Shirley Madill

Message from the President of ICOM Canada

May 4, 2015

Dear ICOM Canada colleagues,

Apologies for having taken such a long time to hear from us via newsletter, but your ICOM Canada committee has been BUSY!

We have been reviewing and revising our By-Laws and Strategic Plan for the organization.  

After a very productive face-to-face meeting in Toronto at the ROM (courtesy of Ryan Dodge) we are pleased to share with you ICOM Canada’s new mission and vision statements:

MISSION

ICOM CANADA highlights, celebrates, and fosters activities of Canadian members working in cultural heritage among the international museum community, and brings awareness of international cultural issues to the Canadian museum community

VISION

The expertise and the work of ICOM Canada’s members will influence and advance worldwide museology. 

In addition, we agreed that the strategic priorities for ICOM Canada should be to:

1. Make ICOM Canada more vital in the professional life of members
2. Ensure financial stability and sustainability of ICOM Canada 

ICOM Canada’s first strategic priority will be fulfilled in part by three new initiatives.  First, we have rewritten the Strategic Plan to reflect some new ideas about how ICOM Canada can better serve its members.  The Strategic Plan includes improved communication via social media (this newsletter on our revamped website, Facebook, Twitter, Google Hangouts); hosting sponsored sessions at CMA and other conferences, increasing the profile of members, celebrating members’ authorship and research, and strengthening our relationship with other related associations and organizations. A more formal Strategic Plan document will be posted on the website once we fine-tune some areas.  

Second, the student bursary that was initiated this spring by the Board (and is the brainchild of Viviane Gosselin at the Museum of Vancouver) is intended to help students who are members of ICOM to attend the ICOM Conference or international committee meetings. Students must make a presentation, and are encouraged to attend the full conference.

Third, we will be hosting quarterly talks online through Google Hangouts, which we already use for our monthly Board meetings (thanks to Ryan Dodge at the Royal Ontario Museum).  This exciting initiative is a FREE online professional development series which is viewable on Youtube.

The series highlights Canadians working in museums and provides an opportunity for museum workers to engage with colleagues from across the country while discussing groundbreaking work in the museum sector. The first one took place on Tuesday, March 31st from 3:00 to 4:00 and was a great success! Sarah Beam-Borg talked to us about her new job as the Exhibitions Manager at the new Aga Khan Museum in Toronto. Sarah spoke about what it is like to open a brand new museum and to organize the first exhibitions in a new space.  On June 9 we have Robert Janes speaking about sustainability in museum – which ties in nicely with this year’s International Museum Day theme, “Museums for a Sustainable Society.”

We believe that these new initiatives will inspire further exciting developments for ICOM Canada, and that members will enjoy the enhanced communications.  

Finally, the Annual General Meeting in Banff, at the Banff Springs Hotel, held in conjunction with the 2015 Canadian Museums Association conference was very well attended, and thanks to everyone for coming.  

We were pleased to award Michel Coté the ICOM CANADA AWARD FOR INTERNATIONAL ACHIEVEMENT for outstanding leadership in developing and supporting international collaboration, cooperation and partnerships in Canada and abroad.  M.Coté is director of the Musée de la Civilisation du Quebec.  He also received the Samuel de Champlain award for his contributions to museology in Canada and France in 2013.  

Also, at ICOM Canada’s Annual General Meeting we welcomed two new Directors to our ranks, both of whom come to ICOM Canada with stellar qualifications. 

Moira McCaffrey is the Executive Director of the Canadian Art Museum Directors Organization (CAMDO). Previously, she was the Vice President, Research and Collections, at the Canadian Museum of Civilization (now the Canadian Museum of History), and Director of Research and Exhibitions at the McCord Museum in Montreal. Moira is a museologist and archaeologist. She has curated numerous collaborative exhibitions with First Nations communities, and has carried out fieldwork in the eastern Subarctic. Welcome Moira!

Jennifer Carter is a professor of Museum Studies and Human Rights museology at UQAM in Montreal.  She specializes in the history of Architecture and Human Rights museums. She has worked at the Canadian Centre for Architecture, the Art Gallery of Ontario, and the Canadian Architecture Collection (McGill). She was a professor of Museum Studies at the Faculty of Information Studies at  the University of Toronto from 2008 to 2011 before joining the Department of Art History at UQAM. Welcome Jennifer!  

We also said good-bye to Mary Bradshaw who completed her six years of service on the ICOM Board.  Thank you, Mary for all your contributions.  

 

Sincerely,

Shirley Madill

President

ICOM Canada