The World Federation of Friends of Museums (WFFM) Council Meeting and General Assembly will take place in Glasgow from 30th April to 3rd May 2009! This is a tremendous honour for BAFM and we are delighted that Barclay Rennie and his team have offered to host the meeting. I hope that many Friends from the UK will be there to add to the welcome and make friends and contacts worldwide, besides having the great opportunity to discuss issues of mutual interest. Barclay and his team have drawn together a delightful programme, which commences with a short city sightseeing tour on the Thursday evening, followed by a Civic Reception at Glasgow City Chambers. Whilst WFFM Council Members are involved during the day at meetings on Friday, their companions and WFFM Individual Members (a mere $100 annual subscription - there is a link from the BAFM website to the WFFM site), will be out and about visiting the recently refurbished and award-winning Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery, the Oran Mor Cultural Centre and the Hunterian Art Gallery and Museum at the University of Glasgow. The whole group will be together for an evening tour of the Mackintosh Building, Glasgow School of Art, with drinks and canapés. On the Saturday, the companions and members will have a tour of Hill House, another Mackintosh building, then, at about midday, all sail from Loch Lomond Boatyard to Inchmurrin Island for lunch followed by a tour of Auchentoshan Distillery! The General Assembly, on Sunday, to which all are welcome, will be at the Burrell Gallery, preceded by a private tour of the Collection and followed by lunch there.
Future Plans
At the WFFM General Assembly in April the President, Carla Bossi-Comelli, reported that she had been able to present the WFFM Anniversary Book, on behalf of WFFM, on the occasion of a meeting, organised by the Italian Federation, with His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI. Mr John Barnham, Vice-President for North America, announced that the next North American Regional Meeting will be held in Monterrey, Mexico, on 4th October 2009, hosted by the Mexican Federation of Friends, following their Second National Congress. This meeting will be open to everybody who is interested in participating. In her report, the Vice-President for South America, Mrs Nelly Arrieta de Blaquier, underlined the urgency to set up Federations of Friends in Venezuela, Paraguay and Bolivia, where governments are not able to give financial support to museums. The WFFM Development Committee reported that several contacts had been made in Croatia, Egypt and Libya, also with Easter Island, Japan, Russia, Serbia and Turkey. The Friends of the State Museum of Moscow are keen to start up a Federation of Friends of Museums in Russia and were represented by their Chairman at the meeting in Paris. A report of the WFFM Congress in Jerusalem will be in the next, Spring, issue of the BAFM Journal. As you know, WFFM has long been concerned about sustainable tourism and is now part of a WFFM ICOM initiative to develop a joint project, which should increase awareness of the issue with reference to associations’ local and global activities and also among museums’ professionals.
Friends’ Trips Abroad
It seems that many BAFM groups have planned terrific trips abroad. If they, or any other groups, would like to make contact with groups in the countries they are visiting, this is easy - visit the WFFM website via www.bafm.org.uk and click on Organisations and Associations. It would be lovely if, later, we were to have a short report of your trip for this page.
24th-27th April 2008
by Norah Dunbar - BAFM Chairman
Eighty-nine Friends from the World Federation met in Paris at the end of April to enjoy an excellent programme put together by the French Federation under the direction of Jean Michel Reingeard, Vice-President Europe.
Our weekend got off to a fantastic start on Thursday evening with our visit to the Musée de l’Orangerie where we marvelled at Monet’s magnificent Water-Lilies panels. Our visit continued with the breathtaking Walter & Guillaume Collection before we enjoyed an excellent buffet dinner as guests of the Friends of the Museum.
On Friday morning we all assembled at the Musée Maillol where we marvelled at the great sculptures and collection of paintings. The companions went on to the Marie Antoinette Grand Palais and the Petit Palais whilst Council members held their meeting.
A visit to Versailles with a private tour of the Hall of Mirrors and the State Apartments was followed by a buffet dinner in the Apartment of the Guards. Again we were guests of the Friends and were greatly impressed by the great support given by Friends in bringing back to Versailles many of the artefacts dispersed after the Revolution.
On Saturday Council continued their deliberations and the companions went to the lovely town of Senlis, visiting the Musée Venerie and the Cathedral. We all met in Chantilly for a relaxed lunch in the stables! The French certainly thought very highly of their horses when they built what was almost a mini palace for them. Thirty show horses are stabled there and riding skills were demonstrated during lunch. Our hosts welcomed us after lunch when we heard the history of Chantilly and toured the Castle.
