Peace Museums 2012

6-8 October 2012 at Gernika Peace Museum Foundation, Spain
9-11 October 2012 First International Conference Art, Memory and Democracy – Gernika Peace Museum Foundation, Spain

Temporary Exhibitions

Friedensmuseum Nürnberg (Germany)
19 April – 25 July 2012
The Burial of War. The Works of Frans Masereel.

Gernika Peace Museum Foundation (Spain)
17 May – 16 September 2012
Legionaries: Mussolini’s Italians in the Spanish Civil War.

21 September 2012 – 24 February 2013
Flying Prohibited: Children and Armed Conflicts.

Missing Peace Art Space (Dayton, Ohio, USA)

Opening 6 July 2012
Windows and Mirrors

3 August – 2 September 2012
The Mystical Artwork of Barb Stork

7 September – 4 November 2012
Dead Wrong – Thou shall not kill

New Permanent Exhibition

Palais des Nations, Geneva
Toward a World Free of Nuclear Weapons

Schloss Höchstädt an der Donau, Germany
War and Peace in the 20th Century

MASEREEL IN PEACE MUSEUM NÜRNBERG
Frans Masereel (1889-1972) was a prominent Belgian graphic designer, illustrator and painter, who is internationally known for his woodcut series. As a commited pacifist, he dedicated his work since 1915 in the service of the anti-war and labour movements.
He lived and painted in France, was an arts teacher in Germany and found his final resting place back in Belgium. He was honoured in numerous exhibitions, became a member of several academies and a cultural foundation is named after him.
The exhibition in Friedensmuseum Nürnberg shows his work from various stages of his eventful life.

MAKING PEACE EXHIBITION
The Burial of WarKunst im FriedensMuseum Die Beerdigung des Krieges Werke von Frans Masereel19.4.2012 bis 25.7.2012In Zusammenarbeit mit der Frans-Masereel-Stiftung Saarbrücken Ausstellung im Friedensmuseum Nürnberg Kaulbachstraße 2, Nürnbergwww.friedensmuseum.odn.deVernissage am 19.4.2012 um 19 UhrÖffnungszeiten: montags 17-19 Uhr, mittwochs 15-17 Uhr, jeden 1. Sa. 15-17 Uhr, Gruppen auf Anfrage: 0911/3609577

PEACE HISTORY ARCHIVE, BAD HINDELANG
Thomas Wechs sent the following:
The Peace History Museum (Friedenshistorisches Museum) in Bad Hindelang (Allgauer Alps, Germany) closed its doors in 2009 and since then has become the Peace History Archive (Friedensarchiv). A partial revival of the museum took place when, in June 2010, a selection of the former museum exhibits constitutes a new permanent exhibition entitled War and Peace in the 20th Century in the castle Schloss Höchstädt an der Donau, Bavaria, Germany. The exhibition forms part of the large permanent exhibition The Battle of Blenheim.

Höchstädt has become famous because of the important battle which took place there in 1704 (as part of the war of the Spanish Succession) and which pushed France onto the defensive while it marked the beginning of British ascendancy in the European struggle for supremacy.
The new exhibition – which invites reflection on war and peace issues of the recent past – could be established thanks to the willing cooperation of the Bavarian Administration of Public Castles, Gardens and Lakes which owns the late-Medieval castle. It also houses the Museum of German Fayence and hosts concerts and other cultural events.

TEHRAN PEACE MUSEUM
On 29 April, the date in 1997 on which the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) entered into force, a remembrance ceremony to commemorate victims of chemical weapons was held at the Tehran Peace Museum. The commemoration provided an opportunity to pay tribute to the victims of chemical warfare, and to renew our resolve to eradicate them from our world, thereby promoting the goals of peace, security, and multilateralism. This year marks the 15th anniversary of the entry into force of the CWC. Today, with 188 state parties representing 98 % of the world’s population, the Convention is standing strong.
The programme included statements by representatives of the Iranian victims of chemical warfare, a music performance, and the planting of olive trees. A message from the UN Secretary-General and the Director of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) was delivered. The OPCW is continuously monitoring the chemical industry in an effort to prevent the re-emergence of chemical weapons. So far, the organisation has conducted 2200 inspections in 82 countries.
The ceremony was well attended, amongst others by survivors of chemical warfare, representatives of international organizations, academics and journalists.
Photo: Erfan Eskamaei
Photo: Erfan Eskamaei

