C o m m o n w e a l t h  
A s s o c i a t i o n   o f  
M u s e u m s

Past Conferences & Workshops

GCAM 4: The Creative Museum: African Museums Using Culture for the Development of Children and
Youth.

Location: Chief Albert Luthuli Museum, Stanger, South Africa
Dates: October 24-29
For papers please visit the CAM On-Line International Journal here

Commonwealth Museums Association Session at the CANADIAN MUSEUMS ASSOCIATION CONFERENCE

Location: Toronto,CANADA
Dates: March 6,2009
For all the papers and Proceedings please click here.

Museums & Diversity: Museums in Pluralistic Societies

Part 1: Museums in Pluralistic Societies.
Part 2: Museums, Bio-diversity & Conservation (First in a series of one day sessions dealing with World Watch issues and museums)
Location: Georgetown, Guyana and Iwokrama ( www.iwokrama.org ) in the interior.
Dates: April18 to 22, 2008
5 day Seminar plus excursion to IWOKRAMA to follow for limited number of participants, April 23-26.For all the papers and Proceedings please click here.

Slavery, Abolition and Emancipation 1807 - 2007
Resources, Research and Education in Caribbean Museums

Sunday, September 9th – Saturday, September 15th 2007

Organized throught the National Museum of the Bahamas, the Commonwealth Association of Museums, and UNESCO

Museums Matter: A Tribute to Stephen Weil - Canada, 2006

Organized through the Cultural Resource Management Program at the University of Victoria in collaboration with the Getty Leadership Institute. To honour and continue Stephen Weil's important thinking about museums and their roles, the Cultural Resource Management Program at the University of Victoria (where Steve taught on four occasions), in cooperation with the Getty Leadership Institute and a small planning group, convened a tribute to Steve involving approximately 50 participants in September 2006, that focused on the ways that museums and other cultural heritage organizations play meaningful roles in contemporary society. This gathering generated new perspectives on the changing role of museums, provided both senior and emerging professionals with opportunities to reflect on current and future practice, and strengthened international relationships among leaders in the sector.

Pacific Museums & Sustainable Heritage Development - Canberra, 2006

The Australian National University, Research School of Asia Pacific Studies. The workshop brought together representatives from museums in the South Pacific to discuss and learn from each other and experts about the circumstances of South Pacific museums, preserving heritage through digitization, protecting heritage through international legal instruments and ethical practice and reinforcing the Pacific network to nurture the culture and the communities of the Islands. - To be continued

Children in Caribbean Museums - Barbados, 2005

Workshop to review the results of a survey on children and museums in the Caribbean and plan for a larger workshop involving Caribbean museums. The second phase will create a broad strategy and network and provide training in working with and involving children in museums with emphasis on planning and development involving communities. - To be continued

Global Vision, Local Mission: Museums in the Commonwealth - Liverpool, 2003

Program to explore how issues and priorities in the contemporary world are translated into local programs and projects and what museums can do about them - To be continued

Museums, Peace, Democracy and Governance in the 21st Century - Barbados, 1999

A planning seminar to examine the role of museums in the promotion of peace, democracy and good governance and develop a statement and action plan - Has been continued with Children's Art Contest and Exhibit "What Peace Means to Me" . Exhibit will be circulating by early 2007. A list of papers in pdf format presented in the conference are available here.

Children in African Museums

Program to be continued in 2009 in the Seychelles

Realizing the Dream: Reaching Children in African Museums - Blantyre, Malawi, 2005

The Friendly Museum - Nairobi, 2001

The Undiscovered Audience - Nairobi, 1997

three workshops to study the development of programs for children and how to make museums "children-friendly" with emphasis on the full involvement of children and the community. The first one resulted in the development of the African network called Group for Children in African Museums (GCAM) and some of the participants have participated in all three workshops as well as drawing in new members. The 2005 workshop conceptualized and developed plans for an exhibit on poverty and the Malawian child. - Exhibit under development.

Museums and the National Identity - Botswana and South Africa, 1995

A seminar and outreach program on the role of museums in national identity and their ability to influence it through collections, programs and exhibits. A study tour of museums in the Pretoria-Johannesburg area and a seminar and study tour in Gaborone, Botswana drew 36 participants, 24 from Africa & 11 from other parts of the Commonwealth.

Curatorship: Indigenous Perspectives in Post-Colonial Societies - Canada, 1994

Co-sponsored with the University of Victoira, Cultural Resource Management Program, this symposium bringing together indigenous people and other museum professionals from around the Commonwealth to examine the ways in which museums traditionally do or do not represent cultural autonomy and the cultural rights of indigenous peoples and how they can support new methods. Proceedings have been published and are available.

Museums, Ethics and Indigenous Peoples: Taking the Initiative - Belize, 1993

A regional workshop held in conjunction with the Museums Association of the Caribbean meeting to examine how museums should relate to indigenous peoples and resulting in the adoption of 23 points of action.