The CRCS Build-a-Museum Team Newsletter

Announcement - February 4, 2004 :

International Committee for University Museums and Collections (UMAC) meets at our model museum.

This September, the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History (SNOMNH) at the University of Oklahoma hosted the annual conference of the International Committee for University Museums and Collections (UMAC), which attracted museum professionals from university and college museums around the world. UMAC is a committee of the International Council of Museums (ICOM) with over 200 members worldwide. The conference took place Sept. 21-26. Peter Tirrell, the museum's associate director and a member of the UMAC board, served as chair of the conference. He was among UMAC's founding members and is a consultant which the Build-a-Museum hopes to bring to Louisiana to share his expertise.

"Hosting an ICOM committee meeting in the United States is a rare event", Tirrell said. "It's something of a coup for the SNOMNH ... It's an honor to be chosen as the host site."

The theme of the conference was Engaging the Community. Focus areas included museum outreach, partnerships among museums and between museums and schools, libraries, corporations, and indigenous people and ethnic groups. Dr. Judith Schiebout, a member of the Build-a-Museum team, attended.