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NEMO – Network of European Museum Organisations Deutscher Museumsbund e.V.  Taubenstr. 1  D-10117 Berlin  Germany Mr Tõnis Lukas Minister of Culture of the Republic of Estonia Berlin, 21 November 2019 Your support to NEMO’s European Museum Conference 7-10 November 2019 and future steps to internationalise the Estonian museum community Dear Minister Lukas, Once again we would like to thank you for supporting NEMO’s European Museum Conference from 7- 10 November in Tartu at the Estonian National Museum. Your presence at the conference reflected the importance of cultural heritage, and museums in particular, in Estonia and is a wonderful and forward looking example for European museum sector. With over 200 museum professionals from 38 countries participating, we are happy to say that this conference was very successful for Estonia, Europe and beyond European borders. Our initiative #museumsforfuture, creating a global museum community around the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, will continue the incentives and actions started in Tartu. We are proud to say that we have created a community of engaged museum professionals working towards a European museum sector engaging in global challenges with diverse and local recipes. Many Estonian museums have shared their recipes in this context and we hope that their visibility on European level will be continued and even enlarged in the future. NEMO’s most important partners in its work for the museums in Europe are the national museum organisations in Europe. NEMO contributes to developing their capacities and visibility, in order for them to reach their full potential engaging in societal challenges and as economic drivers. With our activities, we increase the access of national museum associations to an international market through joint cooperation projects and working opportunities. As umbrellas for the museums in their countries, national museums associations have the task to give the museums a voice, and to provide them with a platform to exchange, to learn from each other and NEMO – Network of European Museum Organisations German Museums Association  Taubenstr. 1  D-10117 Berlin  Germany www.ne-mo.org to connect to their colleagues internationally. To fulfill all their tasks, they need full support both on the national and European level, from ministries of culture and organisations such as NEMO. We have learned over the past years that we need the national museum umbrella organisations to be strong and resilient, to keep the knowledge, contacts and expertise of the sector aligned, to develop its impact and to act as sustainable reference points. In this context, NEMO is advocating for a sustainable and impactful support from the national level to the national museum organisations. With the NEMO European Museum Conference the Estonian Museums Association has made a big step towards the internationalization of the Estonian museum community, many new contacts have been made and new cross-border initiatives are being discussed. A first meeting of the national museums associations in the Baltic region has been successfully carried out. In order to continue the increased activities on European level and to help the Estonian museums benefit from them, while providing a platform for sectorial development, we would like to express our hope that you will be ready to commit to increasing your financial support to the Estonian Museums Association in the future, to allow for a permanent workforce and office, that will structurally engage for the museums and their staff in Estonia. The momentum created by this very successful conference should be maintained and developed, in order to ensure that your national museums association’s role in supporting exchange and cooperation at a European level is fully tapped to the benefit of the local museum community. We believe that with a continuous financial support of the national museum umbrellas, growth and prosperity of the sector across museums of all sizes, categories and backgrounds can be achieved for the sake of building a truly European professional museum sector. We remain with kind regards, David Vuillaume Chair On behalf of the NEMO executive board NEMO – Network of European Museum Organisations German Museums Association  Taubenstr. 1  D-10117 Berlin  Germany www.ne-mo.org