Association of European Printing Museums
Minutes of the Annual general meeting 2025
The annual general meeting took place on the 6 September 2025 at Winterbourne House and Garden, University of Birmingham, UK
Members present
Board members: Charlotte Biszewski (president, TYPA, Estonia), Robert Clerebaut (Belgique), Patrick Goossens (treasurer, Belgium), Indra Kupferschmid (vice president, HBKsaar, Germany), Alan Marshall (webmaster, France), Lise Morisseau (secretary, Atelier-Musée de l’Imprimerie, France).
Excused board members: Joseph Belletante (Musée de l’Imprimerie et de la communication graphique, Lyon, France), Marie Manuel de Condinguy (Imprimerie nationale, France), Nadine Rousseau (Les mille univers, Bourges, France).
Individual and organizational members: Museum Plantin-Moretus, Belgium (Joost Depuydt) – Print Art Contemporary, Hong Kong (Loraine Wong) – Cho Yiu Cynthia NG, independent -TF Weslzau, The netherlands (Ronald Steur) – Deutsches Museum, Germany (Sonja Neumann) – Gutenberg Museum, Germany (Sarah Zabel) – Printing and Playing Cards Museum, Gravenmacher, Luxemburg (Monika Jakobs) – National Print Museum, Dublin, Ireland (Mary Plumkett) – Pavillon Press, Weimer, Germany (Katerina Grushka) – Associatie Moara de Hartie, Comana, Romania (Ion, Dana, Elena Georgescu) – Association pour le patrimoine industriel, Suisse (Loïc Ingold) – Association Typo de la Cité, Lausanne, Suisse (Nicolas Regamay) – Typa Art Center, Tartu, Estonia (Pawel Schultz, Danila Rygowsky) – Museum fur Drukkunst, Leipzig, Germany (Heike Schnotale) – Central Saint Martins, College of Art and Design, Londres, UK (Catherine Dixon) – The Alembic Press, Oxford, UK (Claire and David Bolton) – Industriemuseum, Belgium (Marie Kympers, Armina Ghazaryan) – Cambridge University Library, UK (Mark Box) – Museum of Science and Technology, Belgrade, Serbia (Ada Vlajic, Boba Sibalic) – IDDS Norsk Grafisk Museum/Bergers Tekniske Museum, Norway (Imi Maufe, Lene Amalie Aadahl, Atle Boe Reinertsen) – Pressemuseet Fjeld-Lioms Venner/Foreningen Verkstedet, Norway (Marit Brandsnes) – Achilles Tzallas, Greece – Penrith Museum of Printing, Australia (James Cryer) – Gramus and Grafiska Moseets Vanner, Sweden (Franz Hennies, Mats Larsson) – Norwich Printing Museum, UK (Paul Nash) – Kunstprenteverket, Norvège (Knut Ketil Oftedahl)
Non-members (non-voting): UPOPAEPOP, University of Hradec Kralové, Czech Republic (Jakub Horsky) – University of Porto, Portugal (Graciela Machado) – Science Museum, Londres, UK (Sallie Morris) –
1. Attendance sheet
Unanimously approved.
2. Approval of the minutes of the 2024 AGM
The minutes of the Annual general meeting 2024 were approved unanimously.
3. Chair’s report to the AGM
Charlotte Biszewski, chair of the AEPM shared first her satisfaction at seeing so many different people gathered at this event, presented the Association’s past and future projects, and discussed evolutions within the board.
“It is great to see you all here today. I believe this conference so far has shown the somewhat negative story of museums and organizations discussing the same challenges—a lack of resources, threat of closure and more. There are many positive messages, actions and self driven activities coming through. So I thank you all for this.
In 2024 our previous chair Stefan Soltek decided to step down from his role, for other time commitments. He still remains on the board and unfortunately could not make it today. However, I took up the role of chair and my colleague Indra Kupferschmid as vice-chair and Lise Morisseau had already taken up the role of secretary. We hope that we can serve the members well and continue the work of many chairs and board members prior to us.
This year, the AEPM has worked on agreeing with a new web designer on updating our website. I think this will be discussed more in depth later on in the meeting, but I hope it will provide our members and the wider community with a strong and more accessible and better organised resource and facilitate opportunities for exchange.
I am quite new to the AEPM, only joining the conferences 3 years ago, however, it has been reported over these last few days that the conference this year has included a much broader spectrum of presenters and participants. A much younger and possibly female representation. If this is the case, I think we are making great steps in the right direction. The preservation of print and its related heritage needs people working on all levels, from all different standpoints. I hope these are the steps we can take moving forward.
If we can unite under one theme, with acceptance and kindness, welcoming in the newcomers and not shun or perturb someone for using incorrect terminology or hold the keys and secrets of print guardedly. We need to accept that for many of us, myself included, this is a learning path, which we are all still on, and need to help each other down it. I think there is a huge potential and I see a great future.”
The Chair’s report to the AGM was unanimously approved.
4. Statutory auditor’s report
Patrick Goossens, treasurer of the AEPM, presents the main elements of the statutory auditor’s report that was sent to the members with the convocation of the annual general meeting.