A NEW ERA FOR THE PEACE MUSEUM, BRADFORD

Learning, Education and Outreach
After many months of refurbishment work, the museum reopened 7 March with great celebration. The Lord Mayor of Bradford, Naveeda Ikram, officially opened the museum by cutting a green ribbon and giving an inspirational address. Young Bradford Peacemakers, pupils from four local primary and secondary schools, helped interpret the new exhibits for guests and assisted guests in using hand-held learning devices to access more information about artefacts and exhibits. The exhibits have been completely redone and include: Campaigning for a Better World, Peace in Bradford, Resisting War, Remembrance, Conscientious Objection, and Campaigning to Stop Nuclear Weapons (Story of a Young Girl – Sadako Sasaki). The museum also has a new space for temporary exhibitions (currently displaying Coventry University’s ‘Playing for Peace’ which explores sport and peace).
There have been great changes in the learning and education provision at The Peace Museum, not least with the opening of the new education base at the YMCA’s state-of-the-art youth facility, Culture Fusion. The Peace Pod and Room at Culture Fusion are seen as the ‘heart of the building’ and schools cannot wait to bring children to the new venue. The first group of children arrived in November (Bowling Park Primary School’s Peacemakers) and it is ‘all go’ now for the rest of the academic year.
The main focus in 2012 is Sport, the Olympics and Peace, using the Playing for Peace boards and a story-based teacher’s resource called Courage, Sport, Peace and Friendship. They have also joined Bradford’s Olympic Get Set programme as associate with the privilege of being able to advertise their services to schools, young people and community groups branded with the City of Bradford’s very own Olympic Mark – the Bradford Gold Award.
The Peace Museum began using hand-held learning devices for many activities, QR-codes, blogging, on line assessment and evaluation tools. These allow children and young people to interact with exhibitions and items from the collection. This is just one way to move the museum and its collection into the 21st century.
Young Peacemaker explains hand-held learning device
Young Peacemakers help interpret the new exhibition
Lord Mayor of Bradford, Naveeda Ikram, cuts a green ribbon to reopen the museum

