Links

brusselsmuseums.be
The Brusselse Museumraad (Brussels Museums Council) is the umbrella organisation for museums in the Brussels Capital Region. The nonprofit Museums Council is the driving force behind joint initiatives such as the “Brussels card”, nocturnes, Museum Night fever, etc. It also provides an overview of the over 100 museums in Brussels, of course.

tento.be
OKV Openbaar Kunstbezit in Vlaanderen (Public Art Collection Flanders) is dedicated to making museum collections and heritage available to a broad audience. It also publishes a magazine. The OKV website presents an overview of museums in Flanders, Brussels and Wallonia.

museumvereniging.be
ICOM Belgium-Flanders was formerly known as the Vlaamse Museumvereniging, VMV (Flemish Museums Association). This members’ organisation (individuals and institutions) is the local division of ICOM (International Council of Museums). It organises dialogue, working visits and workshops and defends the interests of the museum sector in Flanders.

msw.be
Musées et Société en Wallonie (MSW) (Museums and Society in Wallonia) is the umbrella organisation for museums in Wallonia and has over 150 members. It organises dialogue and training and defends the interests of the museums.

icom-wb
ICOM Belgique Wallonie/Bruxelles is the former “Association francophone des Musées de Belgique”, the Museums Association for the French-speaking Community in Belgium.

faronet.be
FARO is the Flemish interface centre for the tangible and intangible heritage sector. It organises activities such as workshops, symposia and training in developing expertise in the broad cultural sphere. Its activities also encompass audience research, for example.

cultuurnet.be
CultuurNet Vlaanderen is specialised in cultural marketing. Financed by Flanders, this organisation aims to “encourage (more) people to develop (more) interest in (more) culture”. Cultuurnet.be is a useful portal site with regard to cultural marketing in the broadest sense. It is also the organisation behind “Uit in Vlaanderen”; a cultural calendar that publishes information on events and activities in Flanders. The website also provides access to documents on audience research, numerical data, etc.

toerismevlaanderen.be
Since 2004 Toerisme Vlaanderen is the internal agency in charge for the touristic development in the Flanders Region. Its website of course promotes Flanders as a touristic destination, but besides that, the website also provides in a more technical entry, intended as a support the touristic actors in Flanders: be it the tourist accommodation industry, touristic attractions or Museums. As such, it gives a lot of information about the broad touristic sector ranging from funding opportunities, over specific legislation to statistics.

strategie.tourismewallonie.be
The "Direction de la Stratégie touristique", which is part of the Commissariat général au Tourisme (CGT) of the Walloon Region (read the Walloon tourism administration) created a website for specifically for the stakeholders in the tourism sector, providing all kind of information about the Walloon Tourist Industry. More specifically the website gives access to studies and analyses of the Observatoire du Tourisme Wallon, the Centre virtuel de documentation (CVD) and the Centre d'Ingénierie touristique de Wallonie (CITW)

icom.museum
ICOM (International Council of Museums) is an international museum association that supports the development of museums and museum staff. ICOM works worldwide to protect cultural heritage and functions as a global joint operating agreement among museum professionals. The ICOM site gives access to the leading museums throughout the world.

ne-mo.org
Network for European Museumorganisations (NEMO) ) is the European Union’s network for museum organisations. In other words, it is an umbrella organisation for museums in Europe. Its core tasks include dialogue, networking and lobbying for the sector at the EU level.

museumvereniging.nl
The Nederlandse Museumvereniging (NMV) (Netherlands Museums Association) defends the interests of the museum sector and acts as a representative organ for the museums in the Netherlands. In addition, the association is active in the field of promoting expertise by organising training activities, initiating studies, providing information and advice and issuing publications.

nationalmuseums.org.uk
The NMDC (the National Museum Directors’ Conference) is the association of the leading museum, library and archival institutions (the national institutions as well as the major regional institutions) in Great Britain (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland). It is a nongovernmental organisation and has been in existence since 1929. It functions chiefly as a platform and lobbying group.

museumsbund.de
The German “Museumbund” was founded in 1917 and forms the association of German museums and museum staff. They are responsible, for example, for the German “Museumskarte”, which grants access to over 700 large and small museums throughout the country. They also regularly publish a magazine.
Their website includes information on the structure of the federal museum system.

