NEWS
VOLUME 31 ISSUE 4 2009 End of year
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I N T E R N AT I O N A L CO N G R E S S O F MA R I T I M E M U S E U M S
Steam Yacht Lady Hopetoun (1902)
at NYE Fireworks, Sydney Harbour
(SHF Collection)
See OPERATIONAL HERITAGE
on page 10.
Successful congress
held in Denmark
Dear friends and colleagues,
ICMM… that’s us
How can I start otherwise, writing this column only a few weeks
after the Esbjerg 2009 conference, but to reflect on a great ICMM
gathering in Denmark. So many of us met there and enjoyed
excellent and relevant papers, a well organized social and cultural
programme and mild Danish autumn weather. A big thank you
to my predecessor Morten Hahn-Pedersen and his team for doing
such a perfect job in a very short period of preparatory time. Many
thanks too to the keynote speakers, paper givers, master class
teachers and chairpersons who made the academic programme
really work. To all of you who attended the conference, and to
those who couldn’t be
there, make sure that
you don’t miss the 2011
conference!
Esbjerg 2009 taught
us that ICMM is very
Frits Loomeijer
much alive and kicking
as a communication platform. That’s the legacy of a few years of
intensive work by the old Executive Committee who have handed
over to a new EC. Please know that the new team, headed by
Hanna Hagmark-Cooper and myself as Vice-president and
President respectively, feel very committed to make ICMM better
and better.
... continued on page 2
...continued from page 1
What does that mean?
The Esbjerg conference focussed on professionalism. Maybe
professionalism is the key word for all of us in the years ahead in
order to ‘cope with change’. Not only relatively young disciplines,
such as museum marketing, can be developed to a higher
professional level, but also the classic core museum business of
collecting, researching and communicating as well. ICMM is our
key organisation providing a forum for discussion and debate on
these important issues.
Our main communication tools – the newsletter and the
website – will be developed further and our conferences will get
better every time with your input and support. And regarding the
next conference venue? We are working on it and will get back
with the result in the first Newsletter next year.
Furthermore, we aim to be a global network and consequently
we still have more than half a world to win. We need to know our
Arab, African, Asian and South American colleagues and we will
work on encouraging them to join us in the coming years. We must
also be alert in the more traditional ICMM regions, meaning North
America and Europe. Despite a fantastic Malta 2007 conference,
the Mediterranean members were still a bit under-represented in
Esbjerg. It would also be good to welcome some new faces from
Canada and the United States at the next conference.
Let’s not forget, ICMM represents all of us working in maritime
museums everywhere, and together we are as strong as our support
base.
Your new Executive Committee will work hard to improve our
organization and the tools we work with. We will get things going
but you have to make use of the programs we develop. The result
of good networking is knowing and trusting each other, and in
doing so we inform and get informed about travelling exhibitions,
relevant objects that come up at auctions, new developments in
management, education and building projects etc. That is how an
active and effective network works.
For me it is an honour to be at the helm of this organization.
You elected an able and committed crew and together, with your
input and feedback, we will without doubt, be able to understand
change and to cope with uncertainty.
Best regards
Frits Loomeijer
President ICMM
People News
At the Congress, delegates remembered
three people who were closely associated
with ICMM and who had died since the
last congress: Mary Wedekind, Colin
White, Geraint Jenkins. David Jenkins
(no relation) has provided the following
obituary of Geraint Jenkins:
Dr. John Geraint Jenkins passed
away on 15 August 2009. Born in 1929
to a Welsh-speaking seafaring family
near Llangrannog in Ceredigion, he was
educated at Cardigan Grammar School and
at the university colleges of Swansea and
Aberystwyth, from which he graduated
with an MA. He took up his first museum
post at Leicester in 1952, moving soon
afterwards to the Museum of English
Rural Life at Reading, and it was here that
he undertook the research that led to his
first major publication, The English Farm
Wagon (1961).
By then he had returned to Wales to
join Iorwerth Peate as an assistant keeper
at the Welsh Folk Museum at St Fagan’s.
Here, he embarked on a comprehensive
study of the Welsh woollen industry, which
culminated not only in his monumental
volume The Welsh Woollen Industry
2
(1969), but also in the acquisition of the
Cambrian woollen mill at Drefach Felindre
in 1976, which is now Wales’s National
Wool Museum. Whilst at St Fagan’s he
oversaw the removal of numerous buildings
to the museum, in particular the tannery
from Rhaeadr in mid-Wales. He played a
major role in establishing the Society for
Folk Life Studies and also developed links
with other open air museums in Europe,
particularly in Hungary.
In 1978 Geraint was appointed curator
of the newly-opened Welsh Industrial &
Maritime Museum in Cardiff’s dockland.
He would later claim that the years that
he spent here were the happiest of his
career; ‘Cardiff Bay’ had not then been redeveloped and he was equally at home with
wealthy shipowners as he was with Harry,
the ‘steward’ of the decidedly dubious
‘North Star Club’, located right next door
to the museum! He served on the council
of the International Congress of Maritime
Museums and wrote a number of volumes
on Welsh maritime history. He was also
awarded a D.Sc. (Econ) by the University
of Wales in 1981.
Geraint returned to St Fagan’s as curator
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in 1987, but
the five years
he
spent
there before
retiring were
Geraint Jenkins
not
happy
ones, as he found himself increasingly at
odds with what he perceived to be an everincreasing emphasis upon management
and visitor figures, to the detriment of
scholarship. Typically, his retirement back
in his native west Wales was not marked
by indolence; he was High Sheriff of Dyfed
in 1994-95, and involved himself in local
politics, culminating in his chairmanship
of Ceredigion County Council in 2002-03.
“Once met, never forgotten” – never
was this saying truer of anyone than
Geraint. Quite literally larger than life, he
exuded an irrepressible bonhomie that was
totally infectious. He was, too, a sparkling
raconteur, possessed of a huge store of
stories - both respectable and otherwise!
– reflecting his long and varied life. Wales
has lost an incomparable ambassador, and
the museum world one of its best-known
figures. He leaves a widow, Nansi, and
two sons, David and Gareth; another son,
Richard, predeceased him in 2000.
2009
President Morten’s Final Report to
the ICMM General Assembly 2009
The major goal of this Executive
Committee (EC) was to improve ICMM
as an information hub for maritime
museums around the world. This meant
on one side improving the website and
the newsletter and on the other side
improving the conferences.
However, before starting to work
with these two important tasks,
strengthening the internal work
within the EC was a key issue. The
introduction of a yearly meeting of the
EC as a supplement to communication
via e-mail, phone, fax, snail-mail and
occasional meetings between individual
EC members have proved to be very
useful indeed. The yearly meetings of
the EC have taken place at the NMM in
Greenwich – and we owe a big thank
you to NMM, Stephen Riley and Kevin
Fewster for hospitality and willingness
to host these meetings.
Concerning the Newsletter and
website, the headquarters was moved
‘down under’ to New Zealand in early
2006 and an Editorial Board headed by
Larry Robbins was established. Since
then the number of yearly newsletters
has been extended from two to three and
this year even four, an e-mail newsletter
has been introduced and the website has
been changed a good deal. I am grateful
for the fantastic job performed by Larry
and his crew; Stephen Riley, Elvira Mata,
Dan Finamore, Frits Loomeijer, Hanna
Hagmark-Cooper and Harald Hamre.
Since 2005 we have had a new
schedule for conferences; every second
year instead of every year in order to be
able to create a better economic basis
for this kind of event and to be able
to create more challenging academic
programmes for the conferences as well.
I am not the one to judge whether or
not we succeeded in doing so, but I can
assure you that we have done our very
best in trying to fulfil this goal.
We have worked very hard on long
term schedules for conference planning.
We do have very strong bids from Stuart
Parnes and his American collegues
as well as from Matthew Tanner (SS
Great Britain in Bristol, UK) for the
2011 Congress. In 2013 the Portuguese
Naval Museum in Lisbon will celebrate
its 150th Anniversary and I have just
been told that the museum intends to
lead a joint Portuguese bid for the 2013
Congress. The by then renewed National
Maritime Museum in Amsterdam has
also declared an interest in hosting
the 2013 Congress with the Maritime
Museum Rotterdam as coorganizer. And
so have the National Maritime Museums
in Sweden as well as in Finland.
To sum up we have plenty of strong
candidates for 2011 as well as for 2013
and perhaps even 2015. It is really a great
thing to note this strong commitment
among members.
