Looking AheadCAM is organizing a workshop on Disaster Risk Management for Caribbean Museums in partnership with the Pompey Museum of Slavery and Emancipation in Nassau, The Bahamas September 24-27 and celebrating our 40th anniversary at our triennial symposium Taking it to the Streets in Glasgow, Scotland May 14-17, 2014. CAM will be placing an intern in Glasgow Museums who will be assisting in the conference planning and working on audience development.

We are developing a three-year Strategic Plan 2014-2017 and a Funding Diversification Strategy. As part of this process we will prepare an environmental scan, identify potential partners and collaborators, conduct a membership survey and consultations with members in various regions

We are reviewing our membership program, rebranding CAM and redeveloping our website. We are initiating a study of participatory governance in museums in collaboration with two museums in Alberta, Canada, the Galt Museum & Archives in Lethbridge and the Musée Heritage Museum in St. Albert. Finally, we’re planning a series of four regional workshops over the next two years and exploring the potential for a travelling exhibition about the scientific and cultural aspects of fish and fishing in fishing dependent communities in collaboration with the Commonwealth Human Ecology Council as a demonstration project.

Contact:Catherine C. Cole, Secretary-General Commonwealth Association of Museums10023 93 StreetEdmonton, Alberta, CANADA, T5H 1W6phone/fax: 1-780-424-2229CatherineC.Cole@telus.net

2012-2013 CAM Impact Report

…a year which saw the beginning of a significant transition in CAM’s history, a new president, new Secretary-General, and new relationship to the Commonwealth Foundation.

Curator Angus Martin with Catherine C. Cole outside the Grenada National Museum

IntroductionThere have been a number of significant changes within CAM this year. Rooksana Omar formally assumed the role of President and I Secretary-General. Many thanks to Past-President Martin Segger and former Secretary-General Lois Irvine, both of whom have contributed enormously to CAM’s success for many years.

Since assuming the role of Secretary-General I have been reviewing the history of CAM in preparation for our 40th anniversary celebrations next year and looking to the future. We’ve initiated a strategic planning process, are renewing relationships with the Commonwealth Foundation and other accredited Commonwealth Associations (CAs), and developing new partnerships with regional and thematic museums associations and others.

Personal highlights include meetings at the Commonwealth Foundation in London and with our partners at Glasgow Museums in January and the Caribbean Studies Association conference in Grenada in June where I participated in both the visual arts and environmental sustainability streams and visited the National Museum of Grenada.

The Commonwealth Foundation’s new funding priority is innovation in participatory governance; CAM has a long history of encouraging dialogue and civic action through museum programs and activities.

CAM has very limited resources and relies upon the efforts of Council and our new team of volunteers. Timothy Mason continues to represent CAM at the Commonwealth Foundation, with the Commonwealth Consortium for Education (CCfE) and on the Zimbabwe Project in collaboration with the Association for Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies (ACLALS).

Financial Information

(in British Pounds)

Zimbabwe Project Re-engaging with Zimbabwe through Arts and Culture, a report prepared by the members of the culture cluster of the Commonwealth Committee on Zimbabwe at the end of June. Chipo Chung, the Zimbabwean actor, Geoffrey

Davies of the Association of Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies, and Timothy Mason, CAM Executive Council member, visited Zimbabwe in May 2012. The first Culture beyond Borders meeting was organised by the Zimbabwe Association and drew upon the experience of members of the Zimbabwean diaspora. The writer Chenjerai Hove spoke on the artist in exile.

Saturday’s ‘research’ day was the first of these annual events, organised by the Britain Zimbabwe Society to focus on the arts and culture. It brought together academics, artists, film makers and writers from across Europe to discuss the state of the arts in contemporary Zimbabwe. Again, there was recognition that despite the often very difficult conditions which artists were working, the arts had a crucial role in Zimbabwe’s future. Way needed to be found to break down the isolation felt by many of those working in the arts, enabling cultural workers to keep abreast of ideas and developments elsewhere in the world. Reports on the outcome of these two days of dialogue and debate would now be discussed with the Commonwealth Foundation.

Commonwealth Network Membership and support to the global museum community throughout the Commonwealth remains central to CAM. We compared member benefits and costs to those of other related organizations with a view to improving our member benefits and developing stronger alliances; we’ve introduced PayPal in order to make it easier for members to pay their fees.

Since January 2013, the CAM Bulletin has been produced as a bimonthly newsletter. The CAM List Serve has expanded and is now being moderated. We’ve introduced Facebook and Linked-In pages. Many small museums in developing nations have Facebook pages but not websites and their staff use personal emails, not an institutional email address, so Facebook is an important communications vehicle.

Internship Program We placed two interns in 2012-2013, Laura Ritchie at the St. Kitts National Museum and Courtney Larose in The Bahamas. Constance Scarlett who interned herself in 2007-2008, is volunteering as the Intern Coordinator.

Distance Learning ProgramThere were 34 students in the program in 2012-2013: two cohorts in South Africa, one with five students and the other with 10, five students in Guyana, one in Canada, one in India, five in Singapore, six in Nevis, and one in Malaysia. There continues to be significant interest among new participants.

The first set of program revisions have been completed, we’ve established an international review panel and begun to investigate local administration and redeveloping the program as an online program.

Laura Ritchie (L) and Museum Attendant Neidai Franklin sorting through exhibition materials

Museum on San Salvador Island where Courtney LaRose worked