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1 Newsletter of the Network of European Museum Organisations Creative Museums Visitors become sculptures, Schlossmuseum Linz Galerie industrie et recherche, Bordeaux FMA s course for museum information coordinators Photos: left Oberösterreichische Landesmuseen; middle Patrice Brossard/Cap Sciences; right Janne Saavalainen/Finnish Museums Association Creative Europe, under this title the European Commission launched a new framework programme for funding culture in the period As the title says, the framework does not speak of culture as such, but rather focuses on an aspect of its produce: creativity. The EU sees good reasons for that. With the 2020 strategy the EU wants to promote smart, sustainable and inclusive growth in Europe. And all policies should contribute to that also the culture policy, but how? The Commission seeks the answer by including the creative sector as an independent domain in its cultural policy. By creative sector you could think of creative industries like architecture, design, fashion, publishing and media. Indeed in the new framework programme, the former Culture and MEDIA programmes are combined under a single funding policy. One could see this coming. Ever since the Commission published the Green Paper on Creative Industries under de title Unlocking the potential of cultural and creative industries, it has become clear that much good is expected from creativeness and the creative industries. So where does this leave museums? Museums are not once explicitly mentioned in the new framework programme. One would expect different, considering that museums constitute one of the largest and more widespread cultural industries in Europe; museums have long proved their role as catalysts for urban regeneration and local economy development (e.g. Bilbao, Liverpool); also, museums are one of the main reasons Europe is chosen as a destination for tourism and the settlement of multinationals. Those are fundamental arguments behind decisions for massive investment in museums in emerging powers like China and Abu Dabi. And yet there is no mention of museums in the new EU framework programme for culture. The Commission considers museums a part of cultural heritage (the latter again hardly mentioned) which is part of culture. But if the Commission s strategic orientation to use culture as a means for the promotion of creativity and growth is expressed in two words which explicitly refer to the creative sector, what does that say about the position of cultural heritage? That it could take a good example by looking at the creative industries? That it should be more creative? Creativeness is a key aspect of museums: Museums are enormous sources of creativity, through their collections that registered the history of creativity and form the back catalogue that inspires people and creativity all over Europe and beyond. Museums are one of the few places left where contemporary creativity is displayed free of commercial restraint, where the creatives can experiment and go beyond borders. Museums are creative by trade, in the sense that they constantly seek new ways of exhibiting their collections and engaging local communities. The whole experience of exhibitions is changing rapidly; interaction with the audience is further enhanced. In addition, as we live in a digital era, creativity is now mostly needed to find ways to interact with the collections free from time and space. Although digitisation can not claim to offer substitutes for the experience of physical objects, it has a complementary function. Digitisation opens a new access way into creating value out of our cultural heritage. In this respect, the EU can really make a difference. Finally, creativity is also much needed to unlock the full potential of the globally growing market for cultural tourism. A European Heritage Label can help, but what museums really need is the opportunity to compete on the global market by eliminating barriers to the mobility of collections within Europe. In the coming weeks, NEMO will plan its reaction on the framework programme in more detail and put it forward through its members in the EU member states. But at least one thing is clear. Too much creativity is needed to see a real concern for museums in the EU Framework Programme. A more explicit look at the value of museums for the European Society would suit. By Siebe Weide

2 2 NEMO Annual Meeting 2011 in Athens NEMO Annual Meeting 2011 in Athens Page 2 A Letter from the NEMO Chairman NEMO Activities An Interview with Ilona Kish NEMO Partner Projects: Workshop on Volunteer Management in Cultural Institutions Exhibiting Europe The Learning Museum: Follow-up Report ABOUT: Switzerland Page 3 Page 4 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 NEMO The Network of European Museum Organisations is an independent network representing the European museum community. For more information about NEMO, visit: is produced by the German Museums Association Editor: Anna Bas Backer Co-editor: Marie-Louise Chagnaud Contributors: Anna Bas Backer, Marie- Louise Chagnaud, Izabella Csordás, Wolfram Kaiser, Ilona Kish, Margherita Sani, Sofia Tsilidou, David Vuillaume, Siebe Weide Design: Hannu Rinne Printing: MK Druck, Berlin, Germany NEMO News is also available in pdf format at Looking for MUSEUMpartners in EU-projects? Go to our website: With the support of the European Community budget line Support for bodies active at European level in the field of culture This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein. Working sessions at the Byzantine Museum The NEMO Annual Meeting 2011 was organised in collaboration with the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Tourism and took place on November at the Byzantine and Christian Museum in Athens. Fifty participants, including ministry officials and the directors of numerous major museums of Athens, attended the first day of the meeting, which was partly devoted to the presentation of the Greek