No matter how determined you are
to do long term planning, the wind
occasionally blows you off course. In
such cases you have to improvise. This
was what we did, when in November
2008 the economic tsunami came across
the conference planned for Annapolis
and we had to quickly change the venue
for Esbjerg. I am really happy and proud
to note that so many members of ICMM
are attending this ICMM Congress
in 2009 despite the harsh economic
conditions for most of us at the moment.
We do, however, have colleagues
who would normally attend the ICMM
Congress but who are not present here
in Esbjerg due to tight budgets at their
institutions back home. Some did
register but have had to cancel their
participation at a rather late stage. Cut
backs and government initiatives to
save money are part of today’s agenda.
An example is the situation on Jersey
where Doug Ford and his colleagues this
summer called for the help of ICMM
when the Jersey Government threatened
to close the Jersey Maritime Museum.
The result was an official letter from
ICMM to Senator Le Sueur and the
Jersey Council of Ministers. The letter
is posted on the ICMM website and it
is my sincere hope that the support of
ICMM will help Doug and his colleagues
in their struggle to make Jersey Maritime
Museum survive. However, the Jersey
example gives an idea on just how tough
the situation might be for maritime
museums around the world – the title
of our current Congress recognises
the situation we face - Understanding
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2009
Change: Coping with Uncertainty.
The hard economic conditions that
we have seen over the past year and the
intense work of the EC setting up the
ICMM Esbjerg 2009 Congress have left
little time for recruiting new members to
the organization. This must be a priority
for us all in the foreseeable future.
Since 2007 we have had the following
new members or applications for
membership: Sea Heritage Foundation,
Australia - Museo do Mar, Cascais,
Portugal - National Historic Ships
Unit, UK - Museé Maritime du Quebec,
Canada - Museo Maritimo Ilhavo, Spain
- Sociedad Estatal de Gestion de Activos,
Seville, Spain - Jersey Heritage, UK - P
& O Heritage Collection, UK – Historic
Naval Ships Association, Virginia, USA
- Museum of Maritime Science, Tokyo,
Japan - Navigation Pavilion, Seville,
Spain - Marcus de Chrevieux, Kelton
Foundation, USA - Sherrin Hibbard,
Cheju National University, South Korea
– Svendborg Museum, Denmark
We have had 11 resignations and
20 members have been removed as
they have not paid for two consecutive
years despite requests for payment.
The current membership stands at 152
compared with 170 in 2007.
Some of our challenges might be due
to the present economic situation and
our business doing other things during
the last year. However, when it comes
to recruiting new members as well as
increasing the total number of members,
here is clearly a job for the new EC – and
for all of us – to deal with.
Finally, ending my term as President
of ICMM, I would like to use this occasion
to express my gratitude to all members
of the ICMM for your valuable support.
It has been an exciting and challenging
job to serve as your President – and it
has been a very great pleasure indeed.
3
ICMM CONGRESS 2009 – OPENING SPEECHES
Danish Minister of Culture,
Ms Carina Christensen
However, over the years the structure
of the fishery changed from many small to
a very few, but very large units. Today the
number of Danish fishermen is less than
the number of fishermen in 1970 Esbjerg –
and in Esbjerg the entire fishing fleet is 14
vessels.
If a country’s cultural heritage had a
colour – Denmark’s would be blue!
Although we - in a historical perspective
at least - are used to looking at ourselves as
a land of farmers and craftsmen, many of us
carry a strong sentiment of connectedness
to the sea. Because we live right next to
it; Because we pass it or cross it whenever
we travel more than a few kilometres; Or
because we know or sense that in our
history - through wars, trade and the use of
the sea’s natural resources - the sea has had
an immense importance in defining this
country’s size, wealth and mental outlook.
In this way, the sea is a powerful agent
in our history and an important framework
for understanding culture and society. Even
today. That is - of course - true for many
other nations. That’s why The Fisheries
and Maritime Museum and ICMM have
gathered close to a hundred delegates from
every continent in the world here in Esbjerg
for the ICMM 2009 Congress. To continue
the discussion of how the world’s maritime
museums can sustain and develop their
relevance as centres of knowledge on
maritime history and globalization in the
future.
Under the heading ‘Understanding
Change – Coping with Uncertainty’ the
congress will discuss issues related to some
of every museum’s core purposes. And
among them: A changing audience. Are
the museums getting the maritime message
across? And is anyone listening? These
questions are important for all museums.
As Danish Minister of Culture, I am
very concerned that all museums master
the difficult task of communicating their
knowledge to a wide audience. Especially
to those who never - or almost never visit museums. Maritime museums have a
unique potential - and therefore a special
obligation - to do just that.
Why?
The sea and the maritime life evolving
around it is not only an agent in history
or a framework for understanding society
today. It is also an incredibly interesting
and fascinating world of its own. A world
of small and heavy industry, of underwater
sea life and cities and even countries
arising and declining at its bay. Culture
is for everybody. And these stories are
immensely powerful and relevant to many
more people than are gathered here.
There
than here
Although
than 150
4
is no better place in Denmark
in Esbjerg to host this congress.
Esbjerg’s history is short - less
years - the city has established
Carina Christensen & Morten Han-Pedersen
itself as a lively industrial and cultural
centre with a huge capacity to transform
itself. From being Denmark’s largest fishing
harbour - to its new status as the country’s
main city for offshore activities including
oil and wind power industries.
And I can think of no better host for
this congress than The Fisheries and
Maritime Museum! The museum has an
international reputation as an important
research centre and as a rallying point for
international co-operation – especially
around the North Sea. What’s more the museum has an annual number of
visitors of more than 150,000 proving the
museum’s outstanding ability to attract a
large and interested audience.
I would like to thank Morten HahnPedersen, the museum and ICMM for their
joint effort to further developing the roles
and relevance of maritime museums.
Erik Clausen Chairman of the
Fisheries and Maritime Museum,
Esbjerg
Today the Fisheries and Maritime
Museum is recognized as a museum of
national importance and a player on the
international maritime museum scene.
At the same time the museum is closely
connected to the city in which it is located.
Indeed the museum owes its very existence
to the City of Esbjerg.
On the occasion of the centenary of the
founding of the Esbjerg Harbour the City
erected the new museum as a gift to the
citizens of Esbjerg. On opening in 1968 the
museum could be described as a Fisheries
Museum with an aquarium attached to it.
The entire focus was pointed at the fishery
nationwide, which was perfectly natural in a
city with one of the largest fishing harbours
in Europe. At that time the fishing fleet of
Esbjerg counted more than 600 vessels,
and fishery plus related industries were a
dominant part of business in Esbjerg.
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Had the Fisheries and Maritime kept
the original focus it is hard to say what
the museum would have been like today.
However, the museum understood the
changes that was going on and was able to
cope with the uncertainty by developing a
new concept and turning the focus of the
museum towards the theme “Man and Sea”
which is today presented to our visitors
in as many aspects as possible; fishery,
shipping, offshore oil and gas, offshore
windfarms, coastal culture, leisure and
tourism, the waddensea, environment,
marine mammals and marine biology. The
museum presentations are based on solid
research which since 1994 has been carried
out by the Centre of Maritime and Regional
Studies – a joint venture between the
museum and the University of Southern
Denmark.
The overall work method has been
step wise development in building up the
museum, research centre and attraction
that the Fisheries and Maritime Museum
is today. As Chairman I am proud of the
achievements made so far and I am looking
forward to seeing the next steps of our
plans be launched in the years to come.
Over the years we have had the privilege
of a fantastic support from the City of
Esbjerg, the Danish Cultural Heritage
Agency and the Danish State. We are of
course very grateful indeed for the support
that has been extremely valuable for the
development of the museum. But I am also
very much aware that without the flow of
inspiration and the fantastic support and
cooperation that Morten and his staff have
had via a solid international network, we
might not have been where we are today.
The Chairman and the Board of this
museum fully support the international
work in which our staff is engaged – also
when it comes to a time consuming job
as President for ICMM. In the end the
museum gains from the valuable network
and contacts created by this kind of work.
The world around all of us is constantly
changing and uncertainty is a condition of
life. This is not least true when it comes to
the maritime world. We all have challenges
ahead of us – but challenges can be overcome
– especially when you are understanding
change, coping with uncertainty and
working together by exchanging thoughts
and ideas as you will in this conference.
2009
ICMM CONGRESS 2009
Summaries of selected papers
(Papers marked ** are available in full online at
www.icmmonline.org)
** AUDIENCES, VALUE AND THE FUTURE OF MUSEUMS:
A PARTNERSHIP WITH THE PUBLIC
Keynote address: Dr. Carol Scott
Navigating the seas of change is the challenge facing all
museums in this 21st century world. One of the significant
dimensions of this changing state is found in our notions of,
and relationship to, the ‘public’ including, but not confined to,
that part of the public who visit museums. Taking account of
an emerging role for the public as authorizers and legitimators
of cultural value, we find that audience research can be used
to examine what the public values about museums. This
knowledge can be used to assist us in evidence-based advocacy
and strategically engaging a sustainable audience base.
