Building on its sustainability agenda, ICOM joins forces with the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to strengthen the role museums play in local development.
During 2017 and 2018, several museums and museum professionals, ICOM committee representatives and members met regularly and worked together with the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and ICOM Secretariat to draft a Guide for Local Governments, Communities and Museums.
With the aim of highlighting the role museums play in local development the Guide for Local Governments, Communities and Museums is a road map for local governments, museums and museum professionals on how to jointly define a local development agenda that promotes a more sustainable future.
Over the last decade, ICOM has been strengthening its partnerships with high-level intergovernmental organisations to promote the value of museums in contemporary society. The Guide for Local Governments and Museums builds on the UNESCO 2015 Recommendation concerning the Protection and Promotion of Museums and Collections, their Diversity and their Role in Society, drafted by ICOM, by suggesting concrete ways in which museums and local governments can collaborate to ensure museums remain high on local decision and policy-makers’ agenda.
Over the last decade, ICOM has been strengthening its partnerships with high-level intergovernmental organisations to promote the value of museums in contemporary society.
Organised around five major themes: cultural development and education (1), economic development and innovation (2), urban regeneration and community development (3), inclusion, health and well-being (4) and managing museums for local development (5), the Guide for Local Governments and Museums:
- Identifies policy options and measurement indicators to help local governments and museums to increase the development impact of cultural heritage;
- Builds a repository of good practices;
- Distills lessons for policies in the area of culture and tourism, employment and skills, health, business development, innovation and spatial planning.
ICOM and the OECD will launch the Guide in Venice, Italy, during an OECD conference entitled Unleashing the Transformative Power of Culture and Creativity for Local Development to be held on 6-7 December 2018 in co-operation with the European Commission and UNESCO.
During the Venice conference, ICOM and the OECD will co-host a session entitled Cultural Heritage and Local Development: Maximising the impact to discuss the importance of cultural heritage for economic development and urban regeneration, as well as potential partnerships between museums and local governments to enhance education, well-being and inclusion.
A collaboration that continues in 2019
ICOM and the OECD will continue to extend the scope of their work in 2019 and 2020 to include museums and local governments from other regions and OECD countries of the world.ICOM will also prepare an issue of its journal Museum International on the theme of Museums and Local Development to be published in 2019. As a capacity building and advocacy tool, the Guide also reflects ICOM’s agenda on sustainable development following the creation of an ICOM Working Group on Sustainability in August 2018. As the global organisation of museums, ICOM is deeply committed to strengthening the role that museums can play to create a better society. It will therefore continue to collaborate with other high-level international organisations to ensure the international museum community has a voice in defining our common future.
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Illustration credit: François Iglesias
