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Report on the joint
meeting of the
IMA-Commission on Museums and SMMP-Europe
Munich, October 28th,
2005
Our annual meeting was held as usual on the
Friday of the Munich Mineral Show at 17:00 in Room A51, Hall A5. The meeting was
jointly chaired by Lydie Touret (IMA-CM), Kay Schrmann (IMA-CM) and Peter
Davidson (SMMP). The meeting was attended by 22 curators from 10 countries.
IMA 2006
Lydie Touret gave a short report on the
planned IMA-CM activities for the IMA 2006 Meeting in Kobe, Japan. A printed
version of the 2nd announcement was distributed at the meeting by
Michiaki Bunno. Terry Huizing suggested that visits to important Japanese
mineral collections should be added to the programme.
Mineralogy & Museums 6
Lydie Touret announced that letters had
been sent to the four prospective bidders for the next M&M6 in 2008. To date, no
reply has been received from Lisbon, and no reply has been received from the
proposed joint bid by St. Petersburg. The bid from Denver is the only standing
reply received to date. The final decision on the venue for M&M6 will be made at
the IMA 2006 in Kobe.
Museum Reports
Museo di Storia Natural, Universita di
Milano, Italy: Federico Pezotta reported that the museum building had been
undergoing renovation for five years. This work is designed to upgrade the
exhibitions and to furnish the museum with new mineral preparation laboratories.
Museo di Minerlogica, Universita di
Padua, Italy: The collections are now in the care of Alessandro Guastoni
(formerly of Milan)
Universite Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris,
France: Jean-Claude Bouillard announced that the collections were to be
moved from their underground location.
Ecole Nationale Superieure des Mines de
Paris, France: Amde Djemai informed the meeting about some of the problems
facing the locations of the Paris museums.
Naturhistorische Museum Wien, Austria:
Gerhard Niedermayr announced that the museum had recently purchased some very
exquisite minerals.
National Museums of Scotland, Edinburgh,
Scotland: Brian Jackson reported that all the galleries, including the
Geology galleries, will be renovated over the next ten years. Some of the
collections (about 40,000 specimens) have been moved to a new storage area in
the North of the city. Some money is available to purchase new specimens for the
renovated galleries.
Norsk Bergwekmuseum, Kongsberg, Norway:
Fred Steinar Nordrum reported that the museum had acquired several belonged to
the Kongsberg Mining Academy.
University of Wollongong, Australia:
Penny Williamson gave an overview of the changing museum politics in Australia.
The focus seems to be changing to give particular emphasis to native aboriginal
culture at the expense of other galleries, including mineralogy.
Houston Museum of Natural Science, USA:
Mark Mauthner reported on the museums recently completed gold exhibition.
Musee Cantonal de Geologie. Lausanne,
Switzerland: Nicolas Meisser announced that new curatorial positions have
been created in Geneva and at the regional museum in Sion.
Universidad de Granada, Spain:
Prificacion Fenoll Hach-Ali drew the attention of the meeting to the exhibition
of polished sections of minerals at the museum.
Universitt Leoben, Austria:
Federica Zaccarini announced that here two year stint at the Universitt Leoben
was completed and that she will be returning to the Universidad de Granada for
three years to install a new microprobe an a Raman spectrometer.
Universita degli Studi Modena, Italy:
Giorgio Garuti reported that the museum currently has no curator and that he and
a colleague have taken over the duties temporarily.
Date Next Meeting
The next joint meeting of the SMMP
(Europe)/IMA-CM will be held on Friday 3rd November 2006 at the
Munich Mineral Show. A time and venue will be announced nearer the time.
Peter Davidson
SMMP European Co-ordinator
Department of Natural Sciences
National Museums of Scotland
Chambers Street
Edinburgh EH1 1JF
Scotland |