I think that it is useful to revisit the quote within the
programme that heads this session:
“At the Malta conference in 2007, it was agreed that our
museum audiences were changing and that we should be
‘getting the maritime message across’. What is this message?
Is anyone listening? Our message is a vitally important one
and deserves to be better understood - that the sea has had
and continues to have, a fundamental influence on our lives.
But how do we get that message across? Do we look for
partnerships and, if so, with whom? Theatres, film festivals,
concert organizers, leisure entrepreneurs…..?”
All of these proposed partnership options provide
interesting possibilities and much potential. But my talk
focuses on another partnership with which I strongly urge you
to engage. A partnership with the public.
I suggest this partnership for three reasons:
1. It can help us determine how the museum brand is perceived
and what differentiates it from other leisure attractions; in
terms of this gathering, let us re-phrase that to say that it
can help us determine how the maritime museum brand is
perceived and what differentiates it from other museum types
and leisure attractions;
2. It provides important substantiation of our Public Value to
external stakeholders including funders, policy makers and
bureaucrats; and
3. It can enable individual museums to take the pulse of
local populations to find out how they can build sustainable
audiences.
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FUNDING
Keynote Address: David Moorhouse, Chairman, Lloyd’s
Register, and Trustee, National Maritime Museum,
Greenwich, UK
[As David was unable to attend, the content was delivered
by Kevin Fewster] – Powerpoint Presentation slides are
available at www.icmmonline.org
While the economic climate and the culture of a country
may vary to some degree; together with the approach and
mechanism by which government, corporate, foundations
and private individuals donate or support museums; there
are I believe common themes that are driving change in the
attitude they adopt towards museums now and in the future.
If museums are to effectively attract support going forward,
there are perhaps some changes in approach and style they
will need to consider.
Having said that there are differences in the support
environment between countries, maritime history is a truly
global subject and therefore the scope for international private
and corporate support and, in some cases, foreign government
support does exist. Nevertheless, with reduced government
support the private and corporate sources of funding become
significantly greater in importance but the days when
foundations, private individuals and corporate bodies gave
money because they or an individual in their organisation,
thought it was a good idea, are now over. To be able to bask in
the warm glow of giving without purpose for the organisation
or giver is no longer enough.
What corporate bodies will now support has changed fewer and fewer being willing to invest in bricks and mortar
and one-off exhibitions, unless those exhibitions are linked to
programs of education. Those same programs may also in the
future be required to deliver their benefits to a wider than their
domestic audience. I believe that supporting exhibitions and
programs that bring countries and cultures together will in
many cases be more popular from a support perspective than
those that reflect a more local view of history.
What does cultural entrepreneurship mean in times of
economic recession? Cultural entrepreneurship does not
mean sacrificing the integrity nor the quality or indeed the
accuracy of the story we tell. For me it means telling the
story in a way that will stimulate the mind of the recipient,
encourage the government and public supporter to participate
and develop and expand the museum’s image and role with
the wider public. While I believe this is true under any
circumstance, in a fiscally challenged environment it takes on
an even greater level of importance. Cultural entrepreneurs
present and tell the history in new and different ways. They
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ICMM CONGRESS 2009
SUMMARIES OF SELECTED PAPERS
use modern media, education in schools and recent events to
convey history in a modern and exciting context. The really
successful entrepreneurs are hard to find and a precious
resource that we must try to develop within museums as a
whole. So in an economic recession their role is even more
important and if we are involved in museums where none
exist, there is an urgent need to address that situation.
** DENMARK’S NEW MARITIME MUSEUM
Jørgen Selmer, Danish Maritime Museum, Elsinor, Denmark
The paper provides a status report on the exhibition work in
connection with the construction of a new museum to replace
the old exhibitions at the historic Kronborg Castle, north of
Copenhagen. The museum is in the middle of a process, and in
the coming years, up until the expected opening in 2012, the
project and the various ideas will be worked on and developed
in cooperation with the many interested parties.
The museum has been designed by one of Denmark’s most
internationally renowned firm of architects, BIG Bjarke Ingels
Group. They will place the 7,600m2 building underground
encircling the old dry dock from Elsinore Shipyard, which
lies as a neighbour to Kronborg Castle. The Dutch exhibition
designers Kossmann.dejong are responsible for the design of
the new exhibitions. In recent years Kossmann.dejong have
drawn attention to themselves with exhibitions that, by means
of the rich use of pictures and an exciting scenography, reach
out to a new kind of public who are not used to museums. The
museum will be inclusive and not exclude any group of users.
That is not an easy goal to achieve, and in order to do so the
exhibitions will have several layers of experiences.
Thus in planning the exhibitions we are working on a
means of touching people’s emotions with a full measure of
pictures, film, scenography, light, sound and smell. Together
with the original museum exhibits and without words all of
these things will be able to tell visitors from the whole world
and of all ages that Danish shipping now, throughout the
world and at all times has been of decisive importance for
everybody in our society.
The visitor’s curiosity will be aroused by a number of
interactive installations, which invite him to do it himself, to
try for himself, to wonder, and to succeed in pitting himself
against nature, navigation, ship construction, cargo and
logistics.
The desire to learn more comes from the meeting with the
history, past and present, of the great maritime world, told by
means of the little story: The close personal account retold by
living people or via finds in the archives and conveyed with the
original objects, pictures, letters, film and sound recordings
in exhibitions and in the personal digital information system
which comes with the entrance ticket.
Emotions, curiosity, the desire for knowledge and further
6
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ICMM CONGRESS 2009
SUMMARIES OF SELECTED PAPERS
commitment can be satisfied to the full in the web-based part
of the exhibition on the museum’s homepage, where more
stories, pictures and collected accounts, together with links to
the entire maritime world comprise an almost inexhaustible
treasure chest.
light. It has to be admitted, however, that even today, twenty
years down the road from those momentous events, many
people are still only slowly coming to terms with the capitalist
economy and look back with nostalgia to the days when the
state, albeit a poor one, took care of everything.
In the museum’s information centre containing archives
and a library the staff will be ready to assist with further help
and guidance. There will also be the possibility of ordering
teaching sessions, guided tours and private functions.
In contrast, most young and middle-aged people
embraced the new reality with relish and set about to build a
better future. I think that in Poland we can count the people
involved with museums among those who look on our further
development with optimism. The staff of the Polish Maritime
Museum is certainly part of this company: mindful of their
responsibilities but also with determination, they are striving
to make the most of the opportunities that have arisen. They
are thus actively involved in the development of our Museum,
acquiring valuable personal experiences in the process.
The subsidiary themes of the main exhibition each have
their starting point in the present time and move outward
globally and across all time periods. They bear in on
fundamental issues for shipping and the shipping industries:
Why do we sail? (goods and passenger transport) How do we
find our way? (navigation) How do we build ships? How is
life at sea and what pleasures and dangers does it offer? What
does shipping mean for the country’s economy and for our
daily lives?
FROM AUDIENCE TO CONNECTIVES - Karin Brandt,
National Maritime Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands
The main exhibition comprises altogether approximately
2,500 m2, divided up into about 300 running metres around
the dock. The walk round offers great variation thanks to the
architecture, but the experience is further enhanced and made
more dramatic by the fact that each exhibition theme has its
own expression, aesthetics and communication techniques,
which will constantly stimulate the senses of the public.
• to be an audience is a passive exercise; after all – you in
this capacity as the audience will undergo what I have chosen
to offer you
** TAKING FULL ADVANTAGE OF THE OPPORTUNITIES
OFFERED BY CHANGE – HOW WE IN GDANSK ARE
COPING WITH UNCERTAINTY
Jerzy Litwin, Polish Maritime Museum
• My objective today is to challenge you, fellow Museum
Colleagues, to look at The Audience with different eyes. I
hope you will allow me to take you on the journey to become
connected, for once connected, we will move from being a
captive audience to a captivated audience, which means you
have opened up and oh, how easy it will be to get that message
across as you will be in the right mode to receive!
At the ICMM conference in Philadelphia in 1996 I spoke
about maritime museums in eastern Europe. Later, at Helsingør
in 2000, nine years after the collapse of the communist system
in Poland, I spoke about the cooperation between our museum
and foreign ones after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Today, a further nine years on, again in Denmark, it is with
great satisfaction that I would like to develop the theme of this
year's conference – UNDERSTANDING CHANGE – COPING
WITH UNCERTAINTY, that is, by telling you how we at the
Polish Maritime Museum understand the changes taking place
both in Poland and in the rest of the world, and how we are
coping with the uncertainties arising out of the risks inherent
in our actions.
