NEWS
International Museum Day 2020
Each year since 1977, the International Council of Museums (ICOM) has organized International Museum Day, a unique celebration of museums for the international museum community. Organised on 18 May each year or around this date, the events and activities planned to celebrate International Museum Day (IMD) can last a day, a weekend or an entire week. Last year, more than 37,000 museums participated in the event in about 158 countries and territories. As the museum community - and the communities we serve and live within - are impacted by COVID-19 lockdowns and restrictions, this year's IMD is going digital! ICOM and ICOM Canada invite Canadian museums to join the international museum community to host online activities around May 18 and celebrate with us. See below for information about this year's theme, ways you can participate, resources for your work, and much more! This year's IMD theme is "Museums for Equality: [...]
2020 Call for Nominations to the ICOM Canada Board
Additional information about the 2020 AGM can be found here. Dear Members, As the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic evolves, ICOM Canada has made the decision to postpone our Annual General Meeting, originally scheduled for Wednesday, April 15, 2020 at the Le Centre Sheraton Montreal Hotel. Information about the rescheduled meeting will be available soon. ICOM Canada does, however, wish to move forward with the call for nominations in preparation for our AGM and next year of business. We are actively seeking members to serve on the ICOM Canada Board of Directors to further the Board’s mission, mandate, and strategic priorities. These include advancing the primary aims and objectives of ICOM, increasing public awareness of Canadian museums and cultural heritage institutions within Canada and to the international museum and cultural heritage community, and making ICOM Canada more vital in the professional life of its members. If this opportunity [...]
Coalition of Museums for Climate Justice: Designing change together
This article was released in the April 2020 ICOM Canada e-newsletter on Sustainable Development. See more articles from this issue here. Dr. Viviane Gosselin (Museum of Vancouver) and Dr. Robert R. Janes (Editor-in-Chief, Museum Management and Curatorship) Museums are key intellectual and civic resources where substantive issues can be aired, discussed, and acted upon. These unique qualities must now be put to work in finding solutions to climate emergency. The Coalition of Museums for Climate Justice (CMCJ) was formed in 2016 to build museums' capacity to promote community awareness, mitigation and resilience in the face of the growing climate crisis. Its Advisory Group offers leadership by proposing and implementing initiatives to achieve this goal. At present, the Coalition’s primary activities include social media outreach (Facebook, Twitter, blog posts) that engage more than 2,000 Canadians and other museum professionals on a regular basis; regional, national and international conference presentations and sessions; [...]
Sustainability in Conservation
This article was released in the ICOM Canada April 2020 e-newsletter on Sustainable Development. See more articles from this issue here. Amy Kowalchuk (Technical Assistant, Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology / Historical Resources Intern, Athabasca University) Sustainability in Conservation (SiC) is an international non-governmental organization that strives to research and promote options for sustainable practices within the conservation sector. The Student Ambassador Program (SAP) aims to facilitate environmental awareness by providing students with resources to encourage the adoption of sustainable practices early in their careers, as well as a global online forum for resource sharing. As the first student ambassador at the Royal Tyrrell Museum, starting in February, I have recently started helping the museum work towards responsible changes for sustainability. As the program’s focus for this year is materials and waste, one of the first tasks we completed was filling out a self-assessment of the museum’s preparation laboratory. This [...]
Sustainable Transportation in Canadian Museums
This article was released in the ICOM Canada April 2020 e-newsletter on Sustainable Development. See more articles from this issue here. ICOM Canada asked museum professionals from across Canada to share what they are doing to make travel and transport more sustainable. Check out the answers below from Peter Ord (The Bateman Foundation and Gallery of Nature) and Katelyn Roughley (Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame). Peter Ord, Executive Director, The Bateman Foundation and Gallery of Nature (Victoria, BC): The Bateman Foundation's has made a conscious decision to use video conferencing as the primary tool for communications planning, instead of travelling either locally or out of town. The foundation runs programs across seven cities in Canada, including Tuktoyaktuk in the Arctic. Managing our network of coordinators through online platforms like Zoom or WhatsApp not only saves as time and money, but also meets our sustainability focus. Katelyn Roughley, Manager, Education and [...]
Carbon Literacy Program at Manchester Museum
This article was released in the ICOM Canada April 2020 e-newsletter on Sustainable Development. See more articles from this issue here. Lynsey Jones (Museum Development North West (UK)) Museum Development North West (MDNW) is based in Manchester and funded by Arts Council England (ACE) to support 150 Accredited museums in North West England. MDNW has always had a Green Museums strand in its programme, believing that sustainability is about the triple bottom line of environmental, economic and social justice. In 2016 we started working with the Carbon Literacy Project. This originated as part of Manchester City Council’s strategy to create a zero-carbon city by 2038. The original aim was to give every person who works, lives or studies in Manchester (approximately one million people) a day’s worth of Carbon Literacy training but the climate emergency has vastly expanded the remit of the project. MDNW has been taking the lead on [...]