Mobility of collections
 One of the aims of the UK Presidency is to encourage greater mobility of collections between European museums. This will allow more people to access high quality culture.
Indeed, one of the three objectives of Culture 2007 is "to encourage the translational circulation of works and cultural and artistic products". A great part of Europe's cultural heritage is represented through its 30,000 museums, which allow Europeans to access and benefit from approximately 22 billion objects, of which 73.3% are in storage.
Of all these museums, only 300 hold temporary exhibitions. Studies show that temporary exhibitions increase the visitor numbers to museums. Such exhibitions facilitate the enjoyment and study of historical, artistic and periodical themes from the same country and abroad.
To be able to borrow from other museums it is essential for all museums, large and small, to be on support schemes that encourage the mobility of such objects. The collections mobility workstrand aims to achieve a more competitive Europe, with wider public access to art and culture, through encouragement of scholarly and educational exhibitions at the highest level.
"Increasing the mobility of collections" conference
Manchester, 27-29 November 2005
This UK Presidency conference welcomed delegates from 24 of the 25 EU Member States as well as from the accession states, Bulgaria and Romania. It focused on three key themes:
- Facilitating collections mobility through government indemnity schemes
- Sharing best practice
- Building up trust between museum professionals through increased contact
These themes were chosen from the eight recommendations in the "Lending to Europe" report commissioned during the Netherlands Presidency.
Presentations from 16 speakers (from eight EU countries) opened up discussions among the delegates, and were then considered in greater detail during the second part of the conference in three breakout sessions (one per theme).
The many useful suggestions and ideas from these breakout groups will feed into the development of an EU Mobility of Collections Action Plan, due to be finalised during the Finnish Presidency and presented to EU Ministers during the Culture Council of Ministers in November 2006.
The conference was a great success in the way that it gave delegates the opportunity to network with their peers from other European Countries and discuss common issues. It also gave the opportunity to all delegates to meet Harald Hartung, the Head of Culture at EU Commission, who gave a speech about the changing role of culture in Europe and praised all the Presidencies working together on following up the "Lending to Europe" report, which is the first step to the EU Action Plan.
For more information on the conference, including transcripts of all papers presented, can be found on the conference website. A full, illustrated report of the conference will also be published on the conference website shortly.
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In August 2005 David Lammy, Minister for Culture, met with Ministers from Austria and Finland (whose Presidencies of the EU follow on from that of the UK) to discuss these issues. A photograph from this meeting, held in Salzburg, is shown above.
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