Download the Summer 2009 Newsletter.
New! The Museum Volunteer Award
The Canadian Museums Association (CMA) and the Canadian Federation of Friends of Museums (CFFM) have paired up to launch a new award honouring outstanding volunteers. The Museum Volunteer Award recognizes exceptional individuals or groups who have dedicated their time and energy to a Canadian museum or heritage institution for at least four years.
Museum volunteers contribute to their communities by preserving its history and heritage for Canadians today and in the future. A testimony of their relentless enthusiasm and passion, these volunteers are involved in all aspects of museum life: from restoration to conservation, they have allowed museums to enhance their programming, collections and visitor experiences.
It’s not surprising that Canadian museums enjoy the help of many thousands of volunteers across the nation. Volunteers’ involvement in museums positively impacts not only the institution, but also its staff and visitors. In exchange, volunteers partake in the preservation of our heritage; learn new skills and experiences; and have fun and a strong sense of satisfaction when connecting to their local communities. CMA and CFFM have long valued, and been inspired by, the impact volunteers have on museums and their communities. As part of its Awards for Outstanding Achievement, in the volunteerism category, CMA has honoured Doris Smith for her 30 years of outstanding volunteering commitment to Canada’s museums and Joan McKim for her 25 years as a volunteer at the McCord Museum of Canadian History. Today, the Museum Volunteer Award stands in its own category to celebrate these outstanding contributions and commitments.
The nominee for this award is an individual or a group that has demonstrated an outstanding contribution to a public, non-profit museum or related heritage or cultural institution in a volunteer capacity. This contribution can be as a member of a volunteer committee, a board of trustees, as a special event coordinator or in another significant way.
Eligibility criteria, selection criteria and application instruction and process, as well as other details will be available shortly. The recipient of the first Museum Volunteer Award will receive his or her award certificate at the next CMA national conference held in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, on May 10-15, 2010.
Anyone with an individual or institutional membership at the CMA or CFFM can nominate a volunteer (or group of volunteers) for this award. The deadline for nominations is November 15, 2009.
More information and details will be made available by end of May 2009 on www.museums.ca.
Sanita Fejzic
Communications Manager, Canadian
Museums Association
“Not in his goals but in his transitions is man great” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
The past years have been marked by major transitions for the CFFM. The partnership agreement entered into with the Canadian Museums Association and our administrative move from Toronto to Ottawa were major organizational and physical undertakings that have been successfully launched.
Both Joan and I are pleased to contribute to this ongoing transition and repositioning process with our nomination and election, at the March AGM, Co-Chairs of the CFFM (in full) for the 2009-2010 term. To this role, we both bring extensive backgrounds in volunteer and board museum experience in Ontario and Quebec, over 45 years combined! It is our aim to use these shared reference points as a template on which to consolidate and rebuild the regional representative network that will give CFFM a strong nation-wide voice. This will allow it to fully fulfill its important advocacy role as a spokesperson for our stakeholders, the volunteers who contribute so much to the cultural sector all across Canada.
Our developing CMA alliance will provide ongoing opportunities to build and actively exercise this role. An excellent example of this positive symbiosis is the recent invitation extended by the CMA to CFFM to play a leadership role in the jury selection process of the Museum Volunteer Award and we are already enthusiastically at work on embracing this new role.
On the international level, we are both convinced of the important value-added benefits of information sharing, dialoguing and connecting in this age of globalization with national volunteer organizations in Europe and farther afield. Our attendance at the recent World Congress of the World Federation of Friends of Museums in Jerusalem, Israel in September 2008 reaffirmed the value of participating and building on our role as a major North American voice in this process.
What will be our chief tool in this quest to meet the quintessential Canadian challenge of spanning our nation from coast to coast? Communication! There is more than a verbal tie between the words common, community and communication. By survey, website, mail and teleconference we will be in touch to involve you as we continue to reposition and build CFFM for the 21st century.
We look forward to connecting with our community over the months ahead!
Joan Goldfarb
Marie Tremblay McNiven
Co-Chairs
The RQABM (1989 – 2008)
The Quebec Association of Friends and Volunteers of Museums (RQABM) terminated its activities in May of 2008. During its relatively short existence, this Association has brought some significant contributions to the life of Quebec Museums; it has moreover also left its heritage on the international scale. Its decision to give up its labours may appear somewhat surprising, especially considering that in some 500 museum institutions in the Province of Quebec, voluntary work is flourishing; thousands of friends and volunteers contribute to these institutions’ functioning, promotion and growth.
Since its founding in 1989, the primary objective of the RQABM was to bring together the associations of friends and volunteers of Museums and to promote their members’ spheres of activities with a view to enhancing these institutions’ image and popular support.
