International Council of Museums Natural History Committee
Newsletter
No 28 ISSN 1814-6058 June 2009
NATHIST annual meeting 2009 in Stralsund (Germany)
October 26th – 29th
“Cultural Heritage and Biodiversity –
A new Challenge for Mediation through Museums”
Evolution creates biodiversity. And biodiversity is vital for human survival. Consequently, how to maintain biodiversity (2010 has been declared the International Year of Biodiversity) and how to cope with the climate change will be the main topics and challenges for the next decades – not only for Natural History
1 Museums throughout the world, but also for mankind in general as an essential precondition for our survival on earth. Our cultural development and heritage result in the construction of “Eco Cities” - as main “eco system” for mankind. The ideas for heritage preservation and sustainability either in the field of culture or in the field of nature have got worldwide importance since the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992 (in Portuguese, ECO 92). How were Natural History Museums influenced by the signed agreements of RIO: the Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Agenda 21, the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development and the Forest Principles? What is the role of Natural History Museums preparing the next Earth Summit in 2012? How can Natural History Museums contribute to this Earth Summit (RIO+20), depending on their experience since ECO 92 within 20 years and how can they become a stakeholder in 2012?
May be we can establish a new working group for this special issue.
2009 we are invited by our colleague HARALD BENKE, director of the German Oceanographic Museum and Ozeaneum. We thank him and his team very much to offer us this possibility to have such a unique place to stay during our annual meeting in 2009.
This annual conference in 2009 will be unique in some ways:
(1) For the first time we have invited a representative of a Standing Committee of ICOM, the Ethics Committee, to join us in the workshop “Ethics in action” for discussion of important issues of natural history with all interested participants.
(2) For the first time we will try out a new structure for our annual conference, the “open workshops”. Each work-shop will focus on a central topic the different aspects of which will be discussed. All participants are invited to indicate their interest by selecting a workshop on the registration form.
Proposed work shops: – Biodiversity – Project management – Ethics in action – Natural History Museums and the Challenge of Climate Change If you are interested in a specific aspect or in another topic, please let us know.
Stralsund
Stralsund is a city in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, one north-eastern state of Germany. It is situated at the southern coast of the Strelasund (a sound of the Baltic Sea) separating the island of Rügen from the mainland. This year Stralsund is celebrating its 775 anniversary, as this city was first mentioned in a document in 1234. The old town of Stralsund belongs to the UNESCO world heritage.
You find Stralsund at 54°18’57’’ North and 13°05’25’’ East http://www.en.stralsundtourismus.de/ 2
FOUR in ONE
The German Oceanographic Museum in Stralsund was founded 1951 and is the largest museum of natural science in North Germany. It is located in an early Gothic monastery, an architectural gem. The wide-ranging, up-to-date exhibitions held here provide an accessible, vivid picture of the diversity of marine life as well as its use to and exploration by man. An additional core theme is the presentation of the history of fishery in the former East Germany (GDR). The effectiveness of the exhibition on marine life is enhanced by the addition of 45 aquaria, covering a diverse range of indigenous and tropical sea creatures. http://www.meeresmuseum.de/english/content/index.htm
Deutsches Meeresmuseum - German Oceanographic Museum
The German Oceanographic Museum also has an added branch in The Western Pomeranian Bodden Landscape National Park, the NATUREUM, which gives an introduction to the nature and landscape of peninsula Darß The second such addition to the museum, the NAUTINEUM at Dänholm in Stralsund, was opened on 1 June 1999 and represents an exhibition on marine research.
NATUREUM Darß NAUTINEUM Dänholm 3 The OZEANEUM was inaugurated July 2008. Inside visitors can discover what is going on in a mysterious world that makes up 70 per cent of our planet's surface. With aquariums and exhibitions spread over some 8,700 square meters of exhibition space, visitors are treated to an underwater journey through the Baltic Sea, the North Sea and the Northern Atlantic, right up into the Arctic Ocean. A highlight at the Ozeaneum comprises life-size models of the Giants of the Seas. The exhibition depicts giant models of whales hanging from 20 meter-high ceilings in rooms filled with whale song, the largest exhibition on whales world wide. http://www.ozeaneum.de/en/home.html
Ozeaneum - visualizes a fascinating underwater journey through the northern seas - © Johannes-Maria Schlorke
Conference venue
We are guests at the German Oceanographic Museum and Ozeaneum in Stralsund. The location for our sessions will be announced in time.
