HERITΛGE’s three-day online workshop on “Interpretive writing for natural and cultural heritage” took place from 27 to 29 January 2023. It was delivered by Steven Richards-Price.

11 Heritage Managers from Africa (Ghana, Kenya, Rwanda), Asia (Turkey) and Europe (Greece, Serbia) were trained in writing effective heritage interpretive text that captures and holds the reader’s attention.

Over the three days of the workshop, participants engaged in a variety of individual and group activities, such as developing a strong theme for a piece of interpretive writing, turning a poorly written and poorly produced heritage graphic panel into a good example of interpretive writing and panel presentation, and editing and rewriting a complex interpretive graphic panel using the principles of interpretive writing and the importance of plain language. By participating in all the activities, attending the lectures, and using the techniques demonstrated by the workshop instructor, all our participants gained much knowledge and experience in using interpretive writing for their own projects.

Participants will have the opportunity to meet with their instructor again this week for a tutorial session where they can pose questions about how to improve their work and enhance their final assignment.

Steven Richards-Price is a heritage interpreter with many years of practical experience working for natural resources agencies in Wales, UK. In his part-time role with Natural Resources Wales as Visitor Experience Specialist Advisor, he connects people with state-owned forests and national nature reserves. He has been an Interpret Europe Supervisory Committee Member and Training Team member/Trainer, former  Chair of the UK Association for Heritage Interpretation (AHI) and Vice-Chair of Interpret Wales. He has been running this course for the past three years, with excellent feedback from participants.

We bid farewell to 2022 with our top 10 highlights of the year.

HERITΛGE launched a training program for Benin in cooperation with the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA). Our team visited the country to deliver an in-person workshop and liaise with the heritage community in October.

Learn more.

HERITΛGE announced its participation in a major new European Research and Innovation Action (RIA). SHIFT: MetamorphoSis of cultural Heritage Into augmented hypermedia assets For enhanced accessibiliTy and inclusion supports the adoption of digital transformation strategies and the uptake of tools within the creative and cultural industries (CCI), where progress has been lagging.

Learn more.

Three key members of the HERITΛGE team have recently published a new book based on their work in the field. Making Heritage Together: Archaeological Ethnography and Community Engagement with a Rural Community, by Routledge, is co-authored by Aris Anagnostopoulos, Lena Stefanou and Evangelos Kyriakidis and is the distillation of many years of community engagement and collaborative knowledge creation with a rural mountain community in central Crete, Greece.

Learn more.

All the years of community engagement research that have gone in the above publication also form the basis for HERITΛGE’s annual summer school in the Cretan village of Gonies.

Learn more about this year’s session.

A group of 17 World Monument Fund Professionals took part in a tailor-made 6-day online workshop on “Climate Change, Heritage and Risk”. The workshop was exclusively conducted for the World Monuments Fund professionals.

Learn more.

The three-day online workshop on “Project Management for Cultural Heritage Managers” took place from 9 to 11 December 2022.

12 cultural heritage managers from Asia (Lebanon, Nepal, Turkey), Europe (France, Greece) and Africa (Libya, Kenya, Namibia, Zimbabwe, South Africa) received training on the skills needed to become a well-organised project manager.

During all three days of the workshop the participants, through the lectures given by the workshop trainer Tim Healing and their active participation in individual and group exercises, were introduced to the process of managing a successful project from the beginning, the planning and implementation phases through to closure. Because each project is different and encounters unique problems, effective project managers must be thoughtful, flexible and communicative. As such, the training helped participants understand how to ensure that their project is completed on time, with the desired quality and within budget, with proper planning and tight control. Participants learned about the importance of planning and how to define the scope of their own project, how to use tools such as the work breakdown structure, critical path diagram and Gantt chart to ensure the success of the project.

HERITΛGE is happy to announce its new academic certificate, DIGITAL TOOLS FOR CULTURAL HERITAGE, in cooperation with Belgium’s HOGENT University. The certificate is a one-semester, part-time European Credit (ECTS) bearing program aimed at students as well as professionals. It integrates heritage management with geomatics and is delivered online to enable students from around the world to join. 

Upon completion of the course, participants are awarded 30 ECTS credits that correspond to 50% of the academic credits for a full year. The program held its first, pilot run this past autumn semester and is now accepting applications for the academic year 2023-2024 (starting October 2023). 

Digital Tools for Heritage Management is a specialized course on spatial data (GIS), laser scanning, 3D modeling, heritage management, and community management. 3 months of online, mainly asynchronous classes (and some live ones) are rounded off with fieldwork which is focused on the entire workflow from data acquisition to data publication.

HERITΛGE & HOGENT decided to offer this comprehensive program, to answer the needs of students and young professionals from a variety of heritage-related or adjacent disciplines e.g., architecture, land surveying, archaeology, heritage management, conservation, geography etc. 

The focus on state-of-the-art technological skills,  as well as on international collaboration, communication, and other future-proofing skills sets this Digital Tools Certificate apart and ensures its relevance to the current and future job markets. 

