Universeum - European Academic Heritage Network

ABOUT UNIVERSEUM

 

Although the problems associated with university museums and collections and, more generally, university heritage, have been identified decades ago, the emergency of organised groups and associations is a recent phenomenon. The two most important international groups concerned with university heritage are:

a) the Committee for University Museums and Collections (UMAC) at ICOM, established in 2001, mostly concerned with university museums and collections and operating worldwide

b) the European University Heritage Network UNIVERSEUM, created in 2000, concerned with university heritage as a whole and operating only at European level.

 

History

In April 2000, the representatives of collections and museums of twelve European universities assembled at Halle agreed to found a network, "Academic Heritage and Universities". The Universeum Project guidelines were presented in The Declaration of Halle (16 April 2000).

During the Universeum Meeting held in 2006 in Strasbourg, the participants underlined the need for a discussion about the future of Universeum. One year later, at the Universeum Meeting held in Lisbon in July 2007, a reflection group was created to work on the question. This group defined in a more precise way Universeum and its goals. Moreover, it agreed that, in order to give Universeum the means to play an active role as for the European Academic Heritage, a structure and a status were needed. To define these two latter points, an Interim Board has been created. This Board will be in charge until Universeum next Meeting, which will be held in Kracow, in October 2008. A working group has also been set up and it will be in charge from the Lisbon up to the Kracow Meeting in 2008.

 

Universeum main goals