museum landscape. The opening session, focusing on Greece, included an extensive presentation on museum legislation, major museum-related projects and key policies recently implemented by the Ministry of Culture. This was complemented by the presentations of two local museum networks, namely the 5 Museums Movement and the museum network of the Piraeus Bank Group Cultural Foundation, shedding light on the collaborative trends between public and private sector, their potential and their limitations. The session that followed covered museum volunteering in Europe. The presentations focused on the EU funded 'VoCH' (Volunteers for Cultural Heritage) project as well as the presentation of 'Volunteer Management in Cultural Institutions', a workshop in which NEMO was a partner. They served as a starting point for discussion and sharing experiences among members, showing a diversity of approaches, infrastructures and practices applied in this field. The second day of the meeting opened with the presentation on a study recently carried out in the Netherlands in order to determine and raise awareness of the social significance of museums. Five core values identified in the study were described and analysed: collection, connecting, educational, experience and economic value. As part of a practical exercise, participants walked through the Byzantine museum galleries in groups to reflect and report on how these values could be highlighted in a more inspiring way. In the afternoon, Ilona Kish (Culture Action Europe) gave an update on current developments in Brussels with regard to funding for culture. She shared her concern over the unfavourable position of heritage and museums in the new framework program Creative Europe. Regarding internal NEMO issues, Mark Taylor coordinated a lively discussion among members on the priorities to be addressed in a future NEMO policy document. Siebe Weide reported on the past year s activities and gave an outline of plans for Moreover, two new members, Janis Garjans (Latvia) and Sofia Tsilidou (Greece), were elected to the Executive Board. The working sessions of the meeting closed with very brief updates on the progress of projects of European transnational collaboration associated with NEMO (e.g. Europeana, LEM, ENCACT). A guided tour to the new Acropolis Museum followed by a formal dinner at the museum restaurant with a night view of the Acropolis marked the end of the annual meeting. By Sofia Tsilidou You can find out more about the 5 Museums Movement at: and the Piraeus Bank Group Cultural Foundation at: Photo V. Magnes, Byzantine and Christian Museum Athens

3 A Letter from the NEMO Chairman 3 NEMO held an excellent annual meeting in November in the Byzantine Museum in Athens, Greece. It was a unique time and place for the annual meeting. Just a block away from the museum, on the first day of the meeting, the new Prime Minister of Greece was sworn in, at the hope of the whole of Europe. With the political and financial world in turmoil, and the European solidarity at stake, NEMO members showed that solidarity is stronger than ever among museums in Europe. NEMO is about sharing experiences. It is a network of those who are involved in museum policies on a national level, in all countries that are a member of the Council of Europe. We aim to collect our thoughts and visions in order to bring them forward on the European stage. NEMO is the gateway to Europe for museums and vice versa. This has generated frequent contacts with the Commission and recently with the Parliament. The next step is to engage more in the EU presidencies. And we can do much better. Underlining this ambition, we discussed a new policy document during our meeting. We want to make clear what we are about and what not. In the coming years we aim to strengthen and widen the network. After years of being an informal network we decided to set the wheels in motion toward a more formal structure. New statutes, a mission statement and a policy document are in development. We want to make clear what our core members are: the first call on national matters in every country. At the same time we want to open ourselves to a wider range of organisations that deal with museum issues on an international or trans-national basis. Think of the European Association of Open Air Museums; or the International Association of Children s Museums. They are each concerned with specific cross border issues, and are in one way or another affected by Brussels rule of law. But also outside the Council of Europe national museum organisations are welcome: for example we recently welcomed the Georgian National Museum, which decided to become an associated member. Photo Fred Ernst Combined, we can make a stronger network in which NEMO focuses on influencing Brussels, while the members of the network bring in their specialised knowledge of specific matters. United we can really change things for the better. By Siebe Weide NEMO Activities NEMO Evaluation 2011 The internal evaluation process, undertaken in 2011, looks at both how NEMO operates (i.e. as an organisation; the services it provides to its members) and at the outcomes produced (NEMO Annual Meetings; communication). The evaluation report will be made available online and is based on feedback received during the NEMO Annual Meeting 2011 in Athens, Greece. Further evaluation steps will take place in Follow NEMO on Facebook or Twitter Join NEMO on one of the social network sites and get regular updates and information on events. To follow NEMO on Facebook or Twitter just go to the NEMO website at and find the corresponding buttons at the top of the page. Proposal for EU Culture Programme Creative Europe The European Commission (EC) has published its proposal for the forthcoming EU Culture Programme on the 23rd of November All information, the legal basis and the communication are now available for download at: NEMO will keep its members informed about the debate and the ongoing decisionmaking process. It will react on the proposition.