Conference fee
The conference fee has to be paid in EURO at the registration desk when you receive your name badge and the conference documents. You can change money at the airport, the railway station in Berlin or at banks in Stralsund.
Conference fee for participants and guests: 80 EURO corresponding about 113 US dollars [registering till Sept 30th] 100 EURO corresponding about 140 US dollars [registering later than Sept 30th] (Not included lunch and dinner, otherwise mentioned)
Conference fee for accompanying person: 60 EURO corresponding about 85 US dollars
Travel expenses and hotel accommodation have to be paid individually.
The conference language will be English.
Invitation letters
If you need an invitation letter, please send your request to the chair of NATHIST, Gerhard Winter [email: [email protected]].
4 Call for registration
We invite all members, friends and guests to register as soon as possible. Please, send your completed registration form to Gerhard Winter but not later than September 30th, 2009, if you will present a paper or short communication than not later than August 15th , 2009. (Use the form enclosed, also available as word95-file or as pdf-file on our web site)
Call for papers and short communications
You are invited to send proposals for a paper or/and for a short communication during the workshops. We would like to have an abstract either for a larger presentation (first day) or a shorter contribution to one of the workshops and a short CV till July, 31st, 2009. These would help the organizers to structure the two days in advance.
Papers (15 to 20 minutes only) related to the conference theme will be presented on Oct 19th. Please indicate your proposal on the registration form and add an abstract (300-400 words) and a CV. A small program committee will select the most appropriate papers to be presented.
Short communications (5 minutes only) related to the themes of the workshops or to topics of general interest, but also updates of specific museum activities will be included either in the workshops or in the NATHIST-session on Oct 21st. Please, indicate your proposal on the registration form and add an abstract (200 words) and a CV.
Open workshops At present four workshops are proposed. Please, indicate on the registration form which workshop you are interested in, or send us your proposal for another theme, or indicate if you are interested in one aspect of the proposed workshops.
(1) Biodiversity (coordinated by Gerhard Winter) This is not only the theme chosen for the Year 2010 by the United Nations; it is also of great importance for Natural History Museums all over the world. Since our exhibitions mostly show at least only one aspect of biodiversity, namely the diversity of species. Also the role of habitat groups and their educational value for biodiversity may be discussed in this workshop. What did we archive since “ECO 92”? Are we prepared for the Earth Summit 2012? How can we cope with the new challenges for “Understanding the Future”? Do we need standards and criteria for what is a so-called “Eco City”?
(2) Project management (coordinated by Brigitta Schmid) As Project Management (PM) was designed especially for planning, organizing and managing process-oriented one-time efforts, its techniques are ideal for facilitating methods and procedures in museums. In the workshop essential principles of PM will be explained and basic tools like project plan, roadmap, critical path, work breakdown structure etc. will be introduced. Case studies will be used for demonstrating advantages and capabilities as well as the limits of PM. After this workshop participants should not only have a general idea about PM but also be able to decide in which fields of their everyday work PM could be useful. Moreover they should be able to use at least some PM-tools on their own.
(3) Ethics in Action (coordinated by Eric Dorfman & Eva Maehre Lauritzen) The very active NATHIST working group on Ethics (chaired by Eric Dorfman) developed a Code of Ethics for Natural History Museums, to complement the ICOM Code of Ethics for Museums by addressing issues relevant to the life and earth sciences in greater depth than has been done thus far. We will discuss and focus on case studies and examples of best practice.