A report by board member Kate Dewes
At 4.35am on 4 September 2010 nearly half a million Christchurch citizens were jolted awake by a massive 7.1 earthquake. Amazingly, no-one was killed until another much more damaging 6.3 earthquake lifted and shook the inner city over lunchtime on 22 February 2011. This time 185 people were killed and nearly a third of the central city was damaged badly enough to require demolition, including old stone heritage buildings such as the Provincial Chambers and two Cathedrals. Surprisingly, the Canterbury Museum which is made of similar stone came through reasonably well due to recent strengthening.
February’s earthquake was New Zealand’s worst natural disaster. Since September 2010 we have endured over 10,000 earthquakes and aftershocks with ongoing damage to homes, offices, drainage and psyches. Our hearts went out to the Japanese people when, a few weeks later on 11 March 2011, they experienced the world’s worst nuclear power disaster following earthquakes and a tsunami.
In February 1931 my great-aunt Meta Dewes was killed by falling masonry after a 7.3 earthquake shook New Zealand’s seaside town of Napier for three minutes killing 258 people. My father, then an 11-year-old schoolboy, remained traumatised by the experience until his death at 87. He was unable to accompany my three young daughters around the Napier Museum earthquake exhibition. After viewing the artefacts and photos of the devastation – much of the damage was caused by fire – I reminded my daughters that while earthquakes cannot be prevented, the damage can be repaired. However, the hideous carnage and environmental devastation from radioactive fallout resulting from the use of nuclear weapons can be avoided by banning them and getting rid of them. The girls understood this as they had grown up protesting about nuclear weapons and had helped in the struggle to get New Zealand declared nuclear free in 1984. I have been part of this movement since 1974.
In 2002, after seeing how effective the Napier museum displays were as an educative tool, I worked with Christchurch’s museum, library and university to establish a peace collection and an archive of stories of peacemakers to share with our wider community. This was part of an initiative to declare Christchurch New Zealand’s first UNESCO Peace City, and to prepare a large exhibition to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the nuclear free legislation in 2007, and the 25th anniversary of Christchurch becoming the nation’s first nuclear free city in 1982.
The exhibition showcased a remarkable collection of over 50 years of anti-nuclear and peace artefacts such as campaign banners, quilts, photos, posters, stickers, t-shirts, badges, publications, petitions and music. It also highlighted the historic World Court Project, begun in 1986 by members of our local peace group and led internationally predominantly by New Zealanders. This project saw the world’s highest court, the UN’s International Court of Justice at The Hague, advise in 1996 that “the threat or use of nuclear weapons would generally be illegal”, and that nuclear weapon states have a binding obligation to eliminate their nuclear arsenals.
The urgent need for disarmament education was recognised by the United Nations with the adoption by consensus, in November 2002, of a resolution introducing the UN Secretary-General’s Study on Disarmament and Non-proliferation Education. The Study contained 34 far-reaching recommendations, including one I drafted which encourages municipal leaders, working with citizen groups, to establish peace cities, as part of the UNESCO Cities for Peace network, through, for example, the creation of peace museums, peace parks, websites, and production of booklets on peacemakers and peacemaking.
As the New Zealand government’s appointed expert and only NGO representative on this UN Study, I realised this would actively involve local councils, governments, universities and other educational institutions.
At the time my garage and house were full of precious educational artefacts which I had collected over 30 years which needed to be saved for posterity. After Christchurch became a Peace City in 2002, our little peace group set about visiting the elders and campaigners in the peace movement around the country and secured agreement from the local library, the university library and the museum for Christchurch to become New Zealand’s peace collection centre. It took over five years to finish the bulk of the task, with most documents and artefacts now carefully catalogued and able to be sourced internationally through the internet. It was a great achievement.
With hindsight, it was critical to the preservation of some of New Zealand’s most important foreign policy history – including the nuclear free policy – which had emanated from Christchurch. The earthquakes caused extensive damage to central city property. Many homes and offices were demolished before people could retrieve precious files. The University peace archive of documents was damaged and some needs re-cataloguing. The Central Library collection of peace books was in disarray and the storage unit housing it is still closed. The Museum collection is mainly intact, but it cannot be used for displays or viewing for another three years as it all needs to be checked. Sadly, we are not able to use any of the peace collection this year for displays to mark the 25th anniversary of New Zealand’s nuclear free policy. The boxes of artefacts, papers and displays which we store in our garage – which survived with some damage to shelving and a cracked concrete floor – are not easily available to the community either. We will need to shift everything from our home/offices/garage sometime this year for over six months while the garage is repaired, the house is lifted, the land remediated, the piles and concrete skirt of the house renewed, three large damaged chimneys fully removed and every room is repaired and repainted inside and out.
Due to the high cost of the repairs to the city as a whole (estimated at NZ$20 billion) there is no funding for little non-governmental charitable organisations such as our Disarmament & Security Centre. We are struggling to keep things going, continuing to work voluntarily and trying to restore our Centre and repair our offices. We have been able to retrieve most of the books and documents from the library, and we share it with the wider community when we can. We look forward to working with the Canterbury Museum in the next few years to devise an exhibition for the 30th anniversary of the nuclear free legislation in 2017.

UNESCO PEACE CITY CHRISTCHURCH (NZ) DAMAGED BY EARTHQUAKES

A report by board member Syed Sikander Mehdi
A series of peace events was organized by the No Gun Ri International Peace Foundation on 21-22 December 2011 in Seoul and at No Gun Ri. These included the 4th International Peace Prize Ceremony where Professor Ikuro Anzai, INMP Board Member and eminent Japanese peace scholar and activist and peace museum expert, was awarded the prestigious Human Rights Prize. At the ceremony, the Journalist Prize in the newspaper section was awarded to the Hankyoreh and in the broadcasting section to Tae Jeon Broadcasting. Novelist Kang Byungsuk was awarded the Literature Prize for his novel Legend of Green.
In his acceptance speech, Prof. Anzai thanked the Foundation for awarding him the Asian Peace Prize and stressed the importance of peace research, peace movement and museums for peace in Asia and in the rest of the world. Peace songs were sung at the end of this well organized and dignified ceremony. It was attended by more than 100 distinguished scholars, media and civil society people.

