ICOM NEWS no.
1 > 2009
CECA-Latin America and Caribbean
Meets and Connects in Santiago de Caballeros (DR)
S o n i a H e l e n a G u a r i t a d o A m a r a l , Regional Coordinator, ICOM-CECA/LAC, Fundación Arte en la Calle (Brazil)
F ollowing up on the well-attended CECA Annual Conference held at the
Montréal Science Centre in Canada (29 September – 3 October 2008) on
“Cultural Tourism: Trends and Strategies”, a recent meeting put issues into
a regional perspective. As cultural anthropologist and tourism specialist,
Jafar Jafari, Editor-in-chief of Annals of Tourism Research states: “Tourism
would not exist without culture. Culture constitutes one of the principle
motivations for the movement of peoples and (…) all forms of tourism pro-
voke a cultural effect, not only on the visitor, but also on the host.” These
thoughts were central to the 6th Regional Meeting of ICOM/CECA-Latin
America and Caribbean (28-30 November 2008) held at the Centro León
(Santiago, Dominican Republic), in coordination with the ILAM Foundation
and ICOM-Dominican Republic. Indeed this gathering managed to link the
last three International Museum Day themes from 2007, 2008 and 2009
with a focus on education and communications in the regional context of
developing tourism in order to provide the greatest access possible to uni-
versal heritage.
> With more than 50 stakeholders attending, the theme of the
Santiago de Caballeros conference was “Museums as agents of social
change: their role in relation to tourism and education in Latin America and
the Caribbean”. Before the final declaration was drafted, CECA-Brazil pre-
sentated on the educational impact of the relationship between museums
and tourism and the role of museums in designing tourism and educational
policy in the region. Strategies, projects and actions concerning the tou-
rist/visitor were discussed as well as the recognition of museums in their
role as agents of social change and development. Indeed, it was noted that
a new genre of tourism, ecotourism, had emerged based on a respect for
different cultures and natural resources and assuming the participation of
communities who benefit from an equitable share of profits.
> Daniel Castro Benitez, CECA-LAC (Colombia), Director of the Casa
Museo Quinta de Bolivar, pronounced a “Reflections on ‘inner tourism’,
museums and education” inspired by two authors separated in space and
time: a Frenchman, Xavier de Maistre (1763-1852, Voyage autour de ma
chambre, 1794) and a Colombian, Eduardo Zalamea Borda (1907- 1963,
Cuatro anos a bordo de mi mismo, 1934). Reconsidering the museum visit
as a voyage, and the visitor as a traveler into an inner and outer world of dif-
ference, Benitez spoke of establishing new relationships of contact and
exchange through the museum geography as a path to a discovery of self
and others. Proning an “ethics of diversity”, Benitez suggested: “The prin-
ciples of recognition of others, cultural diversity, social spaces, dialogue and
communication, and education understood as a continuing personal, cultu-
ral and social process based on a holistic concept of the human person,
concept and ideas, many of which have been inscribed in the laws of our
countries, are a point of departure helpful for the understanding and appro-
priation of this concept of transdisciplinarity without its being transformed –
as is often the case – into a straight jacket or cardboard, hermetic premise.”
> Papers from this intensive and insightful meeting will be published
in CECA’s journal ICOM Education as discussions will continue in Reykjavik
at the National Gallery of Iceland at the CECA Annual Meeting on “Museum
Education in a Global
Context – Priorities
and Processes” (5-10
October 2009).
Contact: guarita.sonia
@uol.com.br
Photo: Sonia Helena Guarita do
Amaral/ICOM-CECA-LAC
< Committee Platform 11
Declaration of the 6th Regional
Meeting of the ICOM Regional
Committee for Education and
Cultural Action for Latin
America and the Caribbean
WE:
Citizens of Iberoamerica, of the Latin American and Caribbean
countries, professionals in museums, tourism, culture, local,
municipal, regional and national administrations, we are proud
to participate in the 6th Regional Latin American Meeting of our
Committee, meeting for the first time in the Dominican Republic
in the Caribbean.
PROUD TO:
Belong to a region rich in diversity, with differences that unite us,
networks that inspire us, and aspirations to have encounters
which allow us to share and activate the experiences of our coun-
tries. We feel proud to receive and share with new colleagues with
mutual interests in new geographical points in the region of the
Caribbean.
WE URGE:
The world, the region, and the countries we belong to, to take the
opportunity to get to know this region and its cultural characte-
ristics and in contact with the diversity and wealth of the cultures
of the different countries represented on this occasion, we feel
the urgency and responsibility of a joint effort to benefit, enhance
and diffuse the heritage of Latin America and the Caribbean.
WE RECOGNISE:
MUSEUMS AS AGENTS OF SOCIAL CHANGE AND THEIR
ROLE IN RELATION TO TOURISM AND EDUCATION IN OUR
COUNTRIES
That museums as agents of social change in their educational
work have an important role in relation to cultural tourism, we
reaffirm our commitment to education and communication that
this role implies.
That museum professionals have the duty to produce educational
offerings aimed at the needs of tourists who use the museums
within their tourist itinerary.
WE THEREFORE COMMIT TO REALISING THE FOLLOWING
ACTIONS:
To share knowledge, deepen the self-criticism of our work, integra-
ting within our museums the respective communities, making
alliances that favour activities apt to have CECA meetings.
To democratise an exchange of knowledge and information in
order to integrate cultural heritage in our countries committed to
communities from a Latin American and Caribbean perspective.
To reflect on the present reality of Latin America and the
Caribbean with respect to their museums as agents of social
change and their role in the tourism and education sectors, in
light of the pedagogical/educational/communicative commit-
ment which this role implies.