2002 – INMP Documentation Centre

INMP at the UN

secretariat — Mon, 09 Sep 2002 10:00:51 +0000

United Nations, New York, USA –
Joyce Apsel represented INMP at the 55th annual conference organised by DPI/NGO, which was held at the UN in New York in September 2002. Over 2300 NGO representatives from more than 700 organisations based in 81 countries attended the conference, which focused on rebuilding societies emerging from conflict.

Together with members from the Cambodia Master Performers Program she conducted a two hour workshop on “The arts as an instrument for renewal and healing”. She explored how peace museums from Japan to the United Kingdom and Kenya promote reconciliation, healing and rememberance. She emphasised the need to foster networks of peace and the diversity of methods from memorials and museums to community projects such as peace parks and travelling exhibits. She also discussed peace education in relation to ‘Rights Work’, an international human rights initiative that she founded three years ago. The participants from the Cambodia Master Performers Program described how they have worked to revive the traditional art forms destroyed during the Khmer Rouge genocide and encourage contemporary artistic expression.

Source:
INMP Newsletter 15, October 2002: www.museumsforpeace.org/news/newsletters.html

Jan Bloch’s Peace Museum

secretariat — Fri, 07 Jun 2002 10:00:32 +0000

Lucerne, Switzerland –
The centenary of the opening of the world’s first peace museum was commemorated in Lucerne on 6-8 June 2002. The program of events was made possible through the enthusiastic support of Dr Walter Troxler of the Swiss federal army education centre for higher officers (Armee-Ausbildungszentrum Luzern, AAL) and Patrick Deicher, curator of the Bourbaki Panorama, one of Lucerne’s main tourist attractions.

The exhibition entitled ‘War and Peace in the Museum: Jan Bloch and the International War and Peace Museum in Lucerne’ was opened at the Bourbaki Panorama on 7 June. In October the exhibition moved to the AAL until 21 December. Consisting of 24 text and illustration panels in German (the catalogue included a summary in English), the exhibition focused on Jan Bloch and his museum, the historical context for its foundation and contemporary issues including the spread of peace museums and peace education.

The Lucerne Filmclub organised a cycle of 10 war and peace films to accompany the exhibition at the Bourbaki Panorama. The local adult education group LABA also organised a historical city walk to places associated with the Bloch museum, and produced a 56-page illustrated brochure about the history of the museum, entitled ‘Friedenstauben und Krupp-Kanonen: 100 Jahre Internationales Kriegs- und Friedensmuseum Luzern’ (Peace doves and Krupp cannons: 100 years since the International War and Peace Museum in Lucerne).

AAL also hosted an international historical symposium on the museum, involving peace historians from half a dozen countries, including 5 Polish members of the Jean de Bloch Society. Representatives of peace museums, from several European countries and Japan, took part in the concluding roundtable on the diffuculties, role and potential of peace museums today.

Sources and related documents:

INMP Newsletter 15, October 2002: www.museumsforpeace.org/news/newsletters.html

www.digitalhistoryproject.com/2012/06/jean-de-bloch-museum-of-peace-and-war.html

The international museum of war and peace at Lucerne, by Peter van den Dungen
Revue suisse d’histoire, Volume 31 (1981): www.e-periodica.ch/digbib/view?pid=szg-006:1981:31::207#207

2002 Highlights

secretariat — Tue, 01 Jan 2002 11:00:21 +0000

Jan Bloch's Peace Museum INMP at the UN