Report of the statutory auditor’s to the general assembly of the AEPM and the annual audited accounts for the financial year 2024 was sent out to all members with the invitation to the meeting.
To resume its main points :
– account balance: 12.753,05 €
– excedent of 500,41 € for 2024, good for a non-profit association! (Last year’s excedent was 1,884.24 € , the difference being explained principally by the payment of work on the website which had been carried out since 2021 but which had only been invoiced (2,837,39 €) in 2024.
– revenu from membership fees remains stable.
The auditor’s conclusion : the balance sheet offers a true and fair view of the Association’s assets, liabilities, financial position and profit and loss.
The statutory auditor’s report was unanimously approved.
5. Approval of 2024 financial statements
Patrick Goossens reviews the financial activity for the year 2024 and the good financial statement of the AEPM association. The 2024 financial year closed with a net surplus of 5712,89 €, which will be carried forward to the following year. The main expenses of 2024 were the conference in Tartu 2.500 + 3750, WEBSITE (a late invoice for 2021), 2.837,39 the accountants fee, 547,72, NOTAIRE for the publication of the status 544,50. Postal costs 1204,50; Website domain 222,86
Income were membership fees 6.595€ and conference 3980 (Tartu) fees. As far as income is concerned, we hope to maintain membership fees at the 2024 level which was about 1,400 higher than 2023, and encourage members to keep their subscriptions up to date.
Current state of bank and Paypal accounts as of today:
Bank ING 11,807,50 €
Paypal 2,980,59 €
Assets 14,788,09 €
The 2024 accounts having been explained by Patrick Goossens, AEPM Treasurer, they were unanimously approved.
6. Determination of membership fees for 2024
There are currently two membership fees: 50€ for a regular member. The regular membership fee didn’t change for the past twenty years, but the costs are increasing, such as the accountant office, website management etc… As a result, the question of increasing membership fees arises.
However, it was emphasized that AEPM’s policy is to remain open to all, even small structures with modest budgets, as the diversity of its members is one of the association’s strengths. Therefore, we decided to maintain the membership fee as it is today.
7. Discharge of the auditor
This point was approved unanimously.
8. Renewal of the statutory auditor’s term of office
This point was approved unanimously.
9. Discharge of the members of the Managing Board for their terms of office in the previous year
This point was approved unanimously.
10. Renewal of the association’s managing board
The statutory renewal of the board will be in 2026. Looking ahead to next year, if any members are interested in becoming members of the board, you are welcome to join! We do not yet know if all current members will stand for re-election, but in any case, it is good to have new people, ideas, etc. Alan mentioned the development of a new website and possible needs in terms of content management. And besides, members can get involved even if they are not members of the committee.
This point was approved unanimously.
11. Budget 2026
The budget 2026 was approved unanimously.
12. Perspectives for 2025
Alan explained the project of a new website, as certain aspects of the current design are unable to cope with today’s content. The idea is to keep the design, but to improve the navigation and home page. The main website features will be maintained, such as the museum finder, the minutes of the conferences, the news session… The aim is also to find a means of largely automating membership fees, invoices, receipts, etc. Also to simplify the management and user experience with multilingual content..
The project will be a major expense for the Association, but it also has to be said the the website has been very low maintenance—and low cost—in recent years and the revamp update will not stretch the budget unduly. The website is an important way to give visibility to the printing museums’ actions and draw attention to the importance of this heritage.
13. Next AGM 2026 and conference venue
The next conference will be held at the Plantin-Moretus Museum in Antwerp. Due to their renovation project taking longer than expected, the date has been pushed back to December, probably the second week.
Therefore, the Annual General Meeting will need to be organized separately from the conference, in the first half of the year, as required by the Belgian administration. The Association will therefore organise an online meeting in the Spring, probably at the end of April in the late afternoon. This could also serve as an opportunity for museums to share their projects before meeting each other at the end of the year.
The schedule of the upcoming conference venues is as follows :
- Decembre 2026, Musée Plantin-Moretus (Antwerp)
- 2027, UPOPAEPOP Workshop, University of Hradec Králové (Czech Republic)
- 2028, probably September, Les Mille Univers, Bourges
- 2029, Comana Paper Mill (Romania) ? The new museum in Norway on an abandoned hospital ?
It is important to remember that board members will be happy to answer any questions regarding the organisation of the next annual conference.
14. Any other business
We first discussed the importance of storing members databases, and hosting them on the website, like the World Hand Press Database, which is recognized as very useful for the members. Then, a members asked if the new AEPM website would be protected from AI providers. Alan Marshall responded that the back office is secure, and it was also pointed out that such databases are public, as their main purpose is to raise awareness of printing heritage.
Another member asked if the articles of the latest talks would be published on the website. Patrick replied that the ‘compte-rendu’ of the last conferences are available online, and are frequently consulted. Also, speakers at this event are encouraged to send us their conference papers to be posted on the website. In 2022, the AEPM published a retrospective of the previous talks and it is not impossible that there may be another publication in the future.
There being no other business, the meeting adjourned at 10:19 a.m.
Lise Morisseau
AEPM secretary