Asia-Europe: celebrating 10 years of ASEMUS

The Asia-Europe Museum Network (ASEMUS) celebrated its 10th anniversary at its 2010 General Conference in Paris, which was held at the musée du quai Branly. Over 80 museum representatives from Asia and Europe met from 8 to 10 September to assess the outcomes of the first decade of collaboration and to discuss new common strategies for the future.

Former French President Jacques Chirac delivered his keynote speech at the Conference. It was opened by ASEMUS Chairman and President of musée du quai Branly, Mr Stéphane Martin. Her Excellency Ambassador Delia Domingo-Albert, Ambassador of the Republic of the Philippines in Germany and Former Secretary for Foreign Affairs, and Mr Jacques Giès, President of musée Guimet, have also be spoken at the event.

ASEMUS was established as the initiative of the Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF) in 2000 and continues to be actively supported by ASEF. It is a platform for informal dialogue and exchanges between museums dedicated to Asian heritage in the countries of the Asia Europe Meeting (ASEM).

“In carrying out ASEF’s mandate of engaging civil society in the promotion of mutual understanding between Asia and Europe, we have always placed a great emphasis on cross-cultural networks such as ASEMUS”, said Ambassador Dominique Girard, Executive Director of ASEF. “Our on-going support to this unique museum network also reflects our longstanding engagement in the field of heritage as a driving force for social and economic development.”

Past collaborations of the Network include the travelling exhibition, “Self and Others: Portraits from Asia and Europe” (seen by 60,000 visitors) and the “Virtual Collection of Masterpieces”, an online collection of over 1,600 art pieces from 83 museums.

With ASEM enlargement to include Russia, Australia and New Zealand in October 2010, the network will now extend its outreach to a total of 46 countries across Asia and Europe. At the Conference, delegates also initiated an ambitious ‘mapping project’ focusing on the research and knowledge sharing on heritage collections, resources and expertise, as well as projects and activities across Asia and Europe.