(4) Natural History Museums and the Challenge of Climate Change (coordinated by Volker Mosbrugger)
5 Business meeting
The business meeting of ICOM-NATHIST will be held on Wednesday, Oct 28th at 10.00 in Stralsund during the annual conference of NATHIST; guests are welcome. Among others we will talk about the theme and our program for the next General Conference of ICOM 2010 in Shanghai and about elections and candidates for the next board to be elected in Shanghai. There will be reports of the chair, secretary, treasurer and the coordinators of our working groups. A more detailed agenda will be available in time.
Hotel recommendation for Stralsund
We recommend for this conference:
Steigenberger Hotel Baltic (modern 4 star hotel) – partner of Ozeaneum http://www.steigenberger.com/aw/Steigenberger_Hotel_Baltic/~chkp/ Frankendamm 22 STRALSUND 18439 Germany (Near our conference venue)
Standard room including breakfast (special rate for this conference): 70 EUR for single occupation 90 EUR for a double occupation
A contingent of 30 rooms with this special rate will be available till October 12th on the base first come, first served. Please send your email to get the special rate To: [email protected] quoting “OZEANEUM“
Another option could be:
InterCityHotel Stralsund Tribseer Damm 76 STRALSUND 18437 Germany (Near the railway station)
Standard room – 55,00 EUR for single or double occupation Standard room with breakfast – 67,50 EUR for single or double occupation
Please book in this case directly at the webpage http://www.intercityhotel.com/aw/InterCityHotel_Stralsund/~cgpr/
There are also some smaller and not expensive hotels in Stralsund available. One option could be “Pension Hafenblick” with rooms between 25 and 40 EURO and 5 EURO breakfast, situated just between OZEANEUM and German Oceanographic Museum: http://www.pension-hafenblick.de/indexe.html 6 How to get to Stralsund
(1) From BERLIN The most convenient airport for international flights is Berlin-Tegel (TXL) to go to Stralsund. http://www.berlin-airport.de/EN/index.html
From International airport Berlin Tegel (TXL) to Berlin Main Railway Station by bus TXL it will take about 20 minutes and the bus runs very regularily.
Train from Berlin Main Railway Station (“Hauptbahnhof”) to Stralsund http://www.hbf-berlin.de/site/berlin__hauptbahnhof/en/start.html http://www.bahn.de/international/view/en/index.shtml
All trains to Stralsund leave Berlin Main Railway Station from platform 4 to 7 at the second underground floor. Look at the time table for the exact platform.
InterCity trains departure from 9:38 every 2 hours till19:38 Travel time about 2h 43min, price 46,00 EUR for a second class ticket one way.
Regional Express train departure from 5:43 – 6:34 -7:43 – 8:34 every hour till 19:43 Travel time about 3h10min, prize 36,50 EUR for a second class ticket one way.
(2) From FRANFURT (FRA) International airport http://www.frankfurt-airport.com/cms/default/rubrik/24/24139.html
From Frankfurt Airport it will take between 8 to 10 hours to go by train to Stralsund and you have to change at least one, mostly two or three times. The fare will be about 130 EUR for a second class ticket one way. If you come via Frankfurt we recommend a stay of one or two days at Frankfurt and then continue to Stralsund. Staying at Frankfurt you have the change to visit Senckenberg Natural History Museum. http://www.senckenberg.de/ Starting from Oct 8th, 2009 you can visit a new temporary exhibition about the evolution of man, called “Safari to fossil man”, open from 9 am to 8 pm every day.
(3) From airport Hamburg (HAM) and train schedules, see NATHIST web site.
7 Excursion October 29, 2009
By bus from Stralsund to Prerow
By horse-drawn coach to NATUREUM
Visit at NATUREUM http://www.meeresmuseum.de/english/natureum.htm
Guided walk to the beach and through the “Vorpommersche Boddenlandschaft“ National Park
Lunch at NATUREUM
By horse-drawn coach back to PREROW
By bus to Ahrenshoop
Short walk through Ahrensshoop and to the beach
Continue by bus to German Amber Museum in Ribnitz-Damgarten http://www.deutsches-bernsteinmuseum.de/index1.html
Visit at the museum The German Amber Museum at Ribnitz-Damgarten is the only bigger museum in Germany dedicated to amber. The extensive exhibition is absolutely worth seeing and shows some outstanding amber inclusions.