The mass social movement initiated in Poland in 1980,
known as SOLIDARITY, laid the foundations for the bloodless
revolution of 1989, as a result of which Poland became a
democratic state. Similar transformations soon took place in
the other countries of central and eastern Europe. Out of these
political changes arose the need to reform the economy, which
was beginning to be ruled by the laws of capitalism. This
forced our society to look at everyday matters in a different
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• as I am sending information to you that I hope will enter
the listening zone of your brain which will result in a certain
impact that will action you or make you conclude that the
information is useful. Unfortunately, you might also tune out
and consider me to a complete waste of your valuable time.
What does it take to become connected with our Audience?
• I would like to invite you to look at the Audience experience
from the Visitor Perspective. Or wait! Let’s rephrase that. I
would like to invite you to look at the Audience experience
from a GUEST perspective.
• The Journey to our Museums starts and ends at home – as
once we realize which path our Guest follows to find his way
to you, it will become easier to connect with him.
to be a focus point, in contrast to the Content Value aspects.
• The Guest needs to feel well taken care off.
• Even if you are offering the best content in your capacity,
the Guest Value will determine the total Experience.
• Guest Value + Content Value equals Total Experience.
• And offers, if its result is a positive feeling, the opportunity
to:
Inspire & interact
• Have you ever realized that inspiration is actually a joint
effort? If you are not open to being inspired, there is no way
that for instance, I can be an inspiration to you.
• You will not be open to being inspired if you are not
comfortable, or if you don’t have that positive feeling
• But once comfortable, once opened up, you have allowed
me to be an inspiration and once inspired
Our interaction starts.
• This is a far cry from the traditional position of The
Audience, which in fact is one way traffic and corresponds to
me telling you to be quiet and to listen to me.
• Does that sound familiar?
Connect
• Now that I can interact with my guests, we can connect
and because I am able to connect, I can truly offer you, my
guests, that what it is you came here for. And you, my guest,
you will feel enthused, comfortable, satisfied and inspired.
You will feel part of a
Community
• an environment where comfort plays a predominant role
in the total experience – that you had in mind when you made
the decision to go to my museum
• The Audience has become the sum of all these elements
increasing her value:
• As The Value of the Audience is determined by the quality
of the content and the level of the hospitality offered. If this
value is pleasant, recognizable, inspiring, enriching enough,
it stimulates a repeat visit. THEREFORE, the value of our
audience for the museum is enhanced – customer value is
increased and a long term valuable relationship is established.
THE MARIMUS PROJECT – NEXT STEP IN THE PURSUIT
OF A VISION - Morten Hahn-Pedersen, Fisheries and
Maritime Museum, Esbjerg, Denmark
• What has inspired your guest to visit you?
• How has he/she chosen you as the domicile of his visit
today?
• And what is their expectancy of this visit?
• The journey starts with the collection of information; with
the building of an expectancy which translates to a mental
picture and will result in a positive or negative feeling – read:
experience.
• This means that attention to the Guest Value Aspects needs
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Over the past two decades the Fisheries and Maritime
Museum in Esbjerg has pursued a vision of transforming the
original fisheries museum with an aquarium attached to it
into a museum, research centre and attraction focused on the
concept of Man and Sea.
Since the vision was first launched in 1989 the museum
has broadened its palette by adding still new aspects of the
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visitors will be able to get an insight into this fragile biotope
which is the closest neighbour to the museum.
2- Our enrichment policy
The second step is located in the east wing of the museum
which hitherto has been partly owned by the University of
Copenhagen. The museum has bought the entire building
adding an extra 800 square metres to the basement floors of
the complex, and the additional space will primarily be used
for research purposes in relation to the museum’s work with
stranded whales in Danish waters. Furthermore, an education
department and a cinema/conference room will be located here.
A new exhibition hall will be added to the complex. This hall
will focus on the natural history of whales in Danish waters,
and via the top floor in the east wing the exhibition on whales
will be connected to the rest of the visitor area in an exhibition
that will contain themes such as whaling, offshore oil and gas
exploration, and offshore renewable energy production.
- enrich existing collections with a two-pronged approach:
thematically (navy or fishing for example) and by the type of
artefact (i.e. models, real boats, painting or uniforms)
The total project, which will cost around 125 million DKK
[approx $US 25 million – Ed], has been approved by the
municipality and all primary planning work has been sorted
out. The City of Esbjerg has donated some 20 million DKK
for the project and committed itself to taking over running
costs and maintenance of the new buildings. Presentation
material is ready and the fund raising process is about to start.
However, due to the present economic situation this process
might take a while, but we are convinced that the project will
come through.
Fisheries and Maritime Museum in Esbjerg
maritime and marine world to its collections, research and
presentations. A research centre – the Centre of Maritime and
Regional Studies – was established in 1994 and a number of
extensions of the museum complex have been carried out; the
major steps being an open air exhibition, a new aquarium and
a new museum building containing hinterland facilities and a
shipping exhibition.
Over the last couple of years the museum has worked
intensively on the next step in the overall plan. MariMus –
short for Maritime-Marine-Museum – has been chosen as
work title for the project which is planned in two steps.
Step One is an up-to-date renovation and extension of the
museum’s presentations of seals (Grey Seals and Common
Harbour Seals) and the Wadden Sea. The new seal tanks will
be a design based on studies of seal behaviour, environmental
requirements, rational working procedures and best and most
cost effective technique. Furthermore, wishes for new research
possibilities and best experience for visitors have been a vital
factor in the designing process. In comparison with the existing
seal tank the overall concept of the new tanks will bring the
seals much closer to their natural biotope. Apart from the seal
tanks the extension will contain a Wadden Sea tank where
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MUSÉE NATIONAL DE LA MARINE’S COLLECTIONS:
MANAGEMENT AND ENRICHMENT
Jean-Noel Gard, Musée National de la Marine, Paris, France
1- Context
Created in 1748, MnM collections are among the oldest
in the world. The museum itself was created in 1827 in Le
Louvre and remained there until 1939 when it was transferred
to the Palais de Chaillot where it is today.
Originally, collections consisted of around 60 dockyard
models. During the 19th century, several new areas were
opened including ethnography, navigation instruments,
painting or merchant navy items. Today no subject is excluded
from our field.
At the same time, in each dockyard, there was a model
workshop with an associated exhibition room. All were
linked to MnM in 1947. The number of these port museums
increased to 15. Now there are 4 port museums;
During this time, over some 30 years, the French maritime
museum landscape evolved highly with the creation of several
dozen maritime or river museums, cultural organisations and
associations. It’s a general movement about heritage in France.
Now, a real network of maritime heritage does exist and that is
not without influence on our enrichment policy.
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We have to :
- open new fields as we did with toy boats. Remember
photography was first for documentation; now it is collection
- determine today what is tomorrow’s heritage. It is one of our
biggest challenges. For instance: what do we preserve about
today’s navigation instruments? What is representative of GPS?
We need to identify milestones.
- know other museums’ collections and coordinate with them
- at the end, take into account new technologies, particularly
multimedia, to determine how we will deal with collections,
and how we will deal with multimedia for example.
The combination of the revised approach and name
change resulted in a proposal that was sufficiently attractive
as a regeneration proposal to secure financial support from
regional development agencies and the UK government’s
Department for Communities and Local Government as well
as more traditional sources of cultural funding. The shift
in approach has also allowed the project to become mores
sustainable with the model repositories constructed as passive
environment stores rather than air conditioned spaces.
£12.5m has been secured to complete the works, and
construction is underway – anticipated to complete in 2010.
In recent months a minor problem – the main contractor
going into administration – has introduced an unexpected
delay but we currently anticipate completion and opening by
summer 2010.
** OPERATIONAL HERITAGE – ECONOMIC MILLSTONE
OR OPPORTUNITY FOR REACHING NEW AUDIENCES?
Alan Edenborough, Sydney Heritage Fleet, Sydney,
Australia
NATIONAL MUSEUMS AT CHATHAM
Richard Holdsworth, The Historic Dockyard, Chatham, UK
National Museums at Chatham is an innovative partnership
project between three UK museums – two nationals, National
Maritime Museum and Imperial War Museum – and an
independent (not for profit) regional museum – The Historic
Dockyard, Chatham.
The project will deliver new museum storage for the
two national museum collections of ship models, each
internationally pre-eminent, but increasingly taken off
display as the approach to exhibitions has evolved from
technologically based displays using large numbers of models
to more thematic – social history based exhibitions.
