www.inclusivemuseum.org, Social Media: Facebook, Twitter

Mobile phone: +61 419 273 041

(SMS) Skype: amargalla

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The Pacific Asia Observatory for Cultural Diversity in Human Development is a project of the

Follow @InclusiveMuseum


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Istanbul, Turkey. Flickr credit: globetrottingrien

Eight Day Professional Development Program

Istanbul, Turkey,  May, 2012 (Dates to be confirmed)

Description

This Professional Development Program is available as a eight day intensive for people from all professional back grounds, especially international humanitarian law, Human Rights Commissions, Environmental and Heritage Agencies, Museums, Galleries, Libraries and Archives. This course is designed to give participants an introduction to international laws concerning heritage in its various forms, giving them a solid grounding in the obligations concerning heritage established by major international legal instruments such as the UNESCO Conventions, Recommendations and Declarations. Participants need have no prior knowledge of law or of the international legal system.

Contact: http://inclusivemuseum.org/contact/

The course also provides participants with knowledge of international rules which affect exchanges, exhibitions, recovery of stolen cultural objects, protection of antiquities, and acquisition and exhibition policies. Lack of knowledge of this body of legal obligations and the relevant ethical codes could lead to potential losses to museums and breaches of international legal obligations for which a country may be liable. Cultural rights are addressed as an integral part of Human Rights. All the course modules are illustrated with international case studies, including several from the Asia Pacific Region, through the first hand legal knowledge of the course faculty.

Participants will study the Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict 1954 and its two Protocols (1954, 1999), theUNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property 1970, the UNIDROIT Convention on Stolen or Illegally Exported Cultural Objects 1995, the UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage 2001, UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage 2003 and the UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions 2005. More briefly there will be consideration of the UNESCO Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage 1972, the 11 UNESCO heritage Recommendations and the UNESCO Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity 2001. The adoption and implementation of these instruments both in Australia and other countries will be studied as well as their implications for Australian heritage and other cultural workers. Participants will also become acquainted with the international support mechanisms and networks and will investigate, as part of their course, Australia’s or their country’s participation (or failure to participate) in the implementation of this instruments through their national legislation and administration.

Learning Objectives

After successfully completing this course you should be able to:

• Be aware of the international standards and have the ability to develop further in-depth knowledge
• Evaluate the international standards which have been adopted in the past five years
• Assess and research how these apply in their own countries or in Australia
• Be familiar with the international support mechanisms and networks and have the capacity to investigate, their country’s participation (or failure to participate) in the implementation of these instruments through their national legislation and administration

Contact: http://inclusivemuseum.org/contact/
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The Pacific Asia Observatory for Cultural Diversity in Human Development is a project of the

Follow @InclusiveMuseum


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Flickr credit globetrottingrien, Thanks!