The General Assembly was held on Saturday morning in the Musée d’Orsay. The business of the meeting went through smoothly and those present approved the report of the Council’s deliberations. The Treasurer reported a healthy situation in the accounts and these and the budget were also approved. The Active and Associate Members presented their reports and these highlighted the similarities and also the diversity amongst member groups. We were particularly pleased to welcome Dr Alexey Bondarev, President of the State Historical Museum Friends’ Society in Moscow, who in his address said he hoped Russia would join the World Federation in the foreseeable future.
Friends from twenty-one countries enjoyed a Farewell Lunch in the beautiful setting of the Musée d’Orsay and the thanks of all must go to the FFSAM Friends for their hospitality during the weekend.
by Geoffrey Williams - WFFM Representative
Following WFFM’s Annual Meeting there was a short meeting of European delegates, under the chairmanship of Jean-Michel Reingeard, Vice-President Europe. The means of recruiting younger members to Friends’ groups was discussed and there was an interesting exchange of ideas and experience. It was agreed that the paramount need was to involve young people in the debate and to allow them to come forward with ideas as to how they would wish to be involved. ‘Night of the Museums’ or ‘La Nuit des Musées’ is a pan-European venture that sees museums and galleries opening their doors for special evening events on 17th May. Support from the UK has been patchy, due in some measure to a clash with our own Museum & Galleries Month, though it is now growing. The idea of cultural exchanges with twinned towns and cities was discussed and was felt to be worthy of our support.
Over the years before the programme was adopted by the Cyprus Ministry of Education, the Cyprus Federation examined various ways that educational programmes were run in different countries and invited guest lecturers, organised seminars and workshops for elementary school teachers, museum professionals and volunteers. Instead of copying any of the programmes wholesale, the Federation decided to incorporate various elements into a project which would best suit the museums, largely historical and archaeological.
A core of teacher-guides was set up with the help of the British Council which arranged for the training of two elementary school teachers in England per year for three years. This resulted in six teacher-guides who could train with top up workshops by visiting experts (the British Museum’s Education Department was particularly helpful).
The original six visited the local museums and chose subjects for each of the three age-groups, prepared workbooks for the pupils and material for non-trained teachers to follow up on the visits. It was decided class teachers from the schools would not only accompany the children but follow the programme with them. The Education Ministry seconded teachers full-time for the training and to run the programmes which were included in the school curriculum. The main sponsor, a local bank, paid for transporting the children by bus to the museums and printing all the relevant material, workbooks etc. Other sponsors were found to provide refreshments; for some children this was a full day excursion from their villages to the nearest museum.
Each age group had a theme, such as clothes, food production, housing, writing, warfare, or agriculture. There was no attempt to teach the little ones which century was involved since their concept of time does not allow for it, but they were encouraged to see how people who lived ‘before’ were no different from us: they worked, ate, dressed for celebrations, played with toys, owned animals, went on voyages. These were not meant to be history lessons. Children were encouraged to move around the museum, supervised, sketching what they saw and filling in prepared questionnaires. Since none of our museums have special rooms for educational programmes, their class teachers had to devote three school periods for follow-up projects, during which the children created models out of clay and other materials, painted and wrote stories. The best are exhibited annually at the bank’s cultural foundation.
The most touching stories come from class teachers who have returned to the museums for inspiration for their own projects. Children have built forts out of empty soft drink containers, carved seals out of kitchen soap, made up secret codes using Cypro-Minoan syllabary - very popular with 10-year-olds! - created jewellery out of pebbles, made copies of clay figures and so on.
An article in The Art Newspaper gives news of ‘young’ supporters’ groups of art museums in Germany, having joined forces in a new ‘umbrella group - Young Friends of Art Museums. They have a membership of around 4,500, aged between 20 and 49. Their aim is to make museums more interesting for younger people, including offering trips to exhibitions. Dr Kathrin Erggelet, Managing Director of the parent organisation, The Friends of German Art Museums, will still take responsibility for political lobbying, so essential to the role of Friends.
Carol Serventy - President of Honour of
the World Federation of Friends of Museums
After this group had been volunteering for about fifteen years, the Director estimated the value of their work at some hundreds of thousands of dollars, but, of course, it is priceless - you could not pay for such creativity, skill and dedication. Their repair works included a treasure of the museum, the feather cloak collected by Captain Cook in Hawaii. Repairing it was an enormous job and preparing it for travel and exhibition in other countries was a challenge. It is now in a perspex box and permanently ready for travel and exhibition.
A favourite of mine, because I saw it worked on over the years, is a mythical, ritual animal from New Britain - the frame is bamboo and split cane, wrapped initially in whole pandanus leaves, then covered with a decorated coconut fibre skin. The head and ears were badly disintegrated and the body framework broken. It is about three and a half metres long and was called ‘Jasmine’ by the volunteers who have worked on it for years. It hangs about two metres above ground in storage and we hope that the museum will, before too long, have a new Pacific Gallery where everyone may see it.
