News
Fourth Session of the Museum Council
The summary of the 70th anniversary of liberation of the German Nazi Concentration and Extermination Camp Auschwitz constituted the main subject of the session of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum Council which took place on April 14. The Council, appointed by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage, supervises the statutory operation of the Museum, and also expresses opinions on the Museum’s plans of operation.
The session of the Council started with the report of Dr. Piotr M.A. Cywiński, Museum Director, who summarized the most important activities at the Memorial in the course of the last year as well as presented plans for the nearest future. He talked among others about the specific character of the past year, connected with numerous round anniversaries, about the preparations, course and results of the commeration of the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz as well as about the projects related to this event as well as the record number of visitors of the Memorial and the challenges resulting from this fact.
“Second half of the year 2014 was marked by the preparations to the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. This event aroused great interest throughout the world. The broadcast prepared by Polish Television was transmitted by over 250 TV channels throughout the world. As a result, the words of former prisoners, the most important guests of the commemorative event, reached live over half a billion people”, said Dr. Piotr M.A. Cywiński, Museum Director.
“In connection with the anniversary, we inaugurated a completely new project of virtual visit based on panoramic photographs and very rich educational material. We have already observed that panoramic images are very popular, in particular in the countries very distant from Poland, from which it is difficult to come and visit the Memorial. Right before the anniversary the new website of the Museum was inaugurated. It is a very important tool, as each year we record several million page views”, emphasized Piotr Cywiński.
Conservation works were also summarized during the session of the Council, including the projects realized thanks to the support of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation. Council members learned about the progress of the most important investments realized by the Museum. They include among others the new visitor service centre as well as the new seat of the International Centre for Education about Auschwitz and the Holocaust.
Renovation of the Museum Archives, a project which has entered its final stage, was also discussed. “This project was of particular importance for the quality and safety of the stored documents. We managed to schedule the works in a way that did not have any negative influence on the accessibility of our archival materials for visitors”, said Director Cywiński.
After the presentation of the 2014 annual report and the plans for the year 2015, the Council of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum unanimously adopted the resolution approving these activities.
Composition of the Museum Council (term 2012—2016)
Kazimierz Albin
Professor Tomasz Gąsowski, Ph.D.
Piotr Hertig
Professor Jan Kantyka, Ph.D.
Professor Edward Kosakowski
Professor Stanisław Krajewski
Andrzej Kunert, Ph.D.
Rev. Jan Nowak
Krystyna Oleksy — Chairman
Anda Rottenberg
Museum Council
The Museum Council is a consultative body appointed by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage pursuant to the Act on Museums. In line with the Act, it has 5 – 15 members. Its term lasts 4 years. In the Act, we can also read that the Council: “supervises the fulfilment of the museum’s obligations with respect to the collections and the society and evaluates, pursuant to the yearly report on operations presented by the museum director, operation of the museum and issues opinion on the yearly plan of operation presented by the director.”
From the Act on Museums of November 21, 1996 (Journal of Laws of 1997 No. 5, item 24)
Chapter 2. Organization of Museums
[...]
Art. 11. [The Museum Council]
1. A museum council operates by a state and local government museum whose members are appointed by a competent authority referred to in Art. 5.2 or 5.3 [i.e. an organizer, in this case the Minister of Culture and National Heritage]
2. The Museum Council:
1) supervises the fulfilment by the museum of its obligations with respect to the collections and the society, in particular meeting the objectives determined in Art. 1,
2) evaluates, on the basis of a yearly report on operations, the operation of the museum and issues opinion on the yearly plan of operation presented by the director.