National Museums at Chatham has taken eight years to
evolve and was borne from the juxtaposition of two separate
needs – those of the national museums to provide better
quality storage and access to the model collections and that of
Chatham to find a new use for one of its ancient monuments
– the semi derelict No 1 Smithery.
The partnership was brokered through the United Kingdom
Collections Strategy (UKMCS) and initially sought to create
the ‘National Ship Model Collection Centre’(NSMCC) – a
proposal which in 2003 also included the Science Museum’s
equally pre-eminent collection – and intended to create a
major ‘storage on display facility’ for over 4500 models – the
equivalent of some 5.4 linear kilometres.
NSMCC proved un-fundable as storage on display was
falling out of favour in Britain and funders doubted the appeal
of so many ship models in one place. In 2004 the approach
was radically revised to provide accommodation for the
NMM and IWM collections in closed ‘high density’ stores to
enable space to be allocated for a permanent and temporary
galleries to international standards, a collection study area and
educational facilities. The name was also changed to National
Museums at Chatham.
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There was a period, which really got going in the second
half of the 20th Century, when it seemed everyone wanted
to exhibit historic vessels. They were regarded by maritime
museums as ideal and, indeed, necessary instruments for
telling the maritime story and attracting audiences.
I divide those vessels into two groups; the first, ‘passive’
vessels, the second ‘operational’. The passive group makes up
by far and away the majority of maritime museum craft. Many
of them are successfully integrated into the museum’s themes.
But there is another group of passive vessels. They are tied up
at wharves or pontoons, on display as examples of this type,
or that era. Curatorially, they tick all the significance boxes;
from an audience perspective I suggest that, in many cases,
they achieve little.
One has to ask: What is attractive to a museum audience
about a vessel which is tied up at a wharf, out of context and
‘dead’? It’s just possible that in many cases a well interpreted
gallery exhibit, without the boat, could evoke more reaction
from museum audiences and teach them more. Those with
floating collections know that after a time the gloss, very
literally, goes off. Historic vessels need skills, trades and
maintenance facilities and the use of expensive external
resources. The result is that the focus of museum management
towards their floating collections can switch from attracting
audiences to see their ships, to ways of reducing an increasing
strain on resources, as preservation and maintenance
requirements increase, and costs escalate.
I think it is fair to say that as purse strings continue to
tighten, floating collections age further, and preservation and
maintenance costs compound at an alarming rate, we will begin
to see the rationalisation of small-boat floating collections. It’s
a sombre thought …
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** THE SEA STALLION EXPERIMENT
Tinna Damgård-Sørensen, The Viking Ship Museum,
Roskilde, Denmark
The title of this conference: ”Understanding Change –
coping with uncertainty” could have been the headline of
the project I’m going to talk about: The Trial Voyage with a
Viking Longship, SEA STALLION, from Roskilde to Dublin
and return in 2007/2008.
This voyage, undertaken by SEA STALLION and its crew,
created an overwhelming public interest. The Trial Voyage was
covered daily by the media. It inspired comic strips, comment
drawings and a satire in the Danish national morning-radio.
BBC broadcasted from on board the ship, kept a blog on the BBC
news webpage, and produced a documentary on the voyage.
The story was on the front page in countries as far away as
China, India and Australia. The Danish Ambassador to China
claimed that the man on the street in China associated two
things with modern Denmark: The drawings of Mohammed and the SEA STALLION.
When SEA STALLION arrived in Dublin in 2007, the
entire town was engaged in the reception, and the event
was covered on wide screen on Times Square in New York.
It simply rocketed! In Denmark and Ireland the ship has
been used as a national symbol. It was incorporated into the
canon of culture as one of twelve examples of excellent Danish
craftsmanship and design. And it came out on stamps and
coins. Subsequently SEA STALLION has covered the front
page of several publications – and the red-and-yellow striped
sail has become a new icon of the Vikings.
In the paper I will provide a short description of the project,
and I will try to relate the success to the changing audience …
* * CHANGING OUR COURSE WITHOUT
LOSING OUR AUDIENCES
Stuart Parnes, Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum,
St Michaels, USA
The CBMM is a mid-sized (30 full-time staff) regional
museum, founded in the mid-1960’s to preserve the Bay’s
vanishing maritime traditions – especially boatbuilding and
fishing. It is an outdoor history museum, built-up very much
in the model of Mystic Seaport, with a working boatyard,
collections of traditional watercraft and historic buildings
gathered from around the Eastern Shore of the Bay. We now
occupy an 18-acre waterfront site. We are 100% self-funded,
with an annual budget of approximately $US 3 million.
For over 40 years, the Museum has done a very good job of
collecting and preserving maritime artefacts, and of developing
exhibits and programs that tell the stories of the areas maritime
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past. We have become a highly respected museum, a valued
and trusted keeper of the past—its memories, stories, and
artefacts.
CBMM is and always has been a museum about place
— the Chesapeake Bay — a place where human history and
natural history are have always been tightly intertwined. Yet
in recent years, as this magnificent place and its people face
dramatic changes to their culture and way of life, the museum
continued to view the Bay through the rear-view mirror of
history. This is, after all, what American history museums
do … The unspoken but perhaps undeniable fact is that the
“value” of most of our maritime museums is declining – we are
becoming less and less relevant to our 21st-century audiences.
It is no longer a matter of improving our marketing. Like
the situation that the US auto manufacturers have found
themselves in, we need to develop new products to meet what
new customers actually want and need …
CONGRESS 2009 – MASTER CLASSES
During the final afternoon of the Congress, delegates
participated in four Master Classes – Audiences, Collections,
Research and Funding. Kevin Fewster, who convened the
‘Audiences Master Class’ has provided this outline report:
Twelve people attended the Audiences Masterclass. The
aims of the session were:
- to improve our understanding of audience development
factors
- to devise strategies to increase audiences to our museums.
Most of the session was conducted through group work
discussion and report backs. The groups were arranged
according to museum annual visitation: 50,000 visitors or less
per annum; 50,000 – 100,000 visitors pa; 100,000 – 200,000
visitors pa; more than 200,000 visitors pa.
Five people reported that their museums had experienced
rises in visitation over the past 3 years; three reported that
attendances had fallen and three described their visitation
as stable.
The groups considered the following questions:. What are the factors and forces working in favour of maritime
museums?
SEA STALLION - Photographer: Werner Karrasch. Copyright: The Viking Ship Museum
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What are the factors and forces working against maritime
museums?
How can we maximise the positive factors?
How can we minimise the impact of the negative factors?
The groups then discussed strategies to meet each set of
forces. Finally, each person was asked to consider which of
the strategies discussed might be especially applicable to their
museum and how the strategies might be applied.
[A summary of the feedback is available on-line at www.
icmmonline.org]
THE ENTREPRENEURIAL MUSEUM
AND THE WILD SPIRITS?
Matthew Tanner MBE, SS Great Britain Trust.
Being “entrepreneurial” is a state of mind, a culture, and
one that is open to all institutions. The idea that a museum
cannot or should not be commercially sharp and effective
has long since passed. Of course, many museums, not only
the independent museums like the SS Great Britain, assume
that they need a good retail shop and a nice café in order to
supplement their income. Is that enough, and what does a
culture of entrepreneurialism mean?
Sir Richard Branson: “I wanted to be an editor or a
journalist, I wasn’t really interested in being an entrepreneur,
but I soon found out I had to become an entrepreneur in order
to keep my magazine going.”
Anita Roddick: “Nobody talks of entrepreneurship as
survival, but that’s exactly what it is, and what nurtures
creative thinking.”
So being entrepreneurial is about all about survival, and
about opportunity. For an independent museum these are
essential facts of life. Machiavelli said “Entrepreneurs are
simply those who understand that there is little difference
between obstacle and opportunity, and are able to turn both to
their advantage.”
What then is the essence of “entrepreneurialism? Kirzner
said: “a person who spots and acts on opportunities”
Schumpeter said: “Innovation and change come from “Wild
Spirits”. – That is wild spirits running “commercial” charities/
museums. In fact many of our best loved museums were
(L) The façade of the Stavanger Maritime Museum today (the two buildings to the left) and (R) in the future (all three buildings).
Computer Graphic: Lars Riese
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founded by enthusiastic, and perhaps slightly mad, volunteers.
Certainly the amazing rescue of the SS GREAT BRITAIN
back to England was a great example of “wild spirits” being
entrepreneurial.
