Coinciding with the commemoration of International Museum Day (IMD) on May 18, Iran’s best museums will be selected by the Iranian National Committee of International Council of Museums (ICOM), the committee director Seyyed Ahmad Mohit-Tabatabaie said Friday.
“By selecting the best museums, the event seeks to delineate indices of success as guidelines for museums to reform their operations,” Honaronline quoted him as saying.
In the meeting attended by the head of the Research Institute of the Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization (RICHTO) Seyyed Mohammad Beheshti and officials from Tehran and other provincial museums, Tabatabaie said, “To select the best we consider each museum’s size - large, small or medium - and whether it is run by the public or private sector.”
The committee has defined twelve indices based on which the museums compete. These include educationally effectiveness, collections, introduction, research and preservation, upholding technical standards, physical improvement and the number of visitors, among others.
Other indices, added with regard to the conditions of Iran’s museums, include managerial development, creativity and innovation and efforts to endure.
The selection process will last ten days beginning from May 8, he said, pointing to the ICOM’s slogan of the year ‘Museums and Sustainable Society’, with emphasis on issues such as museum and social interaction, museum and development, et al.
“Sustainability of a society, that is sustainable employment, housing and (acceptable) behavior, is indeed our cultural and natural heritage objective that we seek to learn from the past and prepare for the future.”
Visiting the museums will be free on May 18 across the country.
Created in 1946 by and for museum professionals, ICOM is an organization with more than 32,000 members who represent the global museum community. As a diplomatic forum, made up of experts from 136 countries and territories, it aims to respond to the challenges museums face worldwide.
ICOM established the International Museum Day in 1977 to encourage public awareness of the role of museums in the development of society.
