ICOM Costume News 2010: 2 ICOM Costume News 2010: 2 27 December, 2010 INTERNATIONAL COSTUME COMMITTEE COMITÉ INTERNATIONAL DU COSTUME Letter from the Chair Dear members! anyone who’d like to contribute material and/or experiences to a working meeting with members of Most of Europe is buried in deep snow now, the ICOM committee for city museums: CAMOC. while it’s summer for others, as 2010’s second These museums generally have some costume in Costume News is being sent out. This issue their collections, but usually not enough to warrant contains reports from both meetings held this a trained costume curator. What can we suggest - fall, two exceptional occasions where we saw in addition to the Guidelines - about how to use new collections, met new colleagues, renewed the costume they have to tell their stories? contacts and discussed current as well as perennial conditions in our museums. Many ICOM’s Triennial Conference in Shanghai gave us costume collections are experiencing cutbacks the opportunity to meet colleagues in China. Our in staff and budget, but the fellowship of meeting had in all about 60 participants, including colleagues reinforces our conviction that 10 members and guests of this committee. Our working with costume always requires Chinese hosts were eager to show us their innovative solutions, and that we can count collections and discuss their research. So many on support from each other. good contacts were made that it is not unlikely that we will begin planning either a meeting or a study As you’ll see from the reports from the Board tour back to China sometime in the near future. (in the Minutes from the AGM, Shanghai), the Committee continues its activities. Your vote of Now we can begin looking forward to next year’s approval for reelection of the Board, with the extraordinary experience in Belgrade. Mirjana addition of a new member - Pascale Gorguet Menkovic has worked diligently to plan a meeting Ballesteros from Paris - means that we will filled with opportunities to see costume and sites continue working towards our goals of dynamic that have hardly been open to the West before. meetings, reaching out to new members and Look carefully at the preliminary program (to be developing new projects and resources for circulated in early 2011) and try to plan to come to costume colleagues. Thank you for your vote of Serbia for September 25-31, 2011! The theme of confidence for our efforts! “East meets West in costume” can surely entice a story or two out of everyone’s collection! The extra meeting in Munich in early September was enthusiastically attended by about 40 The Committee has been honored that its Chair committee members. The meeting’s theme has been appointed by Director General Julien forms the basis of a special project called Anfruns to the ICOM Strategic Planning “Clothes tell stories”. We’d like to appeal to Committee 2010-2013. This committee of 5 will 1 (30) ICOM Costume News 2010: 2 formulate the working goals for all of ICOM for Committee newsletter. As we do not have a the coming Triennial period. The first Strategic quorum present, we can not vote to accept the Plan 2007-2010 made a striking difference for minutes. We will place these minutes on the 2011 committees in allocating funds for projects, for Annual General Meeting agenda. example (such as the website for our Committee) - and if this is the kind of direction ICOM should continue, please let me know 3. Chair’s Report: Katia Johansen your views. The new committee’s work is to be concluded by June 2011. The Chair’s Duties: This has been a busy year!As an indication, I Thank you all for your interest and participation counted my ICOM-related emails since January 1: this year - and hoping to see you in 2011! about 1000 incoming e-mails regarding ICOM matters; outgoing about 650, planning annual Katia Johansen, Chair. meetings; letters to the Board; notices to December, 2010 Newsletter; articles and prefaces for Proceedings; discussions with other ICOM chairs; election matters in the Committee and in ICOM; information from ICOM Paris; contact from members or the public. We supported an Minutes application for a travel grant for a young member to Shanghai, and it was awarded: but it requires Annual General Meeting quite a bit of paperwork from the Chair and ICOM Costume Committee Treasurer as well as from the applicant. I am quite Monday, November 8, 2010 conscientious about answering ICOM mail - but as Shanghai, China you see, there is really a lot, and some may have slipped through the cracks, for which I apologize. The Committee website has also required our 1. Call to Order: Katia Johansen, Chair attention: some difficulties resulted in our decision to remove the membership directory temporarily; The