Coffee break
By bus back from Ribnitz-Damgarten to Stralsund
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City map of Stralsund with museums o and hotels H
Draft program - overview
Sunday – October 25th
Arrival at Stralsund
Check-in at hotel
Come together at German Oceanographic Museum
Monday – October 26th
Common sessions with welcome, introduction and presentations (papers) On the first day (afternoon) we would like to hear about new examples for communicating the importance of cultural and natural heritage in exhibitions and about other museum activities. We want to discuss how the awareness of our cultural and natural heritage may add new dimensions to our museum work, and whether the preservation of culture and biodiversity in every respect might become a matter of great concern for politics and for the public.
09.00 - 10.30 Conference registration
10.30 - 12.30 Official welcome Harald Benke - Director of German Oceanograhic Museum
Introduction to conference theme Gerhard Winter – chair NATHIST
Key note speakers Julien Anfruns – Director General of ICOM Volker Mosbrugger – Director General of SENCKENBERG
9 12.30 -14.00 Buffet lunch (*)
14.00 – 16.00 Presentations related to the conference theme
16.00 – 16.30 Coffee break
16.30 – 18.30 Presentations – continued
Evening Board meeting of NATHIST Dinner (on your own expenses)
Tuesday – October 27th
Open workshops On the second day we will have open workshops. At present there are 3 proposals. Depending on the interest of the participants we can split workshops or take up new themes.
10.00 – 11.30 Open workshops
11.30-12.00 Coffee break
12.00-13.00 Open workshops - continued
13.00-14.30 Buffet lunch (*)
14.30 – 16.00 Open workshops - continued
16.00 – 16.30 Coffee break
16.30-18.00 Round table – plenum Reports from workshops & discussion of results
Evening Dinner (on your own expenses)
Wednesday - October 28st
10.00 - 11.30 Session of NATHIST
11.30 - 12.00 Coffee break
12:00 – 13.00 Session of NATHIST
13.00 – 14.30 Buffet lunch (*)
Afternoon Business meeting NATHIST
Evening Conference dinner
Thursday - October 29th
Excursion (full day) To NATUREUM and the German Amber Museum (see page 10)
Evening Dinner (on your own expenses)
Friday - October 30t
Departure
(*) We look for a restaurant, where we can have lunch together.
This newsletter (no 28) is available at the ICOM-NATHIST website as pdf.file under: http://nathist.icom.museum/nl_28.pdf ICOM –NATHIST Gerhard Winter published June 2009, updated August 26, 2009
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NATHIST ANNUAL CONFERENCE October 2009
Stralsund (Germany)
REGISTRATION - PRESENTATION OF A PAPER or A SHORT COMMUNICATION Please printed this page and tick & fill in appropriate and send it by mail or as email attachment
O I will attend the conference of ICOM-NATHIST in Stralsund, Germany 26th -29th, 2009 Deadline for all not presenting a paper or short communication is September 30th, 2009.
O I will present a paper (15 minutes only) on Oct 26th, related to the conference theme Deadline for the abstract (300-400 words) and a CV is August 15th , 2009.
O I will present a short communication (5 minutes only) for a work shop or the meeting Oct 28st Deadline for the abstract (200 words) and a CV is August 15th , 2009 Title
I need O Beamer for power point presentation O Overhead projector O Slide projector O Other______
O I am interested in the workshop: O Biodiversity O Project management O Ethics in Action O Natural History Museums and the Challenge of Climate Change
O ______(specific aspect or new proposal)
Name
Institution
Country
Fax
O I am a member of ICOM-NATHIST O I am a member in another International Committee of ICOM: ______
O Other ______
ICOM membership number:
Date: Signature:
Please return this form as soon as possible by fax to +49 69 7542 1331 or as email attachment to [email protected] or by mail to: Gerhard Winter c/o SenckenbergMuseum, Senckenberganlage 25, DE-60325 Frankfurt am Main, Germany
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