5th No Gun Ri Academic Conference For International Peace
The 5th No Gun Ri Academic Conference for International Peace was held at the National Assembly Library, Seoul. It had a well-structured programme and the proceedings were conducted in English and Korean. In his welcome address, Dr. Chung Koo-Do, Chairman of the No Gun Ri International Peace Foundation, described the background for the establishment of the Foundation and the objectives of the annual international conference.
Seven presentations (followed by discussions) were made: 1) The Last memorial to War by Prof. Em. Herbert George, University of Chicago; 2) Toward the Networking of Museums for a New Approach to Peace by Prof. Ryotaro Katsura, Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto; 3) Building Peace Museums on the Wagah Border and the Khyber Pass-Challenges and Prospects by Prof. Syed Sikander Mehdi, Institute of Business & Technology-Biztek, Karachi; 4) Wednesday Social Movement for the Survivors of Japanese Military Sexual Slavery for the Last 20 Years by Ms. Yun Mi-hyang, Director of the Korean Comfort Women’s Committee; 5) Activities of 50 Years to Reveal the Truth of the Jeju 4.3 Incident by Kim Chang-hu, Director of the Jeju 4.3 Research Institute; 6) Activities to Reveal the Truth of Mass Civilian Killings and Establish Special Acts for Bereaved Families by Mr. Akim Jeongas, Former Investigator of South Korea’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission; and 7) Establishment and Prospects of Organizations for Victims of Government Violence-Focused on Democracy Movement by Dr. Jeong Ho-gi, Korean Modern Society Research Institute.
No Gun Ri Peace Park and Museum
On the second day (22 December), a tour to No Gun Ri Peace Park and Museum was arranged. More than forty scholars and peace activists participated, including eminent Korean educationists and civil society leaders, Prof. and Mrs. Ikuro Anzai and his secretary Mrs. Yuriko Shimano, Prof. Ryotaro Katsura, Prof. Herbert George, Mr. Chung Eun-yong, Chairman of the No Gun Ri Peace Prize Committee and Dr. Chung Koo-Do. It took a one and a half hour bus ride from Seoul to No Gun Ri Peace Park and Museum.
The location of the park is historic because here the No Gun Ri massacre took place sixty years ago. Occupying a vast area and built up in the tragic historic background, it is a well-planned and well-designed park with passages, symbols, monuments

NO GUN RI INTERNATIONAL PEACE FOUNDATION

and museum buildings narrating the tragedy of No Gun Ri. The delegates visiting the Park were introduced to survivors and paid homage to the dead. As board members of INMP, Prof. Anzai and I were very happy to see a large banner publicising the 2014 international conference on museums for peace that is being organized by the No Gun Ri International Peace Foundation and INMP.
Later, the delegates visited the beautiful Peace Museum, opened recently. It is a large building with galleries, a well-furnished 500-seater auditorium and several small rooms for holding separate sessions, workshops or round tables – each room with a capacity for some sixty people. At the museum, delegates were shown a powerful documentary on the massacre and on the leaders of the movement seeking apology and compensation from the USA. During the visit to the museum, an exhibition of photographs relating to the massacre and the movement for apology and compensation was inaugurated and delegates were given a historical tour along the photographs. Several books on the massacre written in English, Japanese and Korean by scholars from various countries were nicely preserved to memorialize and inform succeeding generations about the tragedy. The display of artefacts and photographs is mostly concerned with providing a historical narrative and not to promote a hate campaign against the USA and its people. As a centre of peace education, this museum emphasizes the importance of peace and shows how to work collectively for the healing of the wounds.
By any count or criterion, the No Gun Ri International Peace Foundation under the leadership of its dynamic Chairman Dr. Chung Koo-Do imaginatively and efficiently organized the events on 21-22 December 2011. I am fully confident that Dr. Chung Koo-Do and his team are well equipped to organize larger events like the International Conference of Museums for Peace in 2014.

