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af behovet for en konceptuel redefinition af det maritime
museum, dets budskab og dets emnemæssige vifte.
Resuméer af konferencens faglige indlæg er sammen
med reportager fra ICMM Esbjerg 2009 efterfølgende ble-
vet publiceret i
ICMM Newsletter
og tilgængeliggjort på
ICMMs website:
.
Summary
The Fisheries and Maritime Museum hosted a conference
under the auspices of the International Congress of Mari-
time Museums (ICMM) from 5 to 11 October 2009.
The conference in Esbjerg had about 100 participants
representing over 60 maritime museums in 22 countries
in America, Asia, Australia, Oceania and Europe. ICMM
Esbjerg 2009 was held under the title
Understanding
Change – Coping with Uncertainty
. The conference title
reflected the major changes which are occurring both in
the maritime world and around the museums, and the aim
of the conference was to generate some ideas about how
change and its consequent uncertainty can be understood
and handled. These issues were discussed in relation to
such core museum functions as collections, research and
communication, but given the current economic situation,
financing of the museums was also a consideration on the
agenda for the conference’s presentations and discussions.
Apart from four days of theoretical sessions, the pro-
gramme included a half-day excursion to Esbjerg Harbour
and the island of Fanø, and those who were interested were
also able to go on a post-conference tour to Ribe, Schleswig
and Hamburg.
The conference progressed well in terms of both organi-
sation and content. Everything proceeded smoothly with
respect to organisation, and with respect to the content, the
contributions and workshops – as always in such contexts
– were the catalyst for numerous discussions in both the
plenary session and among the participants – and as always,
new syntheses typically emerged from these discussions.
Conclusions from the various sessions were that:
v
changes in the public’s interest in and motivation to
visit a museum must be taken with the greatest possi-
ble seriousness and thoroughly analysed as a basis for
structuring new offers
v
given their particularly costly collections, the maritime
museums need very carefully prepared strategies for
collection and preservation
v
internationally, the maritime museums’ research appears
to be on the road to assuming more and more rigid struc-
tures
v
building up a differentiated financial basis of operation
for museums is a matter of urgency.
Underlying the conference’s general theme was, however,
also a different challenge in the form of the reduced public
consciousness of the importance of the maritime element
for culture and life, also in modern society. The responses
here were a little more equivocal, but many participants left
Esbjerg with a feeling of the need for a conceptual redefini-
tion of the maritime museum, its message and its range of
topics.
Summaries of the conference’s papers and comments
from ICMM Esbjerg 2009 were published in
ICMM News-
letter
and on the ICMM’s website at
.
Hafenmuseum Hamburg gav en tankevækkende afslutning på en
vellykket konference. Foto: Frits Loomeijer.