Since its creation, the RQABM has carried out many training and informative activities, such as organizing seminars to define the role and responsibilities of Museum friends and volunteers, on the financing of these associations, etc., it has also published a periodic newsletter (RQABM info), as well as various texts and studies, it has participated in the work of the Administrative Council of the Canadian Federation of Friends of Museums and in the World Federation of Friends of Museums; it has welcomed, in Montreal, in May 2005, the Annual General Assembly of the World Federation of Friends of Museums.
The RQABM has also pursued the objective of representation at Museum and associative bodies such as La Société des musées québécois (Association of Quebec Museums), the Canadian Federation of Friends of Museums, the World Federation of Friends of Museums, the ICOM, as well as on other governmental bodies.
During the l990’s, the administrators of the RQABM began the task of writing the Code of Ethics for Friends and Volunteers of Museums. This work done at the request of the World Federation of Friends and Volunteers of Museums was adopted by the Federation at their 9th Congress, held in Oaxaca (Mexico), in October 1996. Under its official title of ‘Code d’éthique des amis et bénévoles de Musées’, it was published in a trilingual version, in French, English and Spanish; it is also available on the internet site of the Federation: www.amis-musees.fr/ or www.museumsfriends.com.
In the spring of 2007, the RQABM published the Guide de gestion des associations d’amis et de bénévoles de musées, Management guidelines for Friends and Volunteers of Museums.
The support of the Ministry of Culture and Communications of the Province of Quebec enabled the RQABM to offer this document free of charge to all the Associations of Friends and Volunteers as well as to all the Museums in the Province of Quebec. Together with the Code of Ethics, this Management Guidelines represents the fruit of our thoughts, and our deliberations based on experience and knowledge. It constitutes our main legacy to Quebec society and to the community of friends and volunteers of Museums wherever they might be.
Thus, the RQABM’s balance sheet is very positive and the members of its administrative Council believe that its existence is still valid and the objectives that define it are still pertinent and worth pursuing. Associative bodies of this kind bring so much to the quality of life of a society. It will be appreciated that the decision to disband the Regroupement was the culmination of a long and arduous process of soul and brain searching. This decision was submitted by the Administrative Council as an official proposal to the Special General Assembly on 22 May 2008 and it was accepted by its members.
This difficult decision was taken in light of several factors: the dwindling membership, the difficulty in recruiting new administrators, etc. The heavy burden assumed voluntarily by the President has led to the realization, after two years of futile efforts, that it became impossible to find a successor to this post, especially in view of the fact that it became increasingly difficult to recruit new administrators. We believe that these difficulties are due to several factors. It should be noted that in Quebec there is a preponderance of small museums, managed by minuscule administrative teams, perhaps assisted by a few volunteers. The new generation of volunteers seems to have different expectations, its efforts seem more sporadic than in the past and divided up among several fields of activities (museums, libraries, music, sports, …).
We believe that the mission of RQABM is still valid. Perhaps one day it could be reinstated on new bases? This is what we wish.
Danielle Lecours, President 2002-2008
Léo Paré, Treasurer, 2003-2008
Éva Zietkiewicz, Member of the Board of Directors, 1998-2008
Le Regroupement québécois des amis et bénévoles de musées.
21st March 2009.
Please note that a few copies of the 2007 RQABM publication: Guide de gestion des associations d’amis et de bénévoles de musées. 162 pages, in French,. are still available. Contact:
Schools Outreach Program
All of us know the warm feeling that goes with volunteer endeavours that are just right. Probably nowhere is that feeling more evident than it is in the Volunteers’ Circle of the National Gallery of Canada where two programs, “Looking at Pictures” and “Vive les arts !” are reaching out to schools in the area to give the students a rich background in art.
Situated deep in the inner offices of the Gallery and the Volunteers’ Circle hub, their headquarters is lined with more than 1,000 dry mounted or laminated reproductions stored in wooden bins. These reproductions cover art from pre-history through
Classical, Middle Ages, Renaissance, Impressionism, Modern and Surrealism. In fact examples of art from around the world. From there, 70 active volunteers in the two programs (one for English speaking schools, one for French) fan out to carry them in their big portfolios to more than 200 area schools – and 40,000 students annually.
The programs have proven to be a tremendous success right from their beginnings in 1966 – 68 when Jacqueline Southam spearheaded some experimental art programs in
Ottawa area high schools. The aim then, as it is now, was to give students a lively interest in art – to provide them with specific observation skills and to help them articulate their thoughts. The program trained its volunteers to carry out these important aims and eventually found its focus in the elementary schools. “Looking at Pictures” (for the English-speaking schools) received its name early on, “Vive les arts !” (for the French) came into being in 1986.