Find out more and apply here.    

58 heritage professionals trained, MOUs signed, meetings held with stakeholders 

Heritage Management Organization (HERITΛGE) Director, Dr. Evanghelos Kyriakidis, and HERITΛGE instructor Dr. Eleni Stefanou visited The Gambia on 24th November – 4th December to hold training workshops and meetings with stakeholders for the HerMaP Gambia program aimed at strengthening the country’s heritage sector.

58 heritage professionals were trained during in-person workshops on Community Engagement and Oral History. Oral History is a topic of specific interest to The Gambia’s heritage sector as the country is notably rich in cultural heritage conveyed orally from generation to generation.

Dr. Kyriakidis held a number of meetings with stakeholders, including General Assembly member, Omar Jammeh, National Centre for Arts and Culture Director General, Hassoum Ceesay, representatives of the Gambia Tourism Board, as well as representatives of the Youth Chamber of Commerce.

“The Gambia’s rich heritage is an incredible resource; at HERITΛGE we are very proud to be contributing to the country’s development by training local heritage managers, giving them the necessary tools to engage with and empower local communities,” said Kyriakidis.

Acknowledging the value of partnerships, HERITΛGE’s Director also signed MoUs with the Wassu Stone Circles Tour Guides Association and the Juffureh Albreda Youths Society, aimed at deepening and building upon HerMaP initiatives in The Gambia.

Finally, HERITΛGE had the opportunity to visit sites of cultural importance such as Kunta Kinteh Island, the Wassu Stone Circles, and the Geniere Cultural Museum among others, and to briefly attend the first day of the annual Niumi Fort Bullen Festival celebrating traditional arts and culture.

About HerMaP Gambia: The program is co-funded by the European Union and it aims at developing the business skills of heritage and cultural managers to enable them to establish and better support heritage and cultural enterprises. Supporting The Gambia’s heritage sector will promote community solidarity and provide high-quality employment opportunities for local talent.

This workshop is part of the HerMaP Gambia program with funding partly matched by the UN Economic Commission for Africa. It is being realized in partnership with the NCAC.

By Maria Kagkelidou, Press & Communication at HERITΛGE

A recent piece in The Guardian argued that coastal west Africa will shape the rest of the 21st century. It pointed out that in the next 80 years Africa will be home to 40% of the world’s population and that nowhere is this breakneck pace of development happening faster than the 600-mile stretch between Abidjan and Lagos.

The opportunities and challenges posed by these developments were visible during a recent HERITΛGE mission to Benin, one of the fast-developing countries along this coast, and a country that has placed its cultural and natural heritage at the forefront of its development efforts.

President Talon’s government, flanked by international organisations (the African Union, United Nations, European Union, the World Bank etc.), foreign agencies for international cooperation led by those of France, and investors, Benin is pursuing a national plan to upgrade its infrastructure and enhance its productive base called Bénin Révélé.

One of the main pillars of this ambitious program is developing the country’s culture and tourism sectors using the country’s rich natural and cultural heritage as a springboard. The former includes Benin’s sacred forests and Pendjari and W park, the “richest animal natural park in West Africa” according to government literature. This natural heritage is rounded off by mile-upon-mile of tropical coastline, which the government would like to see dotted with tourist developments and visitors from far-away lands.

Concerning cultural heritage, the recent creation of a striking landmark, the Amazon Statue erected in the busy port city of Cotonou, is one of the most visible and well-publicised efforts to build on Benin’s rich history and traditions. The statue, on Amazon Esplanade, honors the women-warriors of the Kingdom of Dahomey. Its revelation took place at the same time as the women-warriors were introduced to global audiences through the Hollywood movie First Woman.

The Kingdom of Dahomey with the World Heritage Site of its kings’ palaces in Abomey, the country’s painful heritage as a center for the slave trade visible in Ouidah, its rich Vodun religious heritage, and colonial remains such as its quaint capital, Porto Novo, are just some of the attractions Benin wants to reveal to the world in 2024, following a period of intense preparations.

Upbeat and frenetically paced, this effort appeared to our team to be enjoying great support among the Beninois, around two-thirds of whom are under 25 years old. But it is not without challenges.

The first one concerns cultural heritage itself. Amid the breakneck speed of development local archaeologists, conservation, and culture professionals are trying their best to ensure this heritage is not trampled over, for example by the ever-expanding and much-anticipated road construction projects. The second and more worrying challenge is the spillover of Africa’s worsening Islamist insurgency from neighboring countries into Benin’s north. Currently, the much-feted natural park in the north is out of bounds for tourists, with some foreign governments advising their nationals against all travel to the region. The threat is limited geographically and does not affect the country’s coastal regions but is concerning.

With renewed strategic efforts to engage the north’s border communities and a consistent focus on conserving and managing the country’s immense heritage amid the explosion of economic activity, transnational cooperation and possibly international assistance on security challenges, Benin’s hard work can deliver growth, quality employment and education opportunities, along with better living standards for its young, enthusiastic, and hard-working population.