1. Building up Trust and Mobility of Professionals Fionnuala Croke Keeper & Head of Collections National Gallery of Ireland Madrid, CM 2.0 conference, 1 June 2010

2. EC (OMC) Expert Group on Mobility of Collections: 2009-2010

5 sub-themes identified:

State Indemnity & Shared Liability Schemes

Immunity from Seizure

Prevention of Theft/Illicit Traffic

Long Term Loans

Mobility of Professionals & Exchange of Expertise

3. Mobility of Museum Professionals & Exchange of Expertise: a sub-group of the OMC Working Group on Mobility of Collections

A subgroup of the OMC Working Group on Mobility of Collections

Co-chaired by Fionnuala Croke (Ireland) and Leticia de Frutos (Spain)

Subgroup members: Estonia Kersti Tiik

Ireland Fionnuala Croke

Lithuania Ruta Pileckaite

Malta Martin Spiteri

Poland Dorota Folga-Januszweska

Romania Monica Dumitru

Slovenia Mateja Kos

SpainLeticia de Frutos

4. Mobility of Museum Professionals & Exchange of Expertise: Objectives

The overall aim was to set practical, achievable goals that were driven by the larger mission of the Expert Group.

To seek ways to facilitate the mobility of professionals, that would ultimately lead to greater mobility of collections through the exchange of knowledge and expertise.

To promote best practice among museums.

To promote trust between museums and member states.

To disseminate and share the results and experiences.

5. Summary

Mobility of Professionalswith a view to facilitatingMobility of Collections

Mobility of Professionals is an integral part of museum activity

Particular attention to smaller, regional, museums

newer Member States want to build relationships with older Member States

6. Bremen Declaration 6/7 May 2007

It is a key task in each European member state to recognise at the political level that the larger European museums have already developed extensive co-operation in a number of activities. These large museums are now called upon to increase their cooperation with smaller institutions within the museum community.

7. Bremen Declaration 6/7 May 2007

In addition further funding should be allocated at European level for innovative projects to demonstrate Europes rich cultural heritage, to support the exchange of museum professionals and their training and thus help develop increased understanding of common origins as well as to develop deeper respect for the different cultures in Europe

8. Key Question?

What could our sub-group do to facilitate and promote a more inclusive system of mobility for museum professionals at EU level to create opportunities for the involvement of smaller museums; and for collaboration between all member states?

9. How we set about it

Sent out a questionnaire to try to ascertain what programmes already exist

Looked at other EU mobility initiatives

Looked at existing EU sources of funding

Looked at existing professional networks

10. The Questionnaireoutcomes

15 out of 17 member states who responded said that there were initiatives for the mobility of professionals in their museums these involved predominantly curators/archaeologists and conservators/scientists.

The main reasons for this mobility were: sharing of expertise (often in conservation projects), research, sharing of exhibitions, training and networking.

By far the main barrier encountered was lack of financial resources, although workload and lack of human resources, language barriers and family commitments were also cited.

11. The Questionnaireoutcomes cont.

Funding is primarily from trusts/foundations/sponsors. Ministries and EU funds also provided monies in a few instances.

The benefits of these mobility projects is communicated through seminars, conferences, workshops and publications.

The questionnaire needs to be repeated: the questions need to be revised to allow a careful analysis of the qualitative information. Ideally, full information would be available from all state-funded museums (or their agencies) in all member states.

12. Other EU Mobility Initiatives

Mobility Matters (published November 2008)

ECOTEC study (2009)

EC pilot projects: Changing Room, e.Mobility, Practics and Space (published March 2010)

EC call for proposals for transnational mobility programmes or schemes in the field of culture, 2009

OMC working group on Improving the Conditions for the Mobility of Artists and other Professionals in the culture field, set up in March 2008.

13. Existing EU sources of funding

Lifelong Learning programme 2007-13

Calls for Proposals within the Culture Programme for transnational mobility programmes or schemes in the field of culture, September 2009

14. Conclusions & Recommendations for the European Commission: 1

The information gathered by the sub-group is not complete. Only 17 member states replied. Among those 17, not all state-funded museums replied. Finally, the qualitative nature of the information sought proved difficult to collate and analyse.

A future study on the mobility of museum professionals, building on the existing questionnaire, would lead to a greater and more precise understanding of the nature of mobility and exchanges between museums professional staff, as well as a clearer picture of the current funding that is used.

15. Conclusions & Recommendations for the European Commission: 2

Museums are actively engaged in various forms of mobility of their staff for the purpose of sharing expertise and exhibitions; researching their collections; training staff; and networking.

The EU could channel this activity into mobility projects that are directly related to the mobility of collections. There is an opportunity to introduce a kind of formal programme of mobility of professionals that is tracked at European level.

16. Conclusions & Recommendations for the European Commission: 3

Funding was indicated as the main problem encountered.

To this end the EU should consider creating a specific source of funding to facilitate and support the mobility of museum professionals, perhaps by creating a dedicated strand within Lifelong Learning.

17. Conclusions & Recommendations for the European Commission: 4

Currently the benefits from the sharing of expertise are communicated through conferences, publications etc. organised by the participating institutions.

If an EU managed programme of mobility were introduced, a centralised platform (website) could be created where projects could be recorded, and experiences shared. This would allow greater accessibility for museums at all levels.

18. Conclusions & Recommendations for the European Commission: 5

In recent years, the EU has carried out a number of studies related to mobility (ECOTEC, Mobility matters, OMC WG Mobility of Artists, OMC WG Mobility of Collections).

The EU should try to coordinate and consolidate these various studies.

19. Conclusions & Recommendations for the European Commission: 6

The potential to link up with the Long Term Loans sub-group was identified .

Within the proposed funding application criteria, the EU could prioritise those proposals that lead directly to mobility of collections, such as exhibitions and long term loans.

20. Conclusions & Recommendations for the European Commission: 7

Existing professional networks actively create forums for networking, sharing of expertise and exchange of best practise.

A list of these networks could be maintained on an EU mobility website, with links and details of forthcoming meetings .

21. One key recommendation?

If the EU wants to promote access to culture, and encourage museums to share their collections they need to provide practical assistance to museums.

One way to do this that would lead directly to shared projects is to provide funding specifically to promote the mobility of museum professionals and exchange of expertise.

This in itself would provide opportunities museums large and small throughout Europe.

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