Welcome to
The Association of Swedish Museums
(Riksförbundet Sveriges museer)
The aim of the Association
Riksförbundet Sveriges museer (RSM) [the Association of Swedish Museums] works to safeguard and further the communal interests of the museum sector. To achieve this, the RSM focuses on two areas: Member benefits and Promotion (see below). RSM is a non-profit association and its activities are financed through membership fees and in some cases through specific projects which receive external finance. The RSM currently has around 150 member museums. Private individuals are not accepted as members. The Association of Swedish Museums was founded in December 2004 on the initiative of the joint working council for the central museums, county museums and municipal museums.
Member benefits
Members of the Association of Swedish Museums should feel that good use is being made of their membership fees. The RSM membership card allows all employees free entry to all the approximately 150 member museums throughout the country. The RSM thus contributes to promoting cooperation and coordination among its member museums.
The RSM’s most important single task is to organise the “Vårmötet” spring conference – Sweden's largest national museum conference. Each year, the spring conference attracts 500-600 participants from all over the country. Representatives of member institutions receive a discount on spring conference fees. In 2009, the RSM is working with its sister organisations in Norway, Denmark and Finland to arrange a larger Nordic museum conference in the Malmö-Copenhagen area.
The RSM also coordinates and supports certain international cooperation activities in the museum sector. This is done partly through cooperation within the Network of European Museums Organisations (NEMO, www.ne-mo.org). and also through cooperation with the European Museum Forum (EMF), which is responsible for the prestigious European Museum of the Year Award (EMYA, www.emya.org), among other things.
In Sweden, the Association of Swedish Museums cooperates with a number of different organisations, e.g. ICOM Sweden, Förbundet Sveriges Museivänner [the Swedish Federation of Friends of Museums], Forum för utställare [the Network for Museum Exhibitors], etc.
The Internet is the RSM’s most important channel for communications. It is currently endeavouring to further develop its on-line services for members. Information is available on-line on a range of past and present RSM development projects in such areas as copyright, training issues, international cooperation and museum collections.
Promotion
Sweden’s museums are an important cultural, social and economic resource. However, Sweden’s museums must have a strong, clear voice when dealing with the various interest groups around them, including politicians, decision-makers of various types and the media. The RSM’s focus on Promotion involves participating in state research projects, issuing opinions and replying to consultations, issuing press releases and providing information for and holding discussions with interest groups which have an overall effect on museum issues in various ways.
Members
The Association of Swedish Museums currently has around 150 member museums. In principle, all museums of importance in Sweden are now members of the RSM and the number of members is growing steadily. Member institutions consist of large and small museums including central, regional and local museums, as well as industrial museums and museums run by individual bodies.
Membership of the RSM is conferred by the board of management in response to a written application. To be accepted as members, institutions are required, among other things, to undertake to comply with the rules of the UNESCO body ICOM (www.icom.org).
Like several of its sister organisations in Europe, the Association of Swedish Museums only accepts institutional members.
How the Association of Swedish Museums works
The Annual Meeting elects a board of management, which consists of seven members and a chairperson, with a term of office of one year. The board of management is made up of two representatives each from the Central Museums Joint Working Council, the County Museums Joint Working Council and the Municipal Museums Joint Working Council, along with other museums including, for example, industrial museums, university museums and private museums. Members of the board of management receive no remuneration.
The Association of Swedish Museums works according to the proximity principle. This means that member institutions’ development is primarily a matter for each responsible body, with the RSM involving itself in matters of importance for the museum sector as a whole.
The RSM has no employees and its work is carried out largely on a non-profit basis through the board of management and services provided by consultants.
Where is the Association of Swedish Museums going?
As an organisation, the RSM has an important, wide-ranging function but limited financial resources. One important task is therefore to create a suitable, sustainable financial platform for its activities. For that purpose, the RSM has identified a number of areas in which the Association could be more active in future, provided that the appropriate resources can be secured. The RSM considers it reasonable that the Association should receive a long-term financial subsidy from the State to enable it to carry out important coordination work in the Swedish museum sector. Museum associations in several European countries, including Norway, Denmark and Finland, receive State subsidies of this type.
Examples of work in which the RSM could play a more active part include the coordination and dissemination of information on international work and skills development and on overall policy issues. A public subsidy for the Association’s activities could be supplemented by a temporary subsidy to perform a range of specific tasks.
From 2009 onwards, the Association, along with ICOM Sweden, will be responsible for the administration of the Museum of the Year award. The award ceremony will take place in conjunction with the spring conference. The Exhibit of the Year award, which is managed by the Network for Museum Exhibitors, is also presented at the spring conference.
The RSM also primarily aims to continue building up and developing its online services and activities focusing on Promotion.
Contact information
If you need to get in touch with us, please contact president Lars Amréus or vice president Mats Persson.
Lars Amreus
President of the Association of Swedish Musems
(also Head of the Museum of National Antiquities)
For full details (in Swedish) on the board of the Association of Swedish Museums please go to "Om oss" under "Styrelsen".