Dear ICMAH Members and Colleagues,

The ICMAH Board, elected in Prague in August 2022, welcomes you to our website. True to the historic commitments of this international committee, the new Board represents 4 continents – Europe, Asia, Africa and South America – with an average age of -40. Aware of the challenges facing the museums of tomorrow, the team is excited to share with you its objectives for the next three years:

• Establish more regular communication with ICMAH members.
• Have more exchanges with other international committees and organize joint conferences, meetings and training courses,
• Promote 3rd and/or 4th category countries to extend ICOM/ICMAH activities,
• Develop new projects around thematic working groups (sports museums and corporate museums),
• Relay ICOM International news,
• Develop ICMAH’s social networks to share information about member museums and current research in archaeology and history,
• Encourage and help young ICMAH members to get involved more effectively, in particular by supporting them with a bursary.

After the difficult years of 2020 and 2021 for museums worldwide due to the COVID-19 pandemic, 2022 marked the year of renewal, with the adoption of a new definition of the museum at the ICOM General Conference in Prague. Climate issues and the sustainable development of museums are one of ICOM's main orientations, and ICMAH is naturally
part of this approach.

After our annual conference in Prague in 2022 on the theme “Rethinking the power of museums of archaeology and history” the 2023 ICMAH conference was held in Paraguay, South America. Co-organized with the ICTOP, INTERCOM and MPR committees, as well as ICOM Paraguay, the theme was “Museum leadership in climate action”.

In 2024, the annual conference will be held in Asia, on the theme of archaeology and fortifications. Finally, in 2025, we will meet again in Dubai for the ICOM General Conference. At the same time, as since 2017, ICMAH is actively involved in promoting sports museums and sports collections. As in Nice in France, Baku in Azerbaijan, Istanbul in Turkey, Alexandria in Egypt, Hernendarias in Paraguay, new meetings with sports museum professionals will be organized. The Olympic Games in France in 2024 will be the occasion for a great event in the autumn at the Musée National du Sport in Nice.

ICMAH is your network, so I invite you, history and archaeology museum professionals, to send us news, photos and information about your activities, so that we can relay the many initiatives that exist around the world and share them with as many people as possible!

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact the Board at: secretary.icmah@icom.museum

Sincerely yours,

Burçak Madran
Chair of ICMAH