CFP: Museums and Reality: 45th Conference of the ENM, April 2004

Museums and Reality
45th conference of the Estonian National Museum
April 14-15th, 2004

Honourable colleagues,

In 2004 the annual conference of Estonian National Museum is dedicated
to the 95th anniversary of the museum. Therefore it is the right place
and time
for searching the identity and meaning of the museums in the
contemporary time.

The experience a museum can offer to its audiences, depends primarily on
its collections, the ways they have been created and how they are
mediated
to the surrounding world. The basis of the contemporary museums is still
formed by its collections, created and systematized carefully by the
specialists.

At the same time, museums have moved much closer to its audiences and
therefore became also  much more conscious about what, to whom and why
they
are talking. The voice behind the concept of the museum has became of
central importance.

What does the reality, represented by the museums, look like? What do
the collections consist of and what is their value now and in the
future? How much information do they provide about the cultures,
artefacts, worldviews and ways of life?

The focus is also on looking for the place and role of Estonian museums
as part of the wider public sphere. Can every single collection be a
museum? Do
museums need to be the part of the strategic national information
system?

Whad does the concept of museums as knowledge centres mean?

Changing culture and time around the museums faces museum professionals
with both old and new problems of ethics. If and how much may a museum
break the
borders between public and private?

The border between public and private has been seriously changed by the
digitalisation of culture. This has arised also the question about the
relationships between museums and information technology. Should a
museum
try to digitalize is collections and enable a general access to them on
the Internet, or should it be more co ervative, by admitting that
museums are public institutions, but their task is not to make
everything public, but expect people to come and ask some questions by
themselves?

The deadline for the registration is on December 10th, 2003. We expect
you to send the title of the presentation and a brief abstract (up to
100
words), after what the conference committee will make the selection
among the proposals. The working languages of the conference will be
Estonian and
English.

A selection of the articles will be published in the pre-reviewed
journal of ethnology, Pro Ethnologia in 2005.

Estonian National Museum
Veski 32
51014 Tartu
Estonia
Tel.: +372 742 1784, +372 742 2266
Fax: +372 7 422 254
E-mail: [email protected] or [email protected]
http://www.erm.ee

Pille Runnel, Research Director of the Estonian National Museum
Toivo Sikka, Research Secretary of the Estonian National Museum