Submitted by Leslie Cade on
International Archives week was inaugurated by the International Council on Archives (ICA) as International Archives Day, June 9, 2004. This year’s theme is Archives Empowering Knowledge Societies, a UNESCO initiative. This global goal is to increase access to, and preservation and sharing of information. Knowledge societies are built on four pillars: freedom of expression, universal access to information and knowledge, respect for cultural and linguistic diversity, and quality education. The museum archives contributes to this initiative in the work we do on a daily basis by providing open access to our collections, digitizing materials of high importance to our users and the larger community, assisting researchers in their quest for knowledge and understanding of the arts, and serving as the institutional memory of the Cleveland Museum of Art. We are also celebrating archives accessibility by adding CMA to the global map of archives and records institutions sponsored by the ICA. #IAW2020