Singapore 26th-29th April 2007
The meeting was hosted by the Friends of the Museums, Singapore, and supported by the National Heritage Board. We visited the Asian Civilisations Museum, National Museum of Singapore, Singapore Art Museum and the National University of Singapore Museum. A special treat was a visit to a private collection in a member’s home. As always, one never has time to do anything justice so in each case it was just a taster.
The Companions Programme included a choice of six half-day tours and we chose the World War Two sites and the Malay Heritage tour. The former gave a very moving insight into conditions at the time of the Japanese invasion of Singapore and the occupation. All the tours were informative and enjoyable and extremely well guided by the Docents - Friends of the Singapore Museums.
The social events, as well as being most generous and enjoyable, gave plenty of opportunity to exchange views with Friends from other countries.
At the General Assembly meeting the President Carla Bossi-Comelli invited David Mawson, the first President of WFFM, to give a short address. We then had a brief report of the deliberations of Council by the Secretary General Lila de Chaves followed by a presentation of the accounts by the Treasurer Daniel Ben-Natan. Both reports show WFFM to be in a healthy situation.
Before reports were received from delegates from all countries attending, presentations were made in recognition of outstanding work done for WFFM over many years. These awards were made to Rosemary Marsh, UK; Sean Murphy, Canada; David Mawson, UK; Carol Serventy, Australia, and Julia Oh, Singapore. This is the first time such awards have been made and delegates showed their approval by acclamation.
My abiding memory of the General Assembly in Singapore is of the tremendous welcome and hospitality shown us, especially on the evening of home entertainment when Singapore Friends hosted dinners for small groups.
Ana Luisa Declaux, Spain, reported on the paper she will be giving at the ICOM meeting in Vienna in August 2007, mainly on the subject of sustainable cultural tourism; planned and guided tours are helpful in this connection. The valuable role that Friends can play in museum education, augmenting that of the professionals, was also discussed. A file of examples of the various ways Friends can build relations with the disadvantaged and immigrants is being collected by the President of the Belgian Federation of Friends of Museums; this file is fundamental to a proposal for a project to be funded by European Money. Success would also strengthen the Friends’ relationship with local authorities. Please send details of any such schemes in operation in Britain to our Chairman, Geoffrey Williams.
Twinning of European cities was also discussed as this can lead to co-operation between different groups of Museum Friends and help the idea of Museum Day spread all across Europe. Activities of this kind will spread energy and life in the European Organisations. It would be good if the dates of AGMs of various national groups could be known and perhaps it would be possible for representatives of other European countries to attend, stimulating bridge building and joint ventures. It is hoped that there will be another European Region meeting in Hamburg in the fall of 2007.
Sue Drought
WFFM was born from a brilliant idea of Luis Monreal, a Spaniard who directed the work of the Friends of the Museums of Barcelona, and a man with a vision, Count Boel from Belgium. Art museums in Europe have a very long history of support, mostly financial, through member Societies. Luis Monreal organised a meeting in Barcelona in 1972 bringing together as many groups as he could. He was also in touch with a Trustee of the National Gallery of Victoria, so an Australian was at the meeting. Everyone was enthusiastic about the idea of further co-operation, and Count Boel invited them to meet in Belgium in 1975.
In Belgium the delegates decided to form a federation of Friends, and then said “Why only Europe? Why not the world?” They also made a far-sighted decision that not only art museums but every other kind of museum, (using the ICOM definition of a museum) must be included. They wanted to strengthen museum supporters by having the groups band together, so they encouraged the formation of national federations, and these, representing the many societies and associations within a particular nation, are the Active Members WFFM. A single group may be an Associate Member.
WFFM is an international, non-profit, non-government organisation, constituted in 1975. We now number two million individuals in nearly forty countries, grouped into national federations and associations, that are strong enough to be a useful lobbying force within their own countries, and in such forums as the European Parliament.
In recent years a partnership has developed between WFFM and ICOM in the field of cultural tourism.
The World Tourism Organisation estimates that by the year 2010 one billion tourists will be travelling the world, a significant number of them ‘cultural tourists’. Increased calls for sustainable tourism are not new, and UNESCO, ICOMOS, the World Tourism Organisation and ICOM have all crafted statements, Charters and Codes for sustainable cultural tourism.
