Next week, Mr. Ronald Plasterk, the Dutch Minister of Education, Culture and Science will probably announce his decision concerning the future location of a new museum of Dutch National History. Last month the Service Centre for International Cultural Activities (SICA) and the Netherlands Museum Association together organized a expert meeting to discuss this rather controversial issue. Several foreign museum experts joined their Dutch colleagues and together they concluded that if the government decides to create such a museum, it should be realised in a physical building rather than as a virtual experience. But the panel couldn’t resolve the widespread dispute in the Netherlands about whether this building should be erected in Amsterdam, The Hague or Arnhem (in the eastern part of the Netherlands).

Download the minutes of the meeting (May 23, 2007: An International Perspective on the Dutch National History Museum)

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The Art Newspaper recently introduced a new web-based tool that enables you to search for museum exhibitions around the world by clicking on a map. You can also browse by category or look at the editors’ picks. If you represent a museum, and have registered yourself online, it is even possible to add an exhibition to the list.

Go to website

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The Web is changing - faster, smarter, more personal, more social. The software that drives it and the usage that shapes it are evolving at a rapid pace. Is the museum sector responding to this evolution? And as visible and trusted providers of rich and unique content might museums have, in fact, an opportunity to influence the future Web?

From Web ethics, to user-generated content, and from the implications and possibilities of mashed-up content, to the need for new values and holistic approaches to accessible design…this year’s UK Museums on the Web conference will explore the many ways the Web is being transformed around us, and how museums can respond to - and perhaps lead - this change.

The transcripts of the presentations will hopefuly be made available on the website.

Friday 22 June 2007
University of Leicester
Henry Wellcome Building

Go to website