November 10, 2022
Statement of ICOM Georgia on the misinformation regarding the acceptance or non-acceptance of several museums as institutional members
Statement of the ICOM National Committee of Georgia on the misinformation spread by the LEPL Art Palace of Georgia – Museum of Culture History regarding the acceptance or non-acceptance of the museum as an institutional member of ICOM.
Membership process of ICOM Georgia covers the period from December 15 to February 28 of the following year. Membership applications for individual, student and supporting categories are submitted individually by the applicant, and for Institutional membership category – by the institutions. Applications submitted to the committee after the expiration of the mentioned period are not subject to review. Annually ICOM National Committees are required to send approved membership applications and transfer membership fees to ICOM Secretariat n0 latter than April 1st.
After the sudden death of the chairperson of ICOM Georgia, the reorganization process started in the committee from September 2021 (editing the existing statute of the committee, planning the general meeting of members, elections of the new board and chairperson of the committee, etc.), based on which, according to the decision of the governing board of the committee, deadline for submission of new membership applications was extended until March 7, 2022.
As of December 15th, 2021, ICOM Georgia has started accepting new membership applications (individual and institutional).
On March 2, 2022, the committee received the applications of “Art Palace of Georgia – Museum of Cultural History” and “Dadiani Palaces Historical-Architectural Museum” for the institutional membership category.
According to Article 4, Clause 5 of ICOM Georgia’s statute valid at that time, new members were approved annually by the chairperson of the committee. During the membership period of 2022, the committee functioned without a chairperson, therefore, the committee’s governing board did not have the legitimacy to approve new members. An agreement was reached between ICOM Georgia and the ICOM Secretariat that, based on the mentioned conditions, the new members would be legitimately approved after the election of the new board and chairperson of the committee, therefore, the deadline for sending the list of approved new members and membership fees to the Secretariat was extended until May 1 of this year. Based on this agreement, on March 18, 2022 all applicants (individual and institutional) were informed that the review and approval process of their membership applications had been suspended until the election of the new board and chairperson of ICOM Georgia.
On April 9, 2022, the general meeting of the members of ICOM Georgia was held, where the edited statute of the committee was approved, elections of the new board of the committee consisting of 11 members and the chairperson was elected. On April 19, 2022, the results of the general meeting of members (new statute, new board and chairperson) were legally registered in the House of Justice, after which the authorized board and chairperson of the committee reviewed all membership applications (individual and institutional). On April 23-28, 2022, each applicant was notified of the response to their applications and based on positive responses, they were given a due date for paying membership fees.
On April 21, 2022, 4 membership applications of the institutional category were sent to ICOM Georgia by the following museum institutions: “Art Palace of Georgia – Museum of Cultural History”, “Dadiani Palaces Historical-Architectural Museum”, “Georgian National Museum” and “National Agency for Cultural Heritage Protection of Georgia”. In response, the Georgian National Museum and the National Agency for Cultural Heritage Protection of Georgia were answered by ICOM Georgia that the deadline for submitting membership applications ended on March 7 of this year, therefore, sending applications on April 21 was late and they could send applications again in December of this year.
“Art Palace of Georgia” and “Dadiani Palaces Historical-Architectural Museum”, which had already sent their applications on March 2, after the legal registration of the new board and chairperson of the committee, received a positive response on April 28 and confirmation on the approval of these museums as institutional members, although “Art Palace of Georgia” and “Dadiani Palaces Historical-Architectural Museum” did not confirm the letters sent by ICOM Georgia, after which repeated letters were sent to both museums, the committee also made telephone communication with each of them, after which the mentioned museums briefly confirmed the receipt of the committee’s letter. After that, despite the committee sending the same letter several times and extending the deadline for payment of the membership fees (May 6), neither the “Art Palace of Georgia” nor “Dadiani Palaces Historical-Architectural Museum” did not confirm in writing the positive response of the committee to their institutional membership and did not transfer the membership fee.
As mentioned above, according to the agreement with the ICOM Secretariat, ICOM Georgia was obliged to send the final documentation for the current year’s membership to the Secretariat on May 1. Despite this deadline, ICOM Georgia repeatedly extended the deadline for sending the confirmation and payment of fees to the two above-mentioned museums, but none of them were implemented by these museums. And after May 6, all deadlines had expired, therefore, the committee was forced to close the issue of membership of the mentioned museums and to send the confirmed documentation of the 2022 membership to the ICOM Secretariat.
ICOM Georgia once again emphasizes the fact that the applications for membership of the institutional category submitted by the “Art Palace of Georgia” and “Dadiani Palaces Historical-Architectural Museum” on March 2, 2022 were reviewed after the legal registration (April 19, 2022) of the new board and chairperon and positive responses on the membership were sent to both museums on April 28 of this year. The committee sent reminder letters several times and postponed the deadline for payment of membership fees, however, neither the “Art Palace of Georgia” nor “Dadiani Palaces Historical-Architectural Museum” responded to accept membership, consequently, membership fees were not paid by these museums.
The documentation/correspondence reflecting the above-mentioned process is kept at ICOM Georgia office.
