NEWS
ICOM Canada Joins Cultural Diplomacy Research Project
This article was released in the ICOM Canada September 2019 e-newsletter on Cultural Diplomacy. See more articles from this issue here. Lynda Jessup (Queen’s University at Kingston) and Dr. Sascha Priewe (Royal Ontario Museum) ICOM Canada joins partners in Canada, US and Mexico for a new multi-partner research project to study cultural diplomacy. There is ample evidence that we are living in an increasingly adversarial moment: a world of global terrorism, refugee crises, and divisive partisan and nationalist politics. While mitigating cultural conflict through traditional diplomatic channels remains an urgent focus of governments, efforts are failing. They are failing not only because the re-emergent, polarizing forces of protectionism, xenophobia and extremism are "wicked problems” – complex issues that do not offer a clear or apparent solution – but also because the practice of diplomacy itself has shifted. In response to these concerns, the North American Cultural Diplomacy Initiative (NACDI) is thrilled to announce a new [...]
Senate report: Cultural Diplomacy at the Front Stage of Canada’s Foreign Policy
This article was released in the ICOM Canada September 2019 e-newsletter on Cultural Diplomacy. See more articles from this issue here. The “Cultural Diplomacy at the Front Stage of Canada’s Foreign Policy” report is the first parliamentary review of cultural diplomacy since the 1995 Canadian foreign policy review. This report, which views cultural diplomacy as a country’s promotion of national interests through arts and culture, echoes one of the earlier review’s main points: to establish cultural diplomacy as a pillar of Canadian foreign policy. After 27 hearings with more than 60 witnesses and a number of written briefs by the Standing Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade, the report was launched at the National Gallery on June 11, 2019. The report urges the Government of Canada to create a comprehensive cultural diplomacy strategy, as in the words of Committee chair, Senator Raynell Andreychuk, “[t]he full reach and potential of cultural diplomacy, as [...]
International Spotlight: An Interview with International Coalition of Sites of Conscience
This article was released in the ICOM Canada September 2019 e-newsletter on Cultural Diplomacy. See more articles from this issue here. Ben Fast (Alberta Museums Association; ICOM Canada) Each e-newsletter issue will feature an international spotlight, highlighting the work of an ICOM committee, international museum, partner organization, or other related body working in the area of our newsletter theme. For this issue Ben Fast, ICOM Canada’s Digital Content & Outreach Coordinator, connected with Dina Bailey (Director of Methodology and Practice), Linda Norris (Global Networks Program Director), and Sarah Pharaon (Senior Director Methodology and Practice) to learn about the cultural diplomacy work conducted by and through the US-based International Coalition of Sites of Conscience. BF: What is the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience? SP: The International Coalition of Sites of Conscience (ICSC) is a worldwide network of sites, museums and memory initiatives dedicated to remembering past struggles and addressing their contemporary legacies. Sites [...]
Message from the Chair – September 2019
This message was released in the ICOM Canada September 2019 e-newsletter on Cultural Diplomacy. See more articles from this issue here. On behalf of the ICOM Canada Executive, I am excited to introduce our first issue of our new e-newsletter and tell you about ICOM Canada’s work in the area of Cultural Diplomacy. It has been a busy year for ICOM Canada. In April we hosted our Annual General Meeting during the Canadian Museums Association conference in Toronto. At our AGM we said goodbye to two outgoing Board members (Dr. Viviane Gosselin and George Jacob) and welcomed two new Board members to the team (Leah Best and Dr. Karine Duhamel). The Board has worked diligently in 2019 to launch our new website (www.icomcanada.org), re-energize our member communications, and prepare for the ICOM Triennial in Kyoto this September. ICOM Canada submitted a proposed change to the ICOM Definition of a Museum [...]
New Research Project on Museum Diplomacy in Canada
This article was released in the ICOM Canada September 2019 e-newsletter on Cultural Diplomacy. See more articles from this issue here. Dr. Sascha Priewe (Royal Ontario Museum; ICOM Canada) This summer, researchers from Queen’s University, in partnership with the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA), commenced work on Global Engagement of Museums in Canada, a research project supported by the Mitacs Accelerate Program. Filling a considerable data gap, this project parses the international cultural work and activities of eleven museums and art galleries across Canada, including the Art Gallery of Alberta, Aga Khan Museum, Canadian Museum of History, Canadian Museum for Human Rights, Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Museum of Anthropology at UBC, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa Art Gallery, Pointe-à-Callière Montréal Archaeology and History Complex, and the Royal Ontario Museum. The selected museums are by no means representative of all museums and art galleries in Canada, but [...]
Building Connection through Universal Stories
This article was released in the ICOM Canada September 2019 e-newsletter on Cultural Diplomacy. See more articles from this issue here. C.W. Gross (Glenbow Museum) There has been a tremendous emphasis put on representing our differences in the recent political climate. As a museum educator I often worry that we place so much emphasis on diversity of characteristics that we lose sight of one of the most powerful connections our museums make: the universality of our stories. One of the stories my wife, a fellow educator, and I most like to tell is the story of my father. He was born in 1932 in what was known at the time as Regenwalde, Pomerania, in the Weimar Republic (the unofficial historical designation applied to the German state from 1918-1933). His father had served as a Prussian medic in World War I, and when the Nazis seized power shortly after my father’s birth, he helped persecuted peoples escape [...]