4 4 An Interview with Ilona Kish Ilona Kish joined Culture Action Europe as Secretary-General in April Born and educated in London, but of Hungarian and New Zealand parentage, Ilona Kish trained in literature and modern languages. After an internship in the European Commission culture directorate, she developed her management skills as an international project manager at Procter and Gamble. In 2007, Ilona Kish chaired the Civil Society Contact Group which lobbies on, and debates issues of participation and democracy for civil society in Europe. What is the we are more campaign about and what specific goals does it serve? we are more act for culture in Europe is a Europe-wide campaign for the arts and culture. It was launched in October 2010 and will run until 2013, when the EU decides about its next multi-annual budget for the period 2014 to The we are more campaign promotes culture, heritage and the arts, together with education, social cohesion and environmental sustainability as key areas in which the EU has to make more bold investments. This is necessary for the EU if it wants to reach its growth objectives and for Europe to remain a thriving democracy in the future. The force behind the we are more campaign is Culture Action Europe, a coalition of more than one hundred organisations and numerous artists across Europe in strategic partnership with the European Cultural Foundation. It is an open source advocacy tool that encourages individuals and organisations to get involved and stand up for increased support to arts and culture in the policies and programmes of the European Union. Photo Caroline Scheyven The campaign has two specific goals: firstly, a reinforced Culture Programme that is more daring and experimental than the current one; secondly, an increased and more explicit support to culture, heritage and the arts in the EU Regional Development Funds dedicated to cohesion and local and regional development. The campaign joins the interests of a wide range of diverse cultural actors. In what ways can museums in particular benefit from its activities? Yes, Culture Action Europe s membership is already very diverse in itself (currently there are over one hundred members in more than 14 artistic disciplines), and since the campaign is open for everyone to join, the range of actors becomes even more diverse. The campaign has for instance, been endorsed by Europa Nostra and the manifesto was signed by more than 25,000 individuals working in a wide range of sectors. By joining the campaign, museums across Europe can help to show that there is a strong critical mass from within and beyond the sector that cares about the ongoing negotiations. Museums will also show that there is a strong solidarity between different disciplines within the sector. We have to act together to increase the chances of vital support to culture in the next EU budget! At a time in Europe when financial resources are increasingly an issue, what opportunities does the proposed EU Culture Budget offer to museums, in terms of funding? The EC proposal for the next Culture Programme called, Creative Europe would be open to all types of actors within the cultural and creative sectors, including market-oriented structures. The definition of the potential beneficiaries is very broad and deliberately open. Museums would therefore have the same opportunities as all other types of actors, namely to use the programme to overcome challenges linked to globalisation and the digital shift, fragmentation of the market and sector and accessing finance (the new programme would include a guarantee fund). The programme wants to open up new international opportunities and has a strong focus on skills development and audience building that could be of interest to museums. Why is it important for cultural institutions to get better access to EU Regional Development funds? The Structural Funds represent 35,7 percent of the current EU budget ( ), making it the EU s second largest budget envelope after agriculture. t

5 5 EU estimates suggest that 1,7 percent of the current Structural Funds support cultural-based initiatives. Although this is a tiny percentage of the total budget, it still makes the Structural Funds the largest source of funding for the arts and culture from the EU. Improving the access to this funding in the next budget round is therefore crucial. About two thirds of Culture Action Europe s members are networks, and they play a key role in multiplying the campaign message and making sure it reaches as many individuals and organisations as possible. If we count the members of all our members, Culture Action Europe indirectly represents about organisations. Do the European Structural Funds explicitly anticipate funding opportunities for cultural institutions such as museums? What long-term developments are expected in this regard? In the previous and current Cohesion Policy frameworks the contribution of culture to local and regional development has been recognised in terms of cultural heritage and tourism. The new EC proposals for the Structural Funds do not envisage culture in broader terms. The published proposals do not specifically mention culture, with the exception of a minor reference to cultural heritage in the European Regional Development Fund. The proposal for the future