Call for Papers

The New Roles and Missions of Museums
The International Committee on Management of ICOM (INTERCOM), Taiwan Council for Cultural Affairs (CCA – www.culture.tw) and the Chinese Association of Museums in Taipei (CAM, R.O.C. – www.cam.org.tw) are co-organizing INTERCOM 2006 annual meeting and conference in Taipei under the heading “The New Roles and Missions of Museums”.

We are interested in contributions corresponding to the themes as follows:

1. A New Social Relevance – Human vs. Economic Values

Nowadays museums are under great pressure to be more relevant to wider audiences. Museums are not only for elite any more, and it’s their new task to develop relationships with local communities. While museums are often considered as valuable touring destinations, phenomenon like this has enormous impact on the management of museums, such as funding, programming and staff training, and may not sit easily alongside the social value of museums. Related issues include:
．relationships between museums and their stakeholders, i.e., the sponsor, communities, the public, etc.
．cultural tourism
．creative industry
．audience development, etc.

2. Local, regional and national identity

Museums are now playing some important roles in the development of identity. These roles may be quite distinct and not compatible. They could be rescuers and also transmitters. Therefore they are under more strict scrutiny of politicians as well as the public at large. Related issues include:
．museum leadership
．organizational identity
．professional identity
．regional museum, etc.

3. Different Types of Roles for Museums

Every museum is unique. They may have similarities in their functions, and differences in other ways. For example, a small local museum does not fulfill the same function as a large national museum. An art museum can’t equal to a science museum. As some museums locate in city centres, others might be quite remote and rural. Some rely more on collections than others. Some have more autonomy than others. All these differences mean that the museum profession should include wit, flexibility, and intelligence of dealing all possibilities in each kind of situation. Related issues include:
．resources and management
．strategy and marketing
．decision making, etc.

4. International Activity

As the world is shrinking to a small one, it’s a new task for museums to present different cultures. And there is a great need for international exchanging of ideas and experiences between museums. Related issues include:
．globalization
．localization
．cooperation
．competition, etc.

5. Addressing These New Challenges: What Role for Central/Local Governments?

There has been great change of museum management. And the staff needs to adapt to it, so is the management policy which should take care of the complex process to achieve the success of tuning. Related issues include:
．culture policy
．nature and mission of the museum
．financial pressure
．diversity of the public, etc.

Many thanks to Director David Flemming for having created the provocative statements above, which may inspire INTERCOM members and museum professionals for the annual meeting 2006 in Taipei.

Contributor’s Guide

1. INTERCOM accepts contributions to the academic discussions on museum management.
2. An English abstract of 200 words outlining the aim and main conclusion of the paper is required to be submitted before July 20, 2006 with a 200 words briefing of the author(s) and the institution.
3. Contributors of which put in the conference agenda will be notified by August 15, 2006. And the absolute dead-line of final paper is September 30, 2006.
4. Papers submitted are recommended to be finished in English, containing 4,000 to 7,000 words and up to six keywords.
5. Contributors submitting papers should specify which sub-theme they wish their papers to be considered. INTERCOM reserves the right to relocate the paper to other sub-theme.
6. All papers should be submitted electronically as “.doc”-files.
7. Papers published before will not be accepted unless invited or agreed by the INTERCOM. The copyright of papers accepted belong to the INTERCOM, and CAM, R.O.C., the co-organizer, reserve the right of relevant publication for the conference.
8. The Editors reserve the right to make appropriate correctness of grammar or spelling, or to ensure consistent editorial style.

Submission Address:
acpmproject@info.ntua.edu.tw and intercom2006@cam.org.tw

*Information on registration will be announced shortly.