museumsassociation.org
The British Museums Association is a platform for knowledge and dialogue for museum professionals and museums. It is a nongovernmental organisation financed by more than 600 institutional and 5000 individual members. Its website includes a wide variety of useful and regularly updated case studies (for example on accessibility, labelling, etc.).

museums.ch
The AMS (Association des Musées Suisses) (Swiss Museums Association) is the umbrella organisation for Swiss museums. With 700 member museums, the organisation represents the majority of the Swiss museum sector. It is primarily active in defending the interests of the museums and as a platform for dialogue. They also mention, for example, a Swiss “museum pass”. The site provides an overview of Swiss museums, but does not offer further background information on numbers of visitors, for example.

Royal Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy

Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences

Royal Library of Belgium (KBR)

Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage

Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium

Royal Museums of Art and History

Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium

Royal Museum for Central Africa

Royal Observatory of Belgium

State Archives

uis.unesco.org
The Unesco Institute for statistics is a platform geared towards the collection and comparison of cultural and other statistics worldwide. This work is based on a global network of experts and policymakers. The database can be consulted online and in addition to the ready-to-use statistics, you can also create your own tables. The info that is made available is somewhat fragmentary, however. For example, there is a great deal of information on cinema attendance and the functioning of national libraries, but not on museums. It is nevertheless a useful source for general socio-demographic numerical data such as level of education, GDP, etc.

eurostat.ec.europa.eu
Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, not only has the traditional socio-demographic, economic and sustainability indicators but also interesting comparative figures related to the (broad) cultural sector. A pocket book of “Cultural Statistics” (published in 2007 and updated in 2011) contains useful figures on cultural participation, family spending on cultural products, the cultural offerings per country, etc.

toerismevlaanderen.be/cijfers-en-statistieken
Since 2004 Toerisme Vlaanderen is the internal agency in charge for the touristic development in the Flanders Region. Its website of course promotes Flanders as a touristic destination, but besides that, the website also provides in a more technical entry, intended as a support the touristic actors in Flanders: be it the tourist accommodation industry, touristic attractions or Museums. As such, it gives a lot of information about the broad touristic sector ranging from funding opportunities, over specific legislation to statistics. To be more specific, yearly figures about the number of overnight stays, the accommodation occupancy, the accommodation supply, the provenance of tourists, etc. but also the visitor numbers of Museums and Attractions can be found on their site. A yearly report with the key figures and indicators (per sector, region, etc.) is also available and can give valuable information. The Brussels Capital Region is however not included in these figures.

strategie.tourismewallonie.be
The Direction de la Stratégie touristique, which is part of the Commissariat général au Tourisme (CGT) of the Walloon Region (read the Walloon tourism administration) created a website for specifically for the stakeholders in the tourism sector, providing all kind of information about the Walloon Tourist Industry. More specifically the website gives access to studies and analyses of the Observatoire du Tourisme Wallon, who gathers and analyses statistical information about the Touristic markets (offer and demand) in Wallonia (touristic accommodation, attractions, tourist offices, etc.). The site makes it possible to create the stats and graphs you need, with the available data. Interesting is also the Centre virtuel de documentation (CVD) which collects all types of documents which are of interest for the tourist industry: studies, theses (in partnership with the Université Libre de Bruxelles), European reports, activity reports of the different partners and actors,…with a summary for all titles. Finally the site also gives access to the studies carried out by the Centre d'Ingénierie touristique de Wallonie (CITW), which provides more operational instruments to the sector: feasibility studies for concrete operational projects (accommodation, infrastructures, etc.), land development plans, toolboxes,… and a top 100 of key-references in the tourism sector.

opc.cfwb.be
“L'Observatoire des Politiques Culturelles” (OPC) (Observatory of Cultural Policies) is a government service of the “Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles” (Wallonia-Brussels-Federation, the French speaking Community of Belgium) responsible for gathering figures, data and indicators on the cultural sector. As a research department in the area of culture, the observatory also conducts studies and advises the relevant authorities. As such, the observatory is the central contact point for figures and studies on the museum sector in Wallonia and Brussels.