European Social Fund fails to recognise the role of culture in education and skills development as well as in social inclusion. Therefore, at this stage, the overall position of culture within the Cohesion Policy framework is very weak is a key decision-making year during which the EU budget will be voted upon by Members of the European Parliament and Ministers from the Member States. EU support to culture over the next seven years is at stake. The negotiations over the first four months of the year will be crucial. The challenge will be to convince all 754 MEPs and Ministers of Culture to vote yes to vital support to culture. What role do international networks like NEMO play within the we are more campaign and Culture Action Europe? How can museum organisations contribute to the activities of the we are more campaign on a European and national level? 1) Help us to collect signatures to the campaign manifesto. The aim is to collect 100,000 signatures and present them to the Culture Ministers of all EU Member States when they gather in Brussels for the EU Council of Culture Ministers meeting the 10th of May ) Make sure that your regional and national politicians, Minister of Culture and MEPs know that your museum cares about the future of EU support to culture. Send letters and go see them in person. Use the campaign advocacy tool on our website, the Message book, to get some basic facts and figures that you can adapt to your local and regional context. 3) Follow us on Facebook and get ready to relay our message when we publish our statement on Creative Europe and advocacy tools that can be used when advocating for explicit support to culture in the Structural Funds. By Anna Bas Backer and Marie-Louise Chagnaud On the other hand, as these proposals are quite broad, even within the proposed narrow framework there is scope for the inclusion of culture, and in particular cultural and creative industries, under the objectives of the future Structural Funds in the national, regional and local strategies designed for their implementation. What is on the political calendar of the EU and of the campaign in 2012? What specific challenges does the coming year hold for museums in Europe? Links You can find the we are more manifesto at The Message book an advocacy toolkit for campaign supporters can be downloaded at eu/advocacy-tools. To follow the we are more campaign on Facebook go to pages/act-for-culture-in-europe/ For more ways to participate in the campaign, the Join! section on the campaign website offers an overview at

6 6 NEMO Partner Projects Workshop: Volunteer Management in Cultural Institutions After five intense days, one of the participants said that the course was a great opportunity to refresh our minds about, why we need volunteers and why we have to appreciate them. Between the 6th and the 10th of November 2011, eight international participants came together in the Budapest Museum of Fine Arts to learn more about the volunteer management model and to share their own experiences. The participants arrived from Argentina, Belgium, Colombia, Hungary, the Netherlands and the UK. Having spoken as founder and coordinator of the Volunteer Programme of the museum at international conferences, I have received several practical questions about how we run our programme so successfully. In response to the interest in this matter, the idea was borne for a volunteer management course. How to engage volunteers? How to keep them motivated on the long term? How to represent both the institution and the volunteers? These were general questions of volunteer coordinators. The course attempted to look for answers through interactive training exercises like group works, games and role-play. The rest of the course time included presentations, participation and introduction into volunteer activities in order to gain as deep an understanding as possible. During the training, the 11 modules of volunteer management were delivered in an interactive way, mostly based on the participants own experiences with the aim to structure and synthesise previous knowledge. The course methods used group-training exercises to cover the following useful topics: Selection of volunteers Interview techniques Volunteer manual & contract Changing volunteer motivation Phases of volunteer life Evaluation of volunteer activities assertive feedback technique Role of the volunteer coordinator Practical experimentation of volunteer activities Photo Izabella Csordás Participants play an active role According to the thoughts shared by one of the course participants, the tasks allowed everyone to take part in an equal measure, thus gaining more ideas, experiences and help from the group. Participants also mention developing a sense of motivation and a greater confidence in their strategies. By Izabella Csordás The course will be offered again between the 4th and 10th of October For more information write to volunteer@mfab.hu and apply for a Grundtvig grant covering all related costs. For further reading you can download the reader at > About NEMO > Annual meetings > Athens 2011 > Information. NEMO will continue to add more information about volunteering on its website in the future. Exhibiting Europe Exhibiting Europe has been a NEMO partner project since Funded by the Norwegian Research Council until 