Association of Slovene Museums

Contact

This logo is missing!

If you have it, please email it to us.

Skupnost muzejev Slovenije (SMS)

Prešernova 20, SI-3000 Celje

http://www2.pms-lj.si/SMS/index_gb.html

Phone386 (0) 3 428 6410

Some Slovenian Museums established an unprofessional organization Association of Slovene Museums in 1970 with the aim of enhancing networking and common objectives and needs. It was formally enrolled in the commercial register in 1979 as a society, which today operates as a public institution.

Programme

The Association of Slovene Museums helps educate, network and support Slovene museums by connecting them institutionally. It currently has 64 members, comprising almost all museums in the Slovene museum network and some, mostly private, working outside of it. The Association of Slovene Museums is organised as a society, receiving financial support from the Ministry of Culture and dealing with general museum issues. One of its most important functions is organising the biennial Museum Fair, which affords members of the Association the opportunity to present their activities on selected themes to the wider public. The Association also focuses on educating and training museum workers, organising professional visits to museums abroad and providing financial support to individuals that enables them to attend international conferences staged by organisations other than the International Council of Museums (ICOM). The Association of Slovene Museums is a member of the Network of European Museum Organisations (NEMO).

Various departments are active within the Association, the most prominent being those concerned with education, conservation and documentation. The Association thus brings together different museum experts (such as in the departments for documentation, conservation and museum education) and different museums with similar collections (such as the department for technical heritage).

Every year the Association of Slovene Museums takes part in the Museums on a Summer Night, which represents the museums, galleries and other art institutions. It was organized for the first time in 2003 at the initiative of International Centre of Graphic Arts and includes more than 44 institutions by now.

Publications

In 2000 the Slovene Association of Museums published the Guide to Slovene Museums in both Slovene and English. The Association is continuing to develop a Virtual Guide to Slovene Museums, which gives interactive access to 3D virtual presentations of Slovene museums using special 3D photography.

The Association established the Valvasor Award in 1971; since 1998 this award has been administered by the Slovene Museum Society. The Association is the co-publisher of Argo Magazine and the Slovene museum website.

International cooperation

The Association of Slovene Museums was from 1996 to 2003 a partner in Matra Project, which aimed to develop Slovene museum management. Part of the training was an excursion to the Netherlands, where 13 Slovene museum professionals and the representatives from the Ministry of Culture had the opportunity to get information and to meet volunteers. They were especially surprised to find that volunteers can be also the managers of the museums.

At the same time the idea of developing a special Cultural Heritage Protection Act was introduced, which included a special Article on Volunteers; the City Museum of Ljubljana proposed a project Volunteering in Slovene Museums to the Association of Slovene Museums, which accepted it as a part of a 3 year plan 2007 - 2010; and the Third Age University developed another international volunteer project Cultural Mediators in Museums. The Association of Slovene Museums as an active member of NEMO took part in 2009 in the European project Volunteering in Museums and Cultural Heritage.

See also

• Argo Magazine
• National Museum of Slovenia
• Network of European Museum Organisations (NEMO)
• Slovene Museum Society
• Valvasor Award

External links

• Virtual Guide to Slovene Museums
• Slovene museum website