AKAMBA PEACE MUSEUM, KENYA
A report by founder and curator Munuve Mutisya

Same-sex marriages have existed for many years among the Akamba. Recently this tradition has become controversial in the Machakos County of Kenya. These marriages are non-sexual, permanent unions between two women which exist so that the women can rear children and pass on family property. In the Akamba community, in Machakos, one may be brought in to share motherhood with another woman already in a marriage, but who is unable to bear children, in order to create a family. Maweto is the name given to the women in these relationships. In the past, the Maweto mothers were highly respected in their communities and families. The Maweto mothers had the freedom to choose men to father their children and sometimes they chose to have a man anointed by the community for this purpose. This man was not the husband in the household that they joined. The family formed by the union of these two women provided security for the children and partnership and the status of the two women. Maweto women were expected to look after their parents and inherited land and property just like other Akamba children. More recently, Maweto mothers and their children have been rejected by society. Modern religions and western influence have changed the ideas that people use to define their families. Partly because of this, communities are turning away from Maweto families even though these families are able to support their children and offer a creative way for women to maintain their land and standing.

The Akamba Peace Museum decided to find culturally-appropriate ways to promote a positive image of Maweto families, while also advocating for their fundamental rights within society. The museum now serves as a networking center for the Maweto Mothers of Ukambani. For the last twelve years, they have been engaging the marginalized Maweto women in its activities. The museum is currently providing the local community at Kyanzasu village, in Machakos County, access to information about Maweto advocacy through ongoing discussion meetings and exchange visits among the Maweto Mothers of Ukambani. The participation of the Maweto Mothers in community affairs and their interaction with friends and visitors has empowered them. They do not consider themselves as outcasted. This is a significant step in outreach which the Akamba Peace Museum is doing by bringing Kenyans to bear the testimony of once ostracized women in their rural setup participating in full community life. The Maweto Mothers are able to raise their voices and share their concerns to the wider community without fear of exclusion. This has created space for public debate, dialogue and action as visitors interact with the Maweto Mothers, read the newspaper stories, view photographs, and watch video clips about the Maweto Mothers at the Peace Museum. This initiative was developed to address the gaps and enhance the participation of the marginalized in the community development process by keeping its non partisan stand or position.
The Akamba Peace Museum has been promoting advocacy in addressing critical social issues at community level, such as poverty, social exclusion, empowerment of marginalized rural groups such as Maweto, and catalyze a democratic process in decision making. The museum is also a source of empowerment that directs education among the youth and schools in Machakos connecting development with traditional knowledge. A group of 50 elders are currently working together with the youth to document local histories, material culture, ceremonies, and songs through a continuous one-on-one education with the elders so as to prepare the youth to honour their heritage of social values while engaging in dialogue with modernity and christianity.
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Carolyn Rapkievian, assistant director for education and museum programmes at the National Museum of the American Indian, in Washington D.C., recently shared the following interesting announcement:

On 10 March 2012, the National Museum of the American Indian hosted a special symposium Protocols of Peace: Native Condolence and The Good Mind, featuring historians and culture-based scholars from throughout the Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy. Activists and authors Richard Hill (Tuscarora) and Peter Jemison (Seneca) joined historian Dr. Susan Kalter (Mohawk) to discuss historical and cultural themes from the Haudenosaunee tradition. Three distinguished culture- and duty-bearers: traditional Clan Mother Louise McDonald, community health leader Beverly Cook, and restorative justice advocate Mary Ann Spencer addressed the Haudenosaunee Condolence Ceremony and the philosophy of ‘The Good Mind’, which is the foundation of the Haudenosaunee Great Law of Peace. An archived webcast can be viewed here.
ANTI-WAR MUSEUM BERLIN
Vom Friedensmuseum zur Hitler-Kaserne
From peace museum to Hitler barracks