There are clearly differences nevertheless between
independent museums and the public, state-run museums. But
being entrepreneurial is a state of mind, a personal culture of
identifying and seizing your opportunities wherever they may
lie, and it should be continuous and ongoing. “We know it when
we see it but we don’t find it” in business plans, organisation
charts, and job descriptions. Mark Twain: “I was seldom able to
see an opportunity until it had ceased to be one”.
In some, or many, museums there is an ingrained mindset
against entrepreneurialism. It is about trading and being
commercial, they say. And that is bad, but remember the “Wild
Spirits”! The source of creativity and adventure lies there.
Studies show that the most successful entrepreneurs “are
convinced that they command their own destinies” But the
culture of many museums does not encourage this self-assured
attitude, and does not allow people to flourish.
How can museums be entrepreneurial without
compromising their integrity? Answer: Don’t make
compromising decisions! (although bad management decisions
will) Let’s not be afraid. Instead let us empower our people and
let loose the Wild Spirit
EXTENSION IN STAVANGER
Harald Hamre, Stavanger Maritime Museum, Norway
The City of Stavanger has purchased the property next
door to the Stavanger Maritime Museum and has decided to
renovate the buildings at a cost of about 7.5 million Euros. The
two wooden buildings date back to the 1830s, one warehouse
originally built to the sea and a main building behind, used for
housing. The renovated premises will be used by the maritime
museum. This gives us a unique opportunity to double the total
area of the museum with new and much better facilities for
visitors, new exhibitions and a restaurant. The only item which
is not solved yet is the time schedule. But we hope to open the
new and extended maritime museum within 3-5 years.
has actually made the organization stronger.
Nathaniel Howe has been at the epicenter of the
project, involved in every aspect of the process from assessing
decay and conducting archaeological documentation to
contract negotiation and supervising the deconstruction
process. Howe’s presentation retraced the ship’s decline,
Northwest Seaport’s decision not to preserve the ship, and
the process for making the most of the schooner prior to its
deconstruction.
Howe opened with a brief history of the schooner’s
participation in the California lumber trade, the Bering Sea
cod fishery, its placement on the National Historic Register,
and finally its forty-five years as a popular museum ship. Next,
he focused on the steady decline of the ship’s condition since
the early 1980s and the fact that historic vessel preservation
science, as we know it today, simply did not exist until
about fifteen or twenty years ago. Howe emphasized that,
in most cases, it is therefore unfair to accuse the individuals
who managed (or mismanaged) historic vessels prior to
the introduction of historic vessel preservation science of
negligence or incompetence. The current knowledge of how to
care for weakening timbers and sagging hulls simply did not
exist.
In 2005, Northwest Seaport found WAWONA to be rotten
beyond repair. Howe described the leadership’s transition to
grasp the grim reality of their situation and slowly accept its
implications. After all options for keeping the vessel intact were
exhausted, Northwest Seaport launched an effort to thoroughly
research and document WAWONA, while negotiating with
the City of Seattle for almost 1 million USD to demolish the
vessel in a careful, controlled manner that would allow further
documentation and artifact extraction.
Howe emphasized documentation as the paramount
responsibility of any historic vessel preservation organization
and as a method of fulfilling the mission to preserve artifacts
even when they can no longer be preserved in their physical
form. Enlisting more than half a dozen documentation teams
including a group of nautical archaeology students from East
Carolina University, Northwest Seaport meticulously recorded
WAWONA from its overall profile down to individual tool
marks left by Hans Bendixsen’s shipwrights more than a
Demise of the Museum Ship WAWONA:
Settling an Historic Ship’s Fate
Nathaniel Howe, Vessel Documentation and Preservation
Specialist, Northwest Seaport (Seattle, USA).
In March of 2009, Seattle’s 112-yr old Pacific Schooner
WAWONA was taken to the breaker’s yard. As the flagship of
Northwest Seaport, a Seattle city icon, and a National Historic
Register vessel, the ship’s departure was a grave loss for the
organization, the community, and the nation. However, strong
community partnerships and the extensive documentation of
the vessel performed during its final year enabled Northwest
Seaport to remake the grim process into a major success that
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century ago. When the day came for WAWONA to leave for
the breaker’s yard, the ship had already been ‘saved,’ her form
immortalized on paper and in digital media.
The intensive efforts to document the ship as well as the
extraction of more than 30 tons of artifacts have made the final
years of the WAWONA project a model for managing seriously
decayed National Historic Register vessels in the United
States. Northwest Seaport is a stronger more viable institution,
expanding programs and preservation efforts aboard its other
vessels. The WAWONA story is an example of how maritime
museums and their community partners can make the best of
even the worst situations during these hard economic times.
FROM IDIOSYNCRATIC TO INTEGRATED:
STRATEGIC PLANNING FOR COLLECTIONS
Keynote Address: Dr. James Gardner,
Associate Director for Curatorial Affairs, National Museum
of American History, Smithsonian Institution.
Collections planning applies the proven principles of
strategic planning to museum collecting. A collections plan
provides a rationale for choices and specifies how they will be
achieved, who will implement them, when that will happen,
and what it will cost. In thus abandoning ad hoc, idiosyncratic
collecting, museums are better positioned to manage change,
from tightening resources to new intellectual directions.
As with all planning, the process is as important as the
document that is produced. There is no one way to do it—
rather, the process should grow out of the culture of the specific
museum. Addressing intellectual or conceptual tensions
within the museum must be part of that process—tensions
between legacy collections and new collecting directions,
between current stewardship needs and building collections
for the future, between passive collecting and planned
collecting, and between unique, institutional responsibilities
and shared, collective responsibilities. At the same time, on
the organizational side, the museum must work through the
often conflicting perceptions and motivations of curators,
managers, and trustees. While such issues may be unsettling
or distracting, they must not become obstacles to change.
For most museums, the biggest challenge is developing
an intellectual framework that articulates the rationale for or
theory of the collections. As difficult as it may be to develop
such a framework, it is critical to planning, establishing the
compelling and shared vision that defines the museum’s
collecting and providing the context for making decisions.
In the final analysis, the goal of collections planning is
simple: integrated, strategic collecting tied to the museum’s
mission and intellectual goals.
LETTER TO THE EDITOR...
Sir,
The other day I glanced through ICMM News (Vol 31, issue 3;
aka “The Swimsuit Issue”) before filing it and noticed the article
on ‘Canada’s Submarine Museum’. As it happens Barb and I went
to Gaspé, Quebec for a holiday in early October and, as Rimouski
is not far away, decided to go there. What a delight the Pointe-auPère Maritime Historic Site turned out to be – three ‘museums’:
HMCS ONONDAGA; the Father Point/Pointe-au-Père lighthouse
complex and the EMPRESS OF IRELAND pavilion.
The latter is a small, but very-well-done, museum concerning
the loss of RMS EMPRESS OF IRELAND in 1914. This was one
of Canada’s most significant marine disasters with loss of life
amounting to 1,012 persons. The lighthouse is no longer in
service although it does have an original Fresnel Lens and it can be
climbed by the public. One can also visit the Lighthouse Keeper’s
House as well as the Engineer’s House (café), the Workshop and
the Foghorn Shed. We didn’t bother with the ONONDAGA as,
just last May, I had toured OCELOT in Chatham Dockyard which,
as you know, is also an OBERON class boat.
ONONDAGA at Pointe-au-Peré
Eric Ruff
Canada
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[Thanks Eric, appreciate your interest, and it is pleasing to note
that you managed to get past the illustration accompanying the
report of the Australian NMM ‘swimsuit’ exhibition in the last issue!
If any readers would like to send reports of Maritime Museum visits,
we would be pleased to receive them. – Ed]
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Historic site (EMPRESS OF IRELAND pavillion at right)
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Maritime Museums
Around the World
Mediterranean roundup
L’Escala, Festival and Heritage
In close co-operation, the village council of L’Escala and the
Museum of the Anchovy and Salt recently organised the 12th
Salt Festival. This was aimed at recovering, safeguarding, and
disseminating the maritime heritage of this coastal town and its
inhabitants.
Up to the end of the 20th century, large sailing ships loaded
with salt from the salt mines of Torrevieja, Alicante, Spain, sailed
to the old port of L’Escala, located on the Catalan coast in the north
of Spain. Small boats transported the salt from the ships to the
beach, whence it was distributed to the warehouses for salting
anchovies and sardines.
More than a hundred fishing boats with lateen sails would
cover the beach, the centre of the daily life of the village. When
they returned from fishing, everyone helped to pull out the fish
from the nets and take them to the salt warehouses where the
Maritime Museums Around The World cont...
the exhibition say, “the cultural memory that we intend to recover
should be understood as a place for the soul, from which one can
reach the past. Our objective is to transfer historical knowledge to
all citizens.”
women got them ready to be preserved in salt.