This is the way the programs work:
1. Training:
a) Many volunteers are former teachers or art history graduates, but they all are interested in talking to children. They attend monthly enrichment seminars – talks about or by artists and tours of galleries. These meetings allow them to share ideas on how to present the paintings and artists to students.
b) Each volunteer has a handbook as a guide line and is expected to know the Ministry of Education’s art curriculum for elementary schools. A mentor will go along with a new volunteer to make him/her more comfortable in the class-room situation.
c) Every summer the volunteers spend several days choosing a suitable portfolio (6 – 10 pictures) – often based on a theme. They then conduct their own research through the use of the Volunteers’ Circle library, the Gallery’s resources, their own private collections – and of course, the internet. This year, both groups have implemented a new PC data-based software system to catalogue their complete inventories. This base stores images of the reproductions as well as data on the art work, artist, theme and other pertinent information. The presenters can select their material and check out their choices. At the end of the school year the pictures are checked back in – much like a library system. This has proved to be a great boon to efficiency.
2. School Participation:
a) Request forms are e-mailed individually to the schools or by the Boards of Education in Ontario and Quebec who endorse the program.
b) When the requests are returned to the Volunteers’ Circle, the convenors of “Looking at Pictures” and “Vive les arts !” assign schools and volunteers. Every class from Grade 1 to Grade 6 has a presentation.
c) The volunteers make their own arrangements with the school and look after their own transportation.
d) Each school is asked to fill out an evaluation sheet, assessing the program. Evaluations are often discussed at monthly meetings.
e) Each volunteer is expected to visit a minimum of two schools a year, many do four or five.
3. Finances:
The two groups receive a small amount of money each year from the Volunteers’ Circle budget. They have been fortunate to receive generous grants from Bell, Imperial Oil, and a gift of money from an art gallery that was closing. A garden party (a good opportunity for everyone to see each other) was another fund raiser. These funds allowed Looking at Pictures and Vive les arts ! to rent buses to bring certain classes from the schools to come to the Gallery to see the real paintings and sculpture and to enjoy the beautiful Gallery building.
4. Relations with the National Gallery:
The Education Department of the Gallery very much appreciates its volunteers. The days that school boards had budgets for buses to transport a legion of students to the
Gallery are shrinking and the responses of the schools – and parents – is a ready indicator of the need for such free programs. There is no way of tabulating how many
children (bringing their parents) come to the Gallery as a result of the school visits but the Volunteers’ Circle know that they do from the enthusiasm they generate in the classroom. If ever the goals of these two programs should be in doubt, the drawings and letters tacked on the office bulletin-board from schools all over the area clearly show how important they are. One twelve-year old wrote:
“I am so pleased you came to our school. I really enjoyed it. I have always loved art but I learned many more things at your presentation like how Monet painted in the fog. It’s hard to say which painting is my favourite because I liked each one for a different reason. I think it will have to be between Mary Pratt, Vincentvan Gogh or Canaletto. I like how in the Mary Pratt it looks very realistic with the different shades, how in Canaletto’s it is cheerful and has lots of detail, and how in Van Gogh’s he put a lot of thick paint so it looks 3D. I just don’t like the flag in his painting. I think it distracts people.”
Now there is an art lover – and critic – in the making.
For more information on these two programs, contact the Volunteers’ Circle of the National Gallery of Canada:
P.O Box 333, Station A,
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, K1N 8V3.
e-mail: volunteers’circle@gallery.ca
by Jean Seasons
Secretary, Volunteers’ Circle of the
National Gallery of Canada
BOOKS OF INTEREST TO OUR READERS
Dr. Sean Murphy, member of the CFFM Advisory Council, has published a book, Dare to Draw. The author recounts with a contagious passion his personal adventures as a self-confessed amateur. A book for anyone who has ever had the urge to draw.
Publisher: McClure Gallery/Visual Arts Centre, 350 Victoria Ave., Westmount,Que., and also available at the National Gallery of Canada and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.
120 pages, price $24.95.
CONFERENCES OF INTEREST
Ontario Museums Association
Oct. 21 – 23, 2009 in Hamilton
CFFM is participating by organizing a round table on “Fostering a Close Relationship between your Museum, your Volunteers and the Community.”
Canadian Museums Association
May 10 – 15, 2010 in St. John’s, Nfld. and Labrador
This year’s theme will be “Evolving Boundaries: Linking People, Place and Meaning.”
If you have some news that you would like to share with our readers, do get in touch with the editor at aucourant@museums.ca. Perhaps on how you celebrated International Museum Day on May 18th or what special recognition was shown to volunteers during Volunteer Week April 19 – 25? Deadline for submission of copy for the Autumn 2009 issue is August 15.
