For over 15 years the topic of museum storages is on the ICOM SEE agenda. The first regional conference held in Kladovo in 2006 casted light on terrible conditions in museum storages all over the region. Since then huge efforts have been put in place to overcome this problem. The most successful was the RE-ORG training programme which ICOM SEE implemented in cooperation with ICCROM. The courses held in many SEE countries helped museums in the region to improve standards. Furthermore, several experts were trained in order to be mentors and most of them came from the Central Conservation Institute in Belgrade. One of the RE-ORG workshops was held in Ethnographic Museum in Zagreb in 2017. The training was led by Gael de Guichen and during the two-week workshop more than 20 professionals were trained. No wonder that Ethnographic Museum in Zagreb took the leadership in solving the challenges related to museum storages in Croatia and decided to trigger off this event on the International Museum Day by involving many museums to present their cases on 18 and 19 May.

Within the implementation of the project of the Ethnographic Museum “Reconstruction of the abandoned building of the National Brewery in Kačićeva Street” the museum planned to organise a conference on museum storages in order to draw the attention of the media and decision-makers. The museum project on refurbishing the 2400m2 building in the city centre for the depot is co-financed from EU within the ITU mechanism for the reconstruction of brownfield sites of the Urban Agglomeration of Zagreb.

After the global pandemic hit the country in 2020 followed by two devastating earthquakes it is crucial to inform the public about the need to take care of museum collections which are national treasures. The EU funding will help the museum to properly store valuable heritage for future generations and make collections accessible to citizens. The project is implemented by the Ethnographic Museum as a beneficiary and the City of Zagreb as a partner. The co-organizers of the professional conference are: Museum Documentation Centre, Museum of Arts and Crafts, Croatian National Committee of ICOM and INTERCOM.

Participation in the conference is free and will be held on the ZOOM platform. More about the conference at the following link.

The conference language is Croatian.