International Museum Day 2016 Coming Soon

As we informed several months ago, 18 May will again see the celebration of International Museum Day, an event established in 1977 by the International Council of Museums (ICOM). The objective of International Museum Day is to raise awareness of the fact that “Museums are an important means of cultural exchange, enrichment of cultures and development of mutual understanding, cooperation and peace among peoples.” The theme of the 2016 event is Museums and Cultural Landscapes. This theme serves to highlight museums' responsibility for their landscapes, asking them to contribute knowledge and expertise and take an active role in their management and upkeep. The primary mission of museums is to oversee heritage, whether it be inside or outside their walls. Their natural vocation is to expand their mission and implement their own activities in the open field of cultural landscape and heritage that surrounds them and for which they can assume varying degrees of responsibility. Highlighting the link between museums and cultural heritage enhances the idea of museums as territorial centres involved in actively protecting the cultural landscape. By their very nature, landscapes are constantly evolving and cannot be frozen or made into museums. However, museums can make a significant contribution to the administration of a territory that respects the value of its landscape, in the form of knowledge about the territory, its heritage and its landscape, through the protection, conservation and interpretation of cultural heritage both inside and outside their walls, through active participation in public and urban policies, and through the definition and implementation of landscape policies. In this context, museums around the world are invited to organise activities on or around 18 May. You may consult the ideas provided by ICOM, and be inspired by examples of projects implemented by other museums in recent years. An interactive map of activities planned for International Museum Day 2016 is available at http://network.icom.museum/international-museum-day/imd-2016/map-of-imd-activities/ The same website allows museums to inform about and promote their activities. Participation in International Museum Day is growing among museums all over the world. In 2015, more than 35,000 museums participated in the event in some 145 countries.