museumvereniging.nl
The Nederlandse Museumvereniging (NMV) (Netherlands Museums Association) defends the interests of the museum sector and acts as a representative organ for museums in the Netherlands. In addition, the association is active in the field of the development of expertise through organising training activities, initiating studies, providing information and advice and issuing publications. Of particular interest is the museum monitor that is compiled each year and gives an overview of the attendance figures and general trends in the museum sector in the Netherlands.

egmus.eu
EGMUS (European Group on Museum Statistics) has been collecting museum statistics since 2002 from the 27 EU-member states. They also work to compile a standardised museum monitor, named ALOMKI (Abridged List of Key Museum Indicators). The Visitors Observatory took part in the Belgian section in 2006.

smb.museum/ifm
The IFM (Institut für MuseumForschung) is the Federal research and documentation centre for German museums. In addition to this Berlin-based centre, there are also similar centres in the various states. The IFM’s responsibilities include the annual German museum monitor.

culturabase.html
The online database of the “Ministerio de Cultura” of the Spanish government provides an overview of the museums in Spain per region. The statistics are updated every two years. A more detailed overview is available on
http://www.mcu.es/estadisticas/MC/EM/index.html

insee.fr/fr/statistiques
Via the portal site of the French Statistical Institute, Insee (Institut national de statistique et d’études économiques) it is possible to consult figures related to the cultural sector in France in general and more specifically concerning numbers of visitors to cultural institutions and museums.

artscouncil.org.uk/advice-and-guidance/research-and-data
The Arts Council England falls under the British Ministry for culture, media and sport and is responsible for the subsidies for museums, arts centres and libraries. The Arts Council gathers statistics from the institutions and museums that are subsidised through its services. This data can be consulted on their site. In addition, the Arts Council also carries out research: audience research, economic audits, etc. These studies can be viewed and downloaded via the website.

museumstudies.si.edu
Site of the Smithsonian Institution with general information on museology (training, conferences, magazines, etc.)

opc.cfwb.be
“L'Observatoire des Politiques Culturelles” (OPC) (Observatory of Cultural Policies) is a government service of the “Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles” (Wallonia-Brussels-Federation, the French speaking Community of Belgium) which is responsible for collecting figures, data and indicators on the cultural sector. As a research department in the field of culture, the observatory also conducts or coordinates research as well as provides advice to the relevant authorities. As such, the observatory is the central contact point for figures and studies on the museum sector in Wallonia and Brussels.

museumvereniging.nl
The Nederlandse Museumvereniging (NMV) (Netherlands Museums Association) defends the interests of the museum sector and acts as a representative organ for museums in the Netherlands. In addition, the association is active in the field of developing expertise through the organisation of training activities, initiating studies, providing information and advice and issuing publications. Of particular interest is the museum monitor that is compiled annually and offers an overview of the numbers of visitors and general trends in the museum sector in the Netherlands.

OCIM.fr
“L’Office de Coopération et d’information Muséales” (Office for Museographic Cooperation) is the French resource centre for heritage, museums, and science and technology visitors’ centres. It has been in existence since 1985 and is financed by the French Ministry for Higher Education and Research. At the resource and expertise centre, it also offers specialised training and produces specialised publications. They have an extensive documentation centre that is freely available both online and offline.

artscouncil.org.uk
The Arts Council England falls under the British Ministry for culture, media and sport and is responsible for issuing subsidies to museums, arts centres and libraries. The Arts Council gathers statistics from the institutions and museums subsidised through its services. The data can be consulted via their website. In addition, the Arts Council also carries out research: audience research, economic audits, etc. These studies can be viewed and downloaded via the website.

smb.museum/ifm
The IFM (Institut für MuseumForschung) is the Federal research and documentation centre of the German museums. In addition to this Berlin-based centre, there are also similar centres in the various states. The IFM’s responsibilities include the annual German museum monitor.

museumstudies
The School of Museum Studies at the University of Leicester (UK) is one of the few universities in Europe to offer a specialised Master’s degree in Museum Studies. They also offer a postgraduate degree in “Learning and visitor studies in Museums and Galleries”. The research centre associated with the programme, the “Research Centre for Museums and Galleries”, generates many useful reports (downloadable free of charge) and literature.