Cooperation is one of the Museu Marítim de Barcelona’s key strategic lines, enabling it to share projects with other organisations. The aim is always to find partnerships and optimise resources to better safeguard, study and disseminate maritime heritage and culture.
The museum is a leader or active member in various local and international networks and partnerships based on collective work and combined knowledge and efforts to promote maritime culture around the world.
International Congress of Maritime Museums
The International Congress of Maritime Museums (ICMM) is the world’s leading association of museums, associations and professionals working to preserve maritime heritage. The association fosters international relations, co-operation among its members and mutual respect and understanding with each other. The ICMM was founded in 1972 and represents the collective of maritime museums of the world as an affiliated organisation of the International Council of Museums (ICOM).
The ICMM organises congresses biennially (the last held in 2024) and maintains permanent working groups, which creates a stable network of museums and professionals. The association facilitates contact and exchange, and provides professional support for museums. It is the world’s most important international forum for maritime museums.
From 20 September 2024, the Museu Marítim de Barcelona will become a member of the permanent Executive Committee. Moreover, it actively participates in some of the association’s projects.
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Association of Maritime Museums of the Mediterranean (AMMM)
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The Museu Marítim de Barcelona launched the Associació de Museus Marítims de la Mediterrània [Association of Maritime Museums of the Mediterranean] (AMMM) in 1998, which has its own legal identity. The AMMM unites maritime museums, institutions and organisations that manage maritime cultural heritage that operate in the Mediterranean basin.
Based at the Museu Marítim, the association is organised on an assembly basis and its actions are guided by the principles of social responsibility, equality, solidarity, cooperation, mobility and participation.
The AMMM holds annual maritime heritage forums hosted in different countries by the museums that make up the association, with a view to exchanging and debating on the progress of the management and safeguarding of cultural heritage in the Mediterranean.
The AMMM cooperates with other museums to:
Ensure that maritime history and culture are preserved and interpreted according to professional quality standards.
Improve professional standards and promote research on maritime and historic heritage.
Work to safeguard tangible and intangible maritime heritage.
Promote cooperation between institutions on research, publications, exhibitions, conservation and social awareness.
Promote legislation that encourages the safeguarding of this heritage.
Promote the dissemination of member museums and their actions, programmes and activities concerning the safeguarding of maritime heritage and culture.
The AMMM also works to pursue the objectives of the International Congress of Maritime Museums, of the International Council of Museums, specifically the regional museums section of which it is a member and UNESCO.
Museums Community and Centres of Maritime Cultural Heritage of Spain
The foundations of what was to become the Association of Museums and Centres of Maritime Cultural Heritage of Spain] were laid in 2008. This initiative responded to the need to consolidate the largest possible number of institutions that disseminate and safeguard maritime cultural heritage in Spain.
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La Mar de Museus. Network of Catalan-speaking Maritime Museums
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La Mar de Museus. Network of Maritime Museums of Catalan-speaking Territories comprises sixteen museums and organisations which operate in the field of maritime heritage and culture management in the different Catalan-speaking coastal territories.
Since La Mar de Museus was established in 1998, its member museums have been interpreting and disseminating different aspects of the maritime world through their research activity, collections, exhibitions and related activities.
After so many years of collaborative work driven by the Museu Marítim de Barcelona, these museums and heritage organisations have become a reference point for all maritime matters. All of the museums leave their mark in their respective coastal communities by sharing information about the past, present and future of a maritime legacy so close to home.
La Mar de Museus highlights fascinating aspects of maritime culture and heritage that are bursting with richness and diversity. Each of the member museums are underpinned by a shared goal: to safeguard and highlight our maritime heritage.
What do we do?
We establish synergies between different museums in order to better disseminate our maritime heritage throughout the Catalan-speaking coastal territories.
We help to improve the management of maritime collections.
We promote training activities to elevate the skills of museum professionals.
We create dissemination elements that inform the local community of the unique heritage of each museum.
We develop activities that make it possible for museums and maritime professionals to share experiences and establish relationships characterised by constant dialogue.
European Maritime Heritage
The European Maritime Heritage (EMH) is an association that brings together managers from various European Union countries who are committed to the preservation of floating maritime heritage, whether vessels are operational or not. Members of the association are individual owners, maritime museums and other entities interested in this sector.
The association’s main interest lies in active historical and traditional boats, namely those that sail. The EMH’s actions are always related to the activation of studies that help to solve the general problems suffered by historic vessels all over Europe and concentrates its efforts on influencing the legislative directives set by the European Union.
The Museu Marítim de Barcelona is a reference museum for the EMH regarding historic floating vessels in Spain and the Mediterranean.
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International Council of Museums (ICOM)
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The International Council of Museums advocates for the conservation and dissemination of museums and represents them before the institutions that manage them both nationally and internationally. It analyses and disseminates the principles, techniques and policies for the safeguarding, conservation, protection and enhancement of museums.
ICOM cooperates with UNESCO, ICONMOS and ICCROM and other international institutions to defend the same interests. It also encourages international and national recommendations to be adopted based on the conclusions of national working groups. The Museu Marítim de Barcelona is a member of it.