On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Anti-War Museum Berlin (2007), a new edition was published of the moving memoirs of Ernst Friedrich, who founded the original museum in 1925. The museum was destroyed by Nazi storm troopers in 1933 and afterwards the building became a place where opponents of the Nazi-regime were tortured. Friedrich initially fled to Switzerland, where he wrote his memoirs From peace museum to Hitler barracks, which were published in Geneva in 1935 (in German). With the help of fellow teachers, his grandson Tommy Spree, re-established the Anti-War Museum in 1982.
The museum recently organised two temporary exhibitions, both largely the work of Christian Bartolf, the director of the Gandhi Information Center in Berlin who works closely with the museum. The first (7 May – 20 November 2011) was about the Indian philosopher Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941), a major interpreter of Indian culture for the West during the first three decades of the 20th century. He promoted ideas about universal peace based on a union of Asian and European culture. The exhibition was opened on the 150th anniversary of his birth. The latest exhibition (28 January – 22 April 2012) was about Étienne de la Boétie (1530-1563), author of a famous essay Discourse on Voluntary Servitude, or the Anti-Dictator, that contained the seeds of a radical theory of power and that has remained influential up to the present day.

DEADLINE NEWSLETTER 4/2012

The next newsletter will be published in November.
The deadline for submissions is 1 October 2012. Please send your text and images to
news@inmp.net

Subscribe to our biannual newsletter by sending an e-mail to news@inmp.net providing your name and that of the organisation you work for (if applicable).

SECRETARIAT ADMINISTRATOR: REPORT FROM BERTHA VON SUTTNER BUILDING
Another year went by. Currently 2012 to me, as secretariat administrator of INMP, feels like the quiet before the storm. Many anniversaries are coming up in the next few years (2013: 100 years Peace Palace & 300 years Peace of Utrecht & start Discover Peace in Europe Project; 2014: 100 years since the start of WWI & the death of Bertha von Suttner & the eighth International Conference of Museums for Peace; 2015: 100 years since the First International Congress of Women & 15 years of UNSCR 1325). I wrote “to me, as secretariat administrator of INMP”, because in my function as treasurer of the Dutch Association for the Study of Pleistocene Mammals (WPZ), I am currently right in the middle of the storm, celebrating our 30th anniversary.
When I look out of the office windows and take notice of the time on the Peace Palace clock tower, I think of all the projects we plan to organise with the INMP. Writing down ideas, trying to make contact with other organisations, and thinking about the costs and funding. One day a week, Marten van Harten, social development advisor of CrossCulture Solutions, joins me at the office to work on our projects for the Peace Palace centenary, and the Discover Peace in Europe project. The latter is a project started together with seven other EU cities, to produce guides for European capitals about peace in history and contemporary activities. The project has applied for the EU Lifelong Learning fund at Grundtvig, and will take place from September 2012 till September 2015.
While work inside the office continues, the building has recently received a new name on the outside. We are happy to announce that since 8 March 2012, International Women’s Day, the INMP office is housed in the Bertha von Suttner Building! Bertha von Suttner (1843-1914) was a pacifist, friend of Alfred Nobel, and the first woman to be a Nobel Peace Prize laureate. She became a leading figure in the peace movement with her much praised novel Die Waffen nieder! (Lay down your arms!), and attendance at the First (1899) and Second (1907) Peace Conference in The Hague. The INMP is stimulating ideas to establish a Bertha von Suttner Peace Museum in Vienna or The Hague, which will hopefully be opened in June 2014, 100 years after her death.
Other news I am pleased to mention, is that our new and improved website is online at www.inmp.net! This new site makes it easier to search for news and updates, and to find our associates, activities and exhibitions. We have also opened new e-mail accounts. Please, change the address you have into info@inmp.net.
Finally, I would like to hear from you! Have your brochure at display in the office and your news on our website, so please send me your announcements, articles and pictures. You can also find us on facebook with a page, and a group for discussions.

NEW INMP MEMBERS
New members of the INMP since our previous newsletter, include:
Anti-Kriegs-Museum e.V., Germany
Dayton International Peace Museum, U.S.A.
Friedensmuseum Nürnberg, Germany
Yi Jun Peace Museum, The Netherlands