The Salt Festival started in 1997 to commemorate the third
centenary of the Alfolí –the old salt warehouse. The events
organized during the Festival recall the origins of the old port of
L’Escala, and the inhabitants of the village who act out the lives of
their ancestors.
“Boats returned as it got dark and if they caught fish they would
turn on their lights. And once again everyone would pull out the
fish from the nets. And once again salters would buy sardines and
anchovies. And with all the hustle and bustle it seemed like a party
night would be going on and the lights of the boats would light up
happy faces” said Xicu Andreu, a fisherman.
The Festival is staged on the incomparable setting of the beach
at L’Escala with the ancient Greek and Roman beach of Empúries
and the silhouette of the Pyrenees mountains as a backdrop.
The Festival always takes place on a Saturday in September. It is
a unique and authentic event that shows the true roots of the village.
The Salt Festival begins with an exhibition of the old marine trades
and tools, taking participants back to the
time when the village of L’Escala lived by
fishing and fish salting. Sunset signals
the arrival of the salt ship, announced
by the distinctive sound of the seashell
horns. The Festival is brightened up
with traditional dances and as the night
gets darker, the most emotional moment
arrives. Sailing boats with illuminated
lateen sails slowly enter the beach in a
beautiful pageant. To end the Festival, a
“suquet de peix” – a traditional fish-based
dish, prepared using the oldest of recipes
– is served, accompanied by tavern songs
and habaneras – marine songs.
The schooner SANTA EULÀLIA,
the flagship of the Museu Marítim
de Barcelona, as well as many other
traditional boats of the Catalan coast will
once again join the Salt Festival of L’Escala
and altogether will recall the maritime
tradition of the village.
The Batana House
Ecomuseum
in EPHEBE Project.
EPHEBE is an undertaking, financed
by the EU “Europe for Citizens” Program,
whose objectives are to map, illustrate
and analyze recent attempts in the field
of culture that contribute to a European
citizenship. Today, many cultural
Ms Civita and orphan children onboard the CARACCIOLO
organizations explicitly engaging with social and political issues
that have traditionally been reserved for other civil society groups
are getting momentum and are increasingly visible in the public
and media spheres.
Although several studies have been produced to provide a
conceptual analysis, one can observe a lack of resources enabling
a more concrete, practice-based understanding of these recent
trends. The Ephebe project has been launched to bridge this
gap by presenting examples of best practices in the field. These
examples would hopefully inspire communities and local bodies
to value their cultural assets with a view to promoting a deeper,
more critical and vivid sense of contemporary citizenship.
Among eight pertinent case studies documented and analyzed,
one of the chosen is The Batana House Ecomuseum from Rovinj.
Video documentary gives all relevant information about the
ecomuseum project, presented by Marino Budicin, vice mayor
of Rovinj and ecomuseum spiritus movens and by Dragana
Lucija Ratkovic, author of the permanent exhibition and
ecomuseum project manager from the Muses Ltd, Zagreb based
culture and tourism consultants. You can follow the project on
www.ephebe.eu.
The Museo del Mare di Napoli
widens its scope
It is with great pleasure that lately we have observed changes
in the management and offerings of maritime museums of the
Mediterranean. Museums of this geographical area are mostly
small organizations characterized by few resources, both financial
and human, to develop actions. They can hardly try to compete
with bigger maritime museums. However, they are starting to
change and are reinventing themselves by searching for new
methodologies and moving onto new areas of research.
This is certainly the case of the Museo del Mare di Napoli,
a small regional museum that promotes maritime and nautical
culture. One of their recent research projects was aimed at revealing
the importance of the regional maritime culture. The project,
based on a collection of previously unknown documents, is now a
specialized archive providing new evidence. The information will
be disseminated via an exhibition, online material illustrating this
tradition and a publication in the near future. As the organizers of
Salt Festival. Photo: Ferran Magrat
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The documents collected deal with the orphanage school vessel
CARACCIOLO, and the challenging initiative of a teacher, Giulia
Civita, at the start of the 20th century. CARACCIOLO was a corvette
dating from the end of the 19th century that was scheduled to be
demolished. Instead, it became a school for orphans who needed
to be cared for and to be trained professionally for the future.
Some were trained in the discipline of fishing, some in activities
related to the navy, and many others to civilian jobs. An innovative
element introduced for the first time in such an institution was the
caring for the emotional needs of the schoolchildren. Professional
education was no longer considered the sole curriculum to be
taught; it was also essential to fill the emotional emptiness of the
Neapolitan orphans. www.museodelmarenapoli.it/scugnizzi/
Maritime Ethnology, a Research Project
on Fishing and Shipbuilding. Changes and
Effects of the Construction of a Port of Refuge
in the Spanish Coastal Town of Cambrils.
This documentation project is part of a series of actions in the
field of research developed by the Maritime Museum of Barcelona
to preserve, safeguard and disseminate the maritime heritage of the
Catalan coast. The Museum, as a member of the Observatory for
the Research of Ethnological Heritage of Catalonia, an instrument
created by the regional government, jointly collaborates with
other Catalan institutions to attain the objectives programmed.
The Cambrils project was carried out last year by two experts
and the Research Manager of the Maritime Museum of Barcelona.
However, other institutions supported the research, such as the
Museum of History of Cambrils, its Town Council, the Fraternity
of Fishermen, and even the the town’s citizens.
The ethnological research had the objective of revealing how the
construction of an artificial port affected traditional shipbuilding
and the fishing community of Cambrils in the decade of 1930.
Back then, Cambrils was a small fishing village with few
shipwrights, not very different from the bordering villages. At the
time, the construction of the new port had an effect on all the
citizens. On the one hand, the fishing community changed, the
organization of the work was transformed, the techniques and even
the composition of the fleet were altered. In parallel, shipbuilders
redesigned boats and specialized in the construction of powered
dragging boats. The old motorised sailing boats became obsolete.
The shipbuilders from Cambrils supplied vessels not only to the
local market, but all along the Catalan coast.
On the whole, the project’s main targets were to examine and
collect diverse documentary sources, to scrutinize photographic
and audiovisual material, and to record and transcribe interviews.
The data obtained backed up the initial hypotheses on the effects
of the construction of the port of refuge. The results have already
been integrated into the archives of the Inventory of Ethnological
Heritage of Catalonia.
Though separate projects, this documentary research was
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EXHIBITION ROUNDUP
Maritime Museums Around The World cont...
NATIONAL MARITIME MUSEUM, GREENWICH, UK
to 3 January 2010
North-West Passage: An Arctic Obsession
carried out in coordination with the work in progress restoring
the fishing boat TERESA. Built in Cambrils in 1936, TERESA is
a clear example of the specialization of the shipbuilding industry
in Cambrils. The preservation of TERESA provides a living
instrument which shows the community the past and the present
of fishing and also the activity of local shipwrights. Therefore, this
is not merely a restoration project, it also has the objective of being
a pedagogical tool for citizens.
MYSTIC SEAPORT, USA
to January 2010
Mapping the Pacific Coast: Coronado to Lewis and Clark, The
Quivira Collection.
VOYAGER NEW ZEALAND MARITIME MUSEUM
Permanent exhibition opens 12 December 2009
Blue Water Back Magic, a tribute to Sir Peter Blake
New Phase of Recovery of the
Royal Shipyards of Barcelona
SKYLUCK IN HONG KONG
The Hong Kong Maritime Museum has acquired a
magnificent painting of the stranding on Lamma
Island, on 29 June 1979, of the 3,500 tonne, Panamanian registered SKYLUCK (EX-EASTERN PLANET, EXWAIMATE) with its human cargo of 2664 Vietnamese
refugees. The painting is by the well known British
artist Professor Ken Howard, R.A.
“Ken Howard’s work is characterized by the play of
light, his key inspiration. Light there is in this powerful work, though here it dominates the background.
The shadowed foreground, eloquent of the shadow
world in which the refugees had found themselves,
shows the scene when desperation had led some of
the refugees to cut the ship’s anchor chain and the
ship had drifted onto Lamma Island. Many rapidly
scrambled ashore and it is this memorable scene
that Ken Howard’s picture captures so powerfully.
Ken Howard was in Hong Kong at the time exhibiting his work in the HK Arts Centre. He visited the
SKYLUCK before the stranding and his painting is
based on that visit and subsequent photographs.”