Chair called the Annual General Meeting to for now, it can be acquired by direct contact to order at 2:20 PM. A quorum was not present. Pernilla. A bulletin board discussion forum was Johansen shared that during the past year, the established for the Board to improve our ability to Committee lost two longtime members: Ingrid discuss issues, given that we have not met all Loschek from Germany and Youlie Spantidakis together since Vienna. It will be necessary for the from Greece. Johansen asked members to stand new Board to pay a nominal fee to the and observe a moment of silence in their webmaster/editor, as these functions are now so memory. Johansen noted that many members critical to our communication with members that could not be in Shanghai. If members bring they sometimes require immediate and skilled official regrets, please relay the information to attention. We have found a volunteer assistant the Secretary. [Note: During the week, webmaster, for whom we are paying training members shared regrets from Rebecca Akins, hours. We are still waiting for the new ICOM June Swann, Britta Hammar, Ann Resare, website to function better, also for us. It is not Joanna Marschner, Alexandra Kim, Alexandra certain yet whether it will be able to handle the Palmer, Anthea Bickley, Lillian Kozlosky, Jan membership database. Loverin, and Christa Thurman.] Meetings: Lyon: The Committee’s meeting in Lyon was held 2. Review of Minutes of October 9, 2009: 4-9 October 2009. It was a very successful meeting Vicki Berger with about 45 participants, arranged by Bernard Berthod, Manuelle-Anne Renault-Langlois and A copy of the minutes of October 9, 2009 from Maria-Anne Privat-Savigny. Unfortunately, few of Lyon, France is attached to today’s agenda. The our French colleagues participated, but it is often minutes were also published in the Costume the case that local members do not attend (and we 2 (30) ICOM Costume News 2010: 2 might consider how to remedy this). For the for 2013, and we will be in contact with the first time ever, ICOM in Paris expressed a direct organizers this week. interest in our activities, and we welcomed Director General Julien Anfruns for a short Belgrade 2011: a very complete program was visit. The Board met with him over dinner presented in Lyon and Munich by Mirjana where we were able to speak about our Menkovic, and will be officially announced in the committee’s activities and concerns, and Julien next Newsletter. I have been on a three-day visit obviously paid close attention. The following after Munich to visit Belgrade and am impressed morning he presented his visions and plans for with the range of costume and museums we will be ICOM, and participated in our business meeting seeing. This will not be a joint meeting with ICME and Open Forum. He noted particularly, with (Committee for Ethnographic Museums) as great admiration, that we plan our meetings in tentatively planned because of a conflict of dates great detail and well in advance, that they are (the week chosen includes a Jewish holiday) but we meant to pay for themselves, and that there is will extend an invitation to all ICOM members, lively discussion and sharing of information and especially also to ICME members who are able to resources. The meeting’s Proceedings were come. published in March 2010, edited by Maria-Anne Privat-Savigny, generously funded by her 2012 - more later museum, the Musée des Tissus. 14 of the meeting’s lectures are presented, including ICOM Paris: papers on Commerce and Textiles, Collections, This is a time of great activities and changes in Accessories, and Traditional Costumes. It is ICOM, not least of all because it is election year. available from the Museum at cost price. The annual Advisory Council was postponed to take place here in Shanghai rather than in Paris in Munich: We have held an “extra” meeting in June. There is intense discussion among the Munich this year to keep up the good international and national committees about the momentum of Santiago and Lyon, since so few closing down of the ICOM-L list server after members were considering coming to Shanghai. censorship of expressed opinions rather than just The meeting was a tremendous success, despite simple information. Resolutions have been set its short lead time in planning. Having a shorter forth for its reinstatement (and non-censuring), as than usual meeting - 3 days with a 1-day post- well as a proposal that material for meetings and conference tour to Augsburg’s impressive new minutes are sent out in a timely fashion (this has textile and costume museum - was well-received. been sadly neglected), and that there in general be The intense and varied program put together by more transparency in ICOM’s governance.