CODART, Dutch and Flemish art in museums worldwide

Conference on collection mobility held in Manchester

On Monday, 27 November, a conference was held in Manchester with the title Increasing the mobility of collections. The meeting was organized by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and the British Museums Association as one of the activities of the British presidency of the European Union.

Program statement

Museums in the EU receive 500 million visitors each year, but objects do not travel frequently enough across national boundaries. Major travelling exhibitions are held in only 1 per cent of Europe’s museums. Increased collections mobility is essential if citizens are to share, enjoy and understand our common heritage and the cultural assets unique to different parts of the European Union.

Member states have begun to consider how best to develop common standards and long-term relationships between individuals and institutions across Europe. ‘Museum Collections on the Move’, a conference under the Netherlands Presidency, was held in October 2004. The following month EU Culture Ministers prioritised the development and implementation of a European Action Plan on Collections Mobility for the second half of 2006. A European Experts’ Group was formed, which met four times during spring 2005. ‘Lending to Europe – Recommendations on Collections Mobility for European Museums’, a report of the Expert Group, was endorsed by European Culture Ministers in May 2005, under the Luxembourg Presidency.

This UK conference aims to take forward the report’s recommendations and to bring together museum experts and cultural administrators from across Europe to draw up clear and workable actions.


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