This year’s annual meeting and conference of DEMHIST will take place between 2-4 September 2004, in Berlin, Germany.

The Conference will focus on the urban house museum and its social environment as well as the historic house park in suburban settings. Other relevant topics include security issues, conservation strategies as regards public events and the public function of historic house museums. All curators, directors, museums professionals and those with an interest in the preservation and interpretation of historic house museums are invited to attend.

DEMHIST is one of the 29 International ICOM-Committees, devoted to specific museum-related disciplines (such as conservation, eduation, documentation). Founded in the late 1990s it is the International Committee for Historic Houses Museums. The name DEMHIST is derived from the French name for the committee: Demeures historiques – musées. Although of comparatively recent origin the membership continues to grow steadily, and already benefits from a remarkably wide geographical spread of members around the globe.The current Board of DEMHIST benefits from this international perspective with membership coming from Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Great Britain, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland and the USA. The Chair is Rosanna Pavoni (Italy) (chair@demhist.icom.museum) and the Secretary / Treasurer is Hugh Maguire (Ireland) (secretarytreasurer@demhist.icom.museum)

DEMHIST has been proactive in hosting a range of conferences addressing themes of concern to historic house museums internationally. Conferences have already been hosted in Genoa (2000), Barcelona (2001), Amsterdam (2002), Lenzburg and Switzerland (2003).

For more information, programme and registration form, please contact s.hoiman@spsg.de.