In 2005, a UNESCO round table called for partnerships to promote sustainable cultural tourism. WFFM is a partner with ICOM, as is UNESCO, ICOMOS, IFFLA etc. We all attend ICOM Council meetings, and present reports that are of interest to us all and Alissandra Cummins is encouraging joint initiatives between ICOM and its partners. WFFM proposed a joint initiative on sustainable cultural tourism. This was agreed and now Dr Hans-Martin Hinz, ICOM Council member and Director of the Berlin Museum, chairs a committee of ICOM Council and WFFM members. The members of the joint committee feel that the impact of any initiatives would be increased by simultaneous action to raise awareness within museum personnel, Friends groups, museum visitors and the general public.
This committee has been exploring ways of making museum professionals more aware of the issue, and of how Friends could reach out into the museum-going public to spread a clear message of what needs to change for tourism to be fair to everybody - now and for future generations. A joint workshop is on the agenda for the ICOM General Conference in Vienna in August 2007 - Museums and Universal Heritage.
Caroline Serventy is very well aware of the frailty of our planet, and in the early days of the Australian Museum Society (some thirty years ago) they held a seminar on endangered animals that finally resulted in the saving of the woodhen on Lord Howe Island.
Contact: caroline.serventy@bigpond.co
European WFFM Meeting in Brussels Representatives from eleven countries, including Geoffrey Williams, BAFM’s Chairman, met in Brussels under the chairmanship of Michel Raingeard, Vice-President (Europe). Also present was WFFM’s President Carla Bossi-Comelli. Amongst matters discussed was the question of government support for museums and galleries via the tax system. Clearly there is wide variation across Europe. It was agreed to collect data to assist Friends in lobbying for increased concessions. The importance of the educational role of Friends was stressed, particularly in those countries where art history is no longer taught in schools. Examples of the work undertaken by Friends’ Groups is being collated with a view to securing recognition of WFFM as a NGO by UNESCO.
The next BAFM Journal will report on the WFFM meeting in Singapore in April, as well as the European meeting in Valencia in March.
Sue Drought
The most important change to the WFFM Council, as far as BAFM is concerned, is that Jean Michel Raingeard took over from Rosemary Marsh as Vice President – Europe. Rosemary has done a magnificent job over the years in WFFM, is a fount of knowledge and is still, of course an Individual Member of WFFM, as well as being on a sub-committee of WFFM/ICOM which is looking at environmental and sustainable tourism issues – a subject of concern to a great many of us. My latest anxiety is for the small island of Socotra off the Horn of Africa. ~ Jean Michel Raingeard is President of the French Federation. He will be holding a meeting of leaders of member federations in Brussels in September to discuss possible joint action and to plan further activities. Geoffrey Williams will attend on behalf of BAFM.
Max Dingle, Vice President for WFFM - Africa, Asia and the Pacific, is holding a regional meeting in Sydney in September, at which Julia Oh, Friends of the Museums, Singapore, Sally Munro, President, and Elizabeth Ridder, Manager, Friends of Museums of NZ Te Papa Tongarewa are amongst the speakers. Delightful hospitality is planned including cocktails on board Captain Cook’s replica ship HM Bark Endeavour at the National Maritime Museum.
Back in Europe – news of the Friends of the National Gallery in Prague. Their programme of evening viewings and lectures by their own and foreign colleagues continues to be popular. They have named Prof. Francois Avril of France as an honorary member in gratitude for his work in authenticating a fragment of a Latin translation of Dalimil’s Chronicle and recognising its importance to Bohemia. He informed the Society straight away of the find and gave impartial help during its acquisition by the National Library. The Society requested of the Ministry of Culture that Prof Avril be given the distinguished decoration ‘Artis Bohemiae Amicis’ and this was bestowed.
As well as encouraging donations to the Gallery, and making acquisitions, the Society had the delight of handing on a picture by Peter Paul Rubens of the Virgin Mary breastfeeding the baby Jesus, which had been presented to the Society by one of their members! Its original was lost, and today is only known from graphic transcriptions and contemporary copies. The importance of this work for their collection is that the “Rubensian” is depicted in a painting by Dirck van Delen (1605-1671), which is already in the collection of the National Gallery. The Society has celebrated the 210th anniversary of the founding of the Society of Patriotic Friends of the Arts which laid the foundation of the National Gallery – their distinguished forebears who had their own art collections from which they could lend or donate their works.
The next WFFM General Assembly and Council Meeting will be in Singapore, 26th-29th April 2007. It promises to be fascinating – further details and booking form through the BAFM website link – Organisations and Associations (or by using the website link shown below, where detailed information can be downloaded direct from the WFFM site). The event will be hosted by the Friends of Museums (Singapore), with the patronage of the National Heritage Board.
Bernard Shaw 38 - 10th Floor, Polanco, 11560 Mexico, DF.
Tel: +52 55 52806185
Fax: +52 55 52820221
E-mail: wffmgese@prodigy.net.mx
Web: www.museumsfriends.org