2012, its aim is to study different dimensions of the transnationalisation and Europeanisation of history and ethnology museums throughout Europe. The three senior scientists on the project have now finalised the manuscript for a book summarising the project results. They have written this book for a broader audience and are especially targeting directors and curators in museums. The book is based inter alia on visits to nearly one hundred museums and interviews with more than 60 individuals including members of NEMO and many more museum practitioners from across Europe. It will come out in German first, as Europa ausstellen: Das Museum als Praxisfeld der Europäisierung, by Wolfram Kaiser, Stefan Krankenhagen and Kerstin Poehls. An English language version is currently planned for In their book the three co-authors, who have academic backgrounds in history and European studies, cultural studies and ethnology, discuss the linked processes of Europeanisation and musealisation; the role of state institutions and societal actors like museum organisations and curators in fostering processes of transnationalisation or Europeanisation; collecting Europe in the form of the exchange and digitisation of objects; narrating Europe as the Europeanisation of stories about the more recent past; and the transnational and European in migration museums and exhibitions. By Wolfram Kaiser For more information on the project and its publications and other forms of dissemination of the research results so far see edu/ifs/research/exhibiting. The book can be ordered at > Verlagskatalog > Bücher > Geschichte > Einzeltitel.

7 7 LEM The Learning Museum Follow-up Report To keep up with change, museums are not only expected to be learning places, but learning organisations themselves. In a nutshell, this is the philosophy of LEM The Learning Museum, the EU funded Grundtvig network, which started in November 2010 and will operate until November Fifteen months after its inception, the project coordinator Margherita Sani of the Italian Institute of Cultural Heritage reports on how the project is performing and what it has achieved so far. How is LEM effectively realising its main objective of supporting museums in being learning places as well as learning organisations? Learning is the focus of the project and is achieved mainly through the exchange of experiences within the partnership, through the research and the exchange of information in the Working Groups and through the Mobility actions. The project partners come in direct contact with high quality and innovative educational activities carried out by peers in other countries, which they can use as inspiration to better cater to their audiences. But they also learn how to learn from their communities, from other stakeholders and, in particular, from peers. Learning to learn is, after all, one of the key competences that the EU has listed as essential for individuals living in a knowledge-based society. We are simply applying this concept to museum organisations. How is this peer learning happening? First of all, the project has established five Working Groups with different thematic subjects: Key trends in the museums of the 21st century, including everything from digital technologies to participatory approaches; Museums and the ageing population, very important, as the elderly are increasingly becoming a key audience for museums; Audience research, learning styles and visitor relation management, looking at audience research and development and at the different ways of assessing the value of museums; Learning spaces in museums, collecting best practice examples of learning areas in museums; Museums and intercultural dialogue, the focus on accessibility, empowerment and engagement of the public. International Formidlingsseminar Denmark 2010 The Working Groups, each with their own coordinator, lead a sort of independent life within the project, although, of course, still connected to the whole. They decide their own agenda and work methodology, have their own travel budget and go on study visits either to each other or to third institutions collect and exchange relevant documents and in the end, each produce a report. In 2011 study visits took place to Glasgow and Berlin and others are planned for 2012 to Linz, Tongeren and Bordeaux. In addition, there have been the international conferences and seminars, which have so far brought partners to meet in Finland, Italy, the UK and Ireland. What is the Mobility Scheme? Peer learning happens also through the Mobility Scheme. Five of the Consortium partners have agreed to host colleagues on placement for periods between two weeks and three months. The destinations are: the UK, Belgium, Sweden and Austria. It is clear that the learning achieved from first hand experience in a different work environment is enormous. I would like to underline that participation both in the Working Groups and in the Mobility Scheme is open to LEM Partners and to Associate Partners. What is an Associate Partner? An Associate Partner is an organisation, (museum, university, etc.) which was not originally part of the Consortium, but joins the Network afterwards. We started with 23 partners from 17 EU countries, plus the University of Denver, USA, and are now already 43 organisations from 20 countries. Also institutions outside the EU can join. Again, LEM is an open network where not the country of origin, but exchange and learning are fundamental. Becoming an Associate Partner is very easy and doesn t cost anything. It is all explained on the website. The website is the main platform for exchange and learning happening within the project. We are very proud of the website, which is a treasure-trove of information and is constantly updated with materials and documents which everyone can submit, as long as they are coherent with LEM s subject areas. By Margherita Sani You can visit the website at: Photo Association of Danish Museums

