11 museums from Asia and Europe have joined the Asia-Europe Museum Network (ASEMUS) between January and June 2015. ASEMUS now brings together 130 members, including 72 museums in Asia, 47 in Europe and 11 affiliate members. By becoming members of ASEMUS, they enable the network to achieve its objectives of promoting mutual understanding between the peoples of Asia and Europe through collaborative museum-based cultural activity and stimulating and facilitating the sharing and use of museum collections. New ASEMUS members include the following:

• Kaladham / PLACE-HAMPI, India
• Museum Tekstil Jakarta, Indonesia
• National Museum of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Kazakhstan
• Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, the Netherlands
• Vargas Museum, the Philippines
• ArtScience Museum, Singapore
• National Gallery Singapore, Singapore
• Nordiska Museet, Sweden
• Ethnographic Museum of Geneva (MEG), Switzerland
• Museum der Kulturen Basel, Switzerland
• University of Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, United Kingdom

It should be noted that the National Museum of the Republic of Kazakhstan is the first museum in Kazakhstan to join ASEMUS. The network now includes members in 40 different countries. Other museums are invited to submit their applications for ASEMUS membership. To be eligible, they should meet the following criteria:

• Be located in an ASEM member country
• Meet the ICOM definition of a museum
• Have collections which form part of the cultural heritage of Eurasia
• Be actively interested in linking Asia and Europe
• Be willing to give access to their registers and open up their collections for other member museums
• Acknowledge and respect the ICOM Code of Professional Ethics

Set up in 2000, ASEMUS is a cross-cultural network of museums from Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) countries. It is led by the ASEMUS Executive Committee and supported by the ASEMUS Secretariat. For additional information about its aims, membership and governance, you are invited to visit ASEMUS website. For a full list of ASEMUS members and access to their profiles, please visit http://asemus.museum/asemus-members/ Pictures: National Museum of the Republic of Kazakhstan and Museum Tekstil Jakarta