Jānis Garjāns

Janis Garjans is Head of the Division of Museums and Visual Arts in the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Latvia. From 1998 until 2009 he was Chief of the Latvian State Authority on Museums, and since 2000 he has been a lecturer in the theory and history of museology at the Latvian Academy of Culture.

Janis has worked in the museum system since 1976, including a position as a scientific specialist and curator at the Andrejs Upits Memorial Museum. In the early 1990s, he became involved in the public activities of Latvian museum employees, and from 1993 until 1998 he chaired the Latvian Association of Museums. He has been a member of ICOM since 1994, and was involved in the elaboration of the legislation for the Latvian museum sector. He has published scientific research articles on the history of Latvian literature and museology in Latvian, English and Russian.

Janis is a graduate of the Faculty of Philology of the University of Latvia and holds a doctorate in Philology (Dr.philol). He has pursued his education in the field of museum studies in the Czech Republic, Canada and the Netherlands.