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PRESS RELEASE
For immediate release                      ICOM'S PLEDGE TO UNIVERSAL HERITAGE
Paris, 22 March 2007
 
The International Council of Museums (ICOM) announces "Museums and Universal
Heritage" as the theme for International Museum Day 2007, to be celebrated
the week of Friday, 18th of May in museums throughout the world.  ICOM's
23,000 individual and institutional members in 145 countries are especially
encouraged to participate most actively this year with special events
ranging from music, dance and theatre performances to special exhibitions of
art from the reserves, and free entrance, sometimes both day and night. 
 
The message for International Museum Day is pertinent: "We are all
responsible for universal heritage". Alissandra Cummins , President of ICOM
explains:"This year, more than ever, we need to raise consciousness about
the role of museums in teaching individual and collective responsibility for
global heritage."
 
"ICOM's International Museum Day has high purpose in promoting access to
museum collections to focus on how cultural diversity and universal heritage
go hand in hand. ICOM is inviting the world's museums and their communities
to show how, as a member of a family, neighborhood, tribe, nation, ethnic
group or religion, and as public citizens, on all levels, we are separately
and together responsible for sharing and protecting our respective and
common heritage."  
 
For ICOM, universal heritage means both natural and cultural heritage, the
tangible objects that make up collections as well as the intangible
discourses, knowledge, and creative expressions that accompany these. As per
the ICOM Code of Ethics for Museums, museums are responsible for preserving
and promoting this heritage. In short, ICOM's answer to globalization is
encouraging a new universal responsibility for heritage in all its
culturally diverse expressions. 
 
Director of the Barbados Museum & Historical Society, Vice-Chairperson of
the International Advisory Committee of the Memory of the World Programme
and former Chairperson of Intergovernmental Committee for Promoting the
Return of Cultural Property to its Country of Origin or its Restitution in
Case of Illicit Appropriation (ICPRCP), Cummins adds:
 
"ICOM has been partnering with UNESCO since its inception 60 years ago,
because this intergovernmental organisation was the first to recognize just
how important NGO's representing civil society are in implementing its
cultural, educational, and scientific development programmes to alleviate
the root causes of war, poverty and ignorance. This is why ICOM supports
UNESCO's Conventions and has done good work through museums to promote
"Intangible Heritage" since 2004. Now, with the "Convention on the
Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions" which
went into effect on 18 March, we see how on the 18th of May, International
Museum Day, and at the ICOM General Conference in Vienna in August, we can
show the link between diversity and universality all over the world."
 
Visiting museums on International Museum Day is a sure way to participate in
celebrating 40,000 years of diverse human creativity and join the pledge to
universal heritage.

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