MV SKYLUCK had slipped unannounced into Hong
Kong in the early hours of Wednesday, February 8
1979. Ignoring signals from Waglan Island it came to
anchor in the Western Anchorage and was boarded
by the Marine Police. After nearly 5 months aboard,
feelings of desperation had grown such that the
refugees took this hazardous step which resulted in
the ship sinking by the stern. The following year the
ship was refloated and towed to Junk Bay where it
was broken up.
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M E E T I N G S , CO N F E R E N C E S & CO N G R E S S E S
Traditional Boats of the Pacific Northwest
Conference
Columbia River Maritime Museum in Astoria
Saturday, March 6 2010 10 AM to 5 PM
For registration details please contact Sam Johnson,
Executive Director of the Columbia River Maritime Museum by
email at [email protected] A full agenda will be available in
early January, 2010.
The Columbia River Maritme Museum in Astoria, Oregon
will hold a conference on the traditional boats of the Pacific
Northwest on Saturday, March 6, 2010. The goal is to develop
a list of traditional boat types of the region, identifying which
types are extinct and which extant. Based on the Museum
Small Craft Association’s Union List of Traditional Small Craft,
this list will be used to develop strategies and priorities for the
documentation and preservation of the region’s boats. At the
present time the region is broadly defined as extending from
Alaska south to Northern California and across the Cascades to
the eastern borders of Oregon and Washington.
Council of American Maritime Museums (CAMM)
Annual Conference, Mystic / Avery Point, CT, USA
May 13-16 2010,
Britain’s Indian Ocean World, 1600-1900
National Maritime Museum, Greenwich UK
8 & 9 July 2010
Corrosion of Historic Ships
Mariehamn, Åland Islands, and Turku, Finland
5 – 9 September 2011
See ICMM website for full details.
Contact: [email protected]
Boat types will include native craft, recreational boats, and
work boats up to 120 feet.
SKYLUCK by Ken Howard RA
NEWSLETTER BONUS
The Executive Committee of ICMM has decided that
Full Members will now receive two copies of the
newsletter to allow one copy to be placed in their
museum’s library and one to be circulated to staff
(etc)
HOSTING HIGHLIGHT
“Over the years the Fisheries and Maritime Museum
in Esbjerg has hosted a number of international
conferences and meetings involving museum and
university researchers … but hosting the biannual
conference of ICMM tops them all.
” Morten Hahn-Pedersen “
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moved in preparation for the architectural works.
At the same time, the Museum management is working on a
new museography proposal with the aim of creating a new museum
that provides answers to the interests, desires and requirements of
the 21st century society. Our intention is to develop an entirely
new museum model, open and accessible, that responds to the
present times, with new communication principles. In short, a
Museum where maritime culture in its widest sense is transferred.
For more details of these exhibitions and others
visit the ICMM website. Please send information for
inclusion in these pages to the Editor.
HONG KONG MARITIME MUSEUM
to 28 February 2010
Dragons. Waves. Winds. Gods
Royal Shipyard buildings, Barcelona Maritime Museum - photo LJ Biel
The Town Hall and the Provincial government of Barcelona will
fund a new phase of restoration of the Royal Shipyards building,
dated from the end of the 13th century. The works, which will
start in the beginning of 2010, will center on the roof and floor
of the eight central units or halls of the permanent exhibition.
Some archaeological excavations will also be carried out before
the new flooring is placed. In addition, a new warehouse will be
built, offering more space to collect artifacts. In September the
permanent hall will be closed to the public and its collections
MERSEYSIDE MARITIME MUSEUM, LIVERPOOL UK
5 February to 1 June 2010
China: Through the Lens of John Thomson 1868-72
This photographic exhibition includes 150 images from the
Wellcome Library’s collection taken in China between 1868
and 1872 and features a wide variety of images, themes and
locations from Beijing to Fujian to Guangdong, including
landscapes, people, architecture, domestic and street scenes
captured during Thomson’s expedition to China.
ASIAN DATABASE
The Hong Kong Maritime Museum is compiling a
database of all Asian maritime museums. So far data
on 63 museums in 13 countries has been gathered.
It is planned to make the data publicly available early in 2010 and to use the database as a launch pad
for efforts to create an Asian maritime museums’
communications network. For information contact
Nowell Li Sum-yi [email protected]
TANG CARGO EXHIBITION
It is reported that much of the famed Belitung
Wreck treasure (the Tang Cargo), purchased by the
Singapore government, will become part of the
Asian Civilization Museum’s collection. It had been
hoped that the cargo would be the centerpiece of
a new Singapore maritime museum, but this may
now have been superseded. http://bit.ly/w6Oto
MUSEUM RELOCATION
The Republic of Singapore Navy Museum, which
closed in 2006 to move from its old Sembawang
premises to new premises in the relocated Republic
of Singapore Navy base at Changi seems to have hit
significant delays in re-opening. It was scheduled to
re-open in 2007, but earlier this year (August 2009)
the post of Curator to the museum was still being
advertised.
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NZNMM TO BECOME THE VOYAGER
The New Zealand National Maritime Museum is
henceforth to be known as “Voyager New Zealand
Maritime Museum.”
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ICMM EXECUTIVE COMMIT TEE
CONTACT DETAILS
Jean-Noel Gard,
Musée National de la Marine,
Paris, France.
[email protected]
President
Frits Loomeijer,
Maritime Museum Rotterdam,
Netherlands.
[email protected]
Historic site (EMPRESS OF IRELAND pavillion at
right). See page 15.
N OT I C ES
A PLEA!
Members are reminded to inform the
Honorary Treasurer (email address
on back page) of any change of
address, or changes in their contact
details. We rely on you to keep us
informed and thus to make sure you
receive your subscription renewals
and newsletters on time. Thank you.
JOIN ICMM !
ICMM welcomes new individual
(associate) and full members. Please
visit
www.icmmonline.org/pages/
join.htm
or contact Secretary
General Stuart Parnes for details.
[email protected]
NOTE TO AUTHORS
ICMM News seeks contributions
on any topic related to maritime
museums from members and nonmembers.
Contributions should be forwarded
in MS WORD format, or as text in
the body of an email message, to the
editor.
Authors may prefer to check the
suitability of the topic with the
editor beforehand but no guarantees
will be given that any article will be
published.
David Wright,
Royal New Zealand Navy Museum,
Auckland, New Zealand.
[email protected]
Vice President
Hanna Hagmark-Cooper,
Ålands Sjöfartsmuseum, Finland.
[email protected]
Co-opted:
Morten Hahn-Pedersen, Fiskeri-og
Søfartsmuseet, Esbjerg, Denmark.
[email protected]
Secretary General
Stuart Parnes,
PO Box 513, Oxford,
Maryland 21654 USA.
[email protected]
Mary Louise Williams,
Australian National Maritime Museum,
Sydney, Australia.
[email protected]
Newsletter Editorial Board &
Regional Correspondents
Editor & webmaster:
Larry Robbins;
[email protected]
Treasurer
Nigel Rigby,
National Maritime Museum,
Greenwich, UK.
[email protected]
Members:
Paula J. Johnson,
National Museum of American History,
Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC,
USA. [email protected]
Elvira Mata i Enrich,
Museu Maritim de Barcelona, Spain.
[email protected]
British Isles:
Stephen Riley;
[email protected]
Mediterranean:
Elvira Mata I Enrich;
[email protected]
North America:
Dan Finamore;
[email protected]
Asia:
Stephen Davies;
[email protected]
Lars U. Scholl,
Deutsches Schiffahrtsmuseum,
Bremerhaven, Germany.
[email protected]
Australia:
Mary Louise Williams;
[email protected]
Robert Domzal,
Polish Maritime Museum,
Gdansk, Poland.
[email protected]
South America:
vacant (volunteers welcome)
Northern Europe:
Harry de Bles;
[email protected]
Rachel Mulhearn,
Liverpool Museums, England.
rachel.mulhearn@liverpoolmuseums.
org.uk
Scandinavia/Baltic:
Marika Hedin;
[email protected]
Alan Edenborough,
Sydney Heritage Fleet, Australia.
[email protected]
Research:
Rachel Mulhearn;
[email protected]
ICMM News is the journal for members of the International Congress of Maritime Museums (ICMM). It is
published three times per year (generally in March, July, and November). ICMM News is published in Auckland, New Zealand for the ICMM. Views are those of the respective authors and do not necessarily reflect
the views of ICMM. Contact the Editor, Larry Robbins: ICMM News, PO Box 35-401, Browns Bay, Auckland,
0753, New Zealand. Email: [email protected]
DEADLINE FOR 2010 ISSUES: 20 FEBRUARY 2010, 20 JUNE 2010, 20 OCTOBER 2010
Copyright © 2009 International Congress of Maritime Museums www.icmmonline.org
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