8 8 About: Switzerland The co-existence of public and private museums, their collaboration and the element of competition between them, has remained unchanged throughout the history of Swiss museums. Amerbach s private art collection and library, which includes works by Dürer and Holbein, was acquired for example by the City and University of Basel in 1661 making it one of the first collections under public ownership in the history of museums. In the 19th century, the bourgeois circles initiated and financed the construction of numerous public museums. A real explosion in the creation of museums happened at the end of the 20th century. Most of the numerous museums projects nowadays are based on a public-private partnership. The almost 1,100 museums listed by the Swiss Museums Association form a remarkable cultural network throughout the country from the big cities to remote mountain regions. About 400 museums are dedicated to local and regional heritage, and over 180 boast an art levels. Depending on the location, they are either under the direct management of the authorities, formed as an association or as a free network without legal status. The structures are often light since the most important factor for these networks is to be functional and efficient. Photo Swiss Museums Association, Heike Grasser Museum Rietberg, Zurich collection. A third of the Swiss museums is owned by the public authorities, another third is established by associations and 20 percent are owned by private foundations. The museums are very well frequented, recording 18 million visitors in The objective of the Swiss Museums Association, founded in 1966, is to represent the variety of the Swiss museum landscape in its entirety, especially in view of the authorities and the general public. At the request of its members, it is fiercely committed to quality matters as it provides norms and standards right across the board. Whilst the Swiss Museums Association networks institutions at a national level, the museum professionals come together within ICOM Switzerland. Furthermore there are numerous networks of museums working at regional, cantonal and local Even though the Swiss economy is dependent on the European market, it remains unscathed by the European debt crisis. This is understandable due to its political situation - Switzerland is not a member of the European Union - and to the sound management of its sovereign debt. Furthermore, the diversified financing of museums equally shields them from abrupt cuts in their budget. Finally it is worth mentioning that museums benefit from the fact that they are highly appreciated both by people all over the country and the political and economic decision-makers. Having said that, Swiss museums follow the existential debates that are held in several European countries with great interest. Swiss museums are interested in reflecting on the basis of their actions, whether they are in a time of crisis or not. In most of Swiss museums the development of exhibitions and face-toface exchange are considered to be more important than publishing collections in the form of a virtual museum. However, more and more institutions are experimenting with the instruments of Web 2.0 in their communications activities. The question of participation goes well beyond the technical means available. The museum is increasingly seen (by the public as well as the professionals) as a forum where positions and views (both historic and artistic) are propositions to be discussed by the visitor-citizen. This phenomenon goes hand in hand with the current system of semi-direct democracy in Switzerland. Museums simultaneously strengthen their role as permanent training institutions in response to the requests made by the public, the professionals and politics. The public has very high expectations of museums. In order to satisfy these, the museums have to constantly adapt the quality of their services. Since this is an expensive exercise, it is likely that museums will work towards a concentrated collaboration in the future. Ideally, not by merging institutions to save financial means, but by creating common services (storage, research, education, communication) to assure the best quality, even in museums of a modest size. Switzerland By David Vuillaume is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons with Bern as its capital. Switzerland first joined the United Nations in It is home to a large number of international organisations, including the second largest UN office. It is a founding member of the European Free Trade Association and is part of the Schengen Area although it is not a member of the European Union, or the European Economic Area.