International Museum Day 2024

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Translation challenge

Media challenge

Data challenge

Participate

Join the International Council of Museums (ICOM) in celebrating International Museum Day on May 18th.

Each year since 2020, ICOM’s International Museum Day supports a set of Goals from the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations. In 2024, the aim is to explore the innovative potential of museums in education and research through two goals:

• Goal 4: Quality Education – Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.

• Goal 9: Industry, Innovation, an Infrastructure – Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation.

The Wikimedia movement is celebrating International Museum Day by enhancing information about museums around the world and representing this year’s theme: Museums for Education and Research. Individual Wikimedians, affiliates, and user groups, are invited to respond to three challenges to increase museum coverage on Wikimedia: translation, media, and data.

INTRODUCING ICOM

The International Council of Museums (ICOM) is an international organization of museums and museum professionals, which is committed to the research, conservation, continuation and communication to society of the world’s natural and cultural heritage, present and future, tangible and intangible.

ICOM establishes professional and ethical standards for museums and makes recommendations on issues related to cultural heritage, promoting capacity building, and advancing knowledge. ICOM is the voice of museum professionals on the international stage and raises public cultural awareness through global networks and co-operation programmes.

ICOM has a membership of 45.493 professionals in over 138 countries. Formed in 1946, it is a non-governmental organization. It maintains formal relations with UNESCO, and it is the only global organization in the museum field.

You can find out more about the Council, its history, strategy, aim and activities at the ICOM website.

WIKIMEDIA COLLABORATIONS WITH ICOM

Wikimedia affiliates from Italy, Germany, Portugal, Spain, and Switzerland at the Wikimedia stand during the 20th ICOM-CC Triennial Conference

Pamphlet produced for ICOM delegates at the conference

For several years, Wikimedia affiliates have collaborated with ICOM, for example, by:

• Participating with a stand and sessions during the 20th ICOM-CC Triennial Conference;
  • Wikimedia Germany, Wikimedia Italy, Wikimedia Portugal, Wikimedia Spain, Wikimedia Sweden, Wikimedia Switzerland, Amical Wikimedia, and the Wikimedia Foundation.
• Organizing local International Museum Day campaigns to document museums;
• Illustrating and disseminating Red Lists to protect cultural heritage in Afghanistan and Southeast Europe;
• Discussing decolonisation and image description (video in Spanish); and
• Empowering Italian GLAMs to use Wikimedia projects to share content related to their digital collections.

In 2022, ICOM approved a new definition of museum. We hope that ICOM's new focus on inclusivity and community participation could inspire more museums to collaborate with the Wikimedia movement.

A museum is a not-for-profit, permanent institution in the service of society that researches, collects, conserves, interprets and exhibits tangible and intangible heritage. Open to the public, accessible and inclusive, museums foster diversity and sustainability. They operate and communicate ethically, professionally and with the participation of communities, offering varied experiences for education, enjoyment, reflection and knowledge sharing.

— ICOM, August 2022

To propose a collaboration with ICOM, Wikimedians can contact their national committee or regional alliance.

Date	1 TO 31 MAY 2024
General Contact	cultureandheritagewikimedia.org

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