Head: Prof. Dr. Vinoš Sofka, Ph.D.h.c.

Žerotínovo nám.9, 601 77 Brno

Phone: 420-5-42 128 372, fax: 420-5-42 128 396 or Phone: 46-8-792 09 22, fax: 46-8-758 14 74

Activites of the Chair in the year 1999 were influenced by favourable conditions caused by significant parallel events at the end of 1998 and during 1999.

In 1999, the MU management decided on the incorporation of the International Summer School of Museology (ISSOM) in the UNESCO Chair. It also pronounced its full support of the Chair’s programme and the Transition Project for the Support of Post-communist and Post-totalitarian Countries, and stipulated relations between the Chair and the Centre of Museology at the Department of Archaelogy and Museology of the MU Faculty of Arts, thus bringing about certain acts of re-organization.

The programme of the summer course of museology was prepared based on an agreement on co-operation between the UNESCO Chair and Amsterdamse Hogeschool voor de Kunsten (in the framework of a Czech and Dutch project ”SCART” and its part titled ”Museology Curricula Development”). In the summer school, there were 11 students from eight countries (Mexico, Germany, Lithuania, Latvia, Romania, Siberian parts of Russia, Slovakia and the Czech Republic). The team of teachers consisted of six prominent experts from Brazil, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and one Czech teacher). The basic team was extended by managers and professionals from selected Brno museums, who – during afternoon brief excursions – familiarized the students with their practical knowledge and experience in the field.

On the request of the Czech UNESCO Committee, the Chair - immediately upon the closing of the course – started the preparation of the resolution ”From Oppression to Democracy” for the autumn gathering of the UNESCO General Conference. After registration of the resolution by the UNESCO secretariat, the Chair ensured its interregional status by obtaining the support of Australia and Lithuania. Based on personal negotiations in Moscow and Siberia, the Chair also managed to sign an agreement on close co-operation in this project with the Russian Federation.

The Chair received many invitations to various international conferences, seminars and events, some of which it was able to participate in. A representative of the Chair took part in a lecture (held as part of a symposium) at the State Technical University of Barnaul (Altai, Russia) in September (focusing on environmental issues and the role of museums in the environmental education of society), in three seminars on museology, heritage and social development; it was also involved in discussions on various forms of co-operation between the Chair and the Regional Museum and Regional Archives. At the 3^rd Krasnojarsk Museum Biennial, a workshop was held on the implementation of the Transition Project in Siberia, and the programme of joint events was discussed for 2000 and 2001 (focusing mainly on the objective preservation of the historical record of the former Soviet Republic and the Gulag network). At the end of the visit of the Chair’s representatives in Russia, the Federal Institute for the Further Education of Employees in the Sphere off Culture, Moscow, held a seminar on museology and historic documentation of the communist era as significant factors in the process of system changes held by the Federal Institute for Further Education of Employees in the Cultural Sphere in Moscow. The Chair of Museology took part in the Museology and Philosophy Symposium in Venezuela (accompanied by a ICOFOM conference) held at the end of November and the beginning of December, at which the Head of the Chair presented five papers. Prof. Sofka also participated actively in the 5^th UNESCO Forum in Morocco.

International appreciation of the work carried out by the UNESCO Chair was proven by two events of great importance held at the end of 1999. In November, the Lithuanian Ministry of Culture (together with professional institutions operating in the sphere of national heritage) asked the Chair to organize a three-day seminar discussing its museology programme. The Brno Chair welcomed 24 professionals from Lithuanian museums, ancient monuments departments and universities, and signed an agreement on future co-operation. The seminar was very well received, and proved that the Chair’s decision to focus on issues of post-totalitarian countries was the right one.

At the working meeting of the UNESCO Headquarters in Paris at the end of 1999, the Section of Culture and Heritage expressed its appreciation and full moral and professional support of the UNESCO Chair and all its actions implemented in the framework of its programme and the UNESCO Transition Project.