HERITΛGE was honoured to take active part in the Africa-Europe EU Week that was held in Brussels from 14 to 18 February 2022. Stakeholders from Africa and Europe will come together to strengthen the partnerships between the two continents through a series of policy events and cultural performances in the margins of the 6th African Union – European Union Summit to take place in Brussels.

HERITΛGE organised in collaboration with the African Union a session on heritage and socio-economic development. The session which featured a number of heritage professionals from a variety of sectors, was an effort to showcase the importance of heritage for socioeconomic development in the continent. The session was addressed by Vera Songwe, Undersecretary General for Africa and Executive Secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Africa, and Angela Martins, Head of division of Culture for the African Union Commission as well as HERITΛGE director Dr. Evangelos Kyriakidis.

You can learn more about the summit and watch the session video here.

The online 3-day workshop on “Introduction to Heritage Interpretation for Site Managers” took place from 21 to 23 January 2022.  

18 heritage managers from Africa (Rwanda, Kenya, The Gambia, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Ghana, and Egypt), Asia (Qatar) and Europe (Greece) have been trained on how to develop interpretive talks and walks in heritage sites or museums developing themes about tangible or intangible heritage phenomena, including values, contexts and universal concepts. 

 During the course, participants actively participated in discussions and various individual and group exercises. The exercises were designed to gradually build up their own interpretive project on cultural heritage in their preferred sites.  

The workshop has been conducted by Valya Stergioti, is a freelance interpretive trainer and planner. She has more than 20 years of experience on organizing and implementing interpretive workshops about heritage for adults and children. She is Interpret Europe’s Training Coordinator, works in collaboration with different NGOs and other institutions all over Greece and has more than 10 years’ experience in adult training.

Community engagement is a key element of good interpretation. Dr Olga Karagianni, manager of the Andros Research Center and coordinator for the Andros Routes Initiative, has delivered a keynote speech and shared her experience in motivating the local community of Andros and interpreting local cultural heritage.

The online 3-day workshop on “Project Management for Heritage Managers” took place from 3 to 5 December 2021. 

32 cultural heritage managers from Ethiopia have been trained in how to manage a successful project, from inception, planning and implementation to closure. This workshop has been supported by the UN Economic Commission for Africa and the Heritage Management Organization.

During the three-day workshop, participants took part in individual and group activities. Heritage managers learned the qualities of a good project manager, how to achieve on-time, quality and on-budget completion of a project, with proper planning and strict control. In addition, participants became familiar with the use of tools such as the work breakdown structure, critical path diagram and Gantt chart. At the end of their training, participants successfully acquired the necessary knowledge on how to successfully manage a project. 

The workshop was conducted by Tim Healing, who has over thirty years’ experience working as a project manager and has a professional background in project management, community and NGO development. He specializes in the coordination and support of cultural heritage and community based social action projects in the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asian regions. 

 

The online 3-day workshop on “ Engaging Communities” took place from 5 to 7 November 2021. 

22 heritage managers from Africa (Ethiopia, Ghana, Gambia, Egypt, Tanzania, Rwanda, Kenya, Morocco and Namibia) have received training on how to engage communities through heritage and for the benefit of heritage. This workshop have been supported by the UN Economic Commission for Africa, the African Union and the Heritage Management Organization as part of the “AU Year of Arts Culture and Heritage”.

During the course, participants familiarized themselves with the context of community engagement through heritage, discussed methodologies based on ethnography and oral history, and engaged in practical, both individual and group, exercises. By using the techniques demonstrated by the workshop’s instructors and getting involved with all exercises, participants can now understand better the communities that they might work with, and have acquired the knowledge on how to successfully engage communities.

The course’s instructors:

Dr Evangelos Kyriakidis: is the founding Director of the Heritage Management Organization. He has research interests in Mycenaean administration, Minoan religion and iconography as well as in ritual theory, history of archaeological thought and archaeological site management and planning. 

Dr Aris Anagnostopoulos: is the Public Director of the Heritage Management Organization. His research interests focus on the politics and poetics of the material aspects of the past in the present.

Dr Lena Stefanou: is an archaeologist and specializes in museum and heritage studies. She works at the Hellenic Open University and is also the Public Officer of the Heritage Management Organization. Her research interests are the ideological uses of the past in the present.

 

The online 3-day workshop on “ Interpretive Writing for Natural and Cultural Heritage” took place from 22 to 24 October 2021.

9 heritage managers from Africa (South Africa, Rwanda and Egypt), Asia (Turkey, India) and Europe (Greece) have been trained on writing an effective word-based Heritage Interpretation text that grabs and holds the reader’s attention. 

During the course the participants took part in many activities, such as preparing an original interpretive text and writing a graphic panel, visiting a cultural site to see how it is interpreted, creating a new graphic panel for it and writing a creative interpretive text for the selected heritage element based on Elefsina. Using the techniques demonstrated by the workshop instructor and by participating in all the individual and group activities, participants can now successfully engage in interpretive writing about natural and cultural heritage.

The course’s instructor, 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.

The Heritage Management Organization joins forces with the Economic Commission for Africa and the African Union to promote capacity building in Heritage Management Institutions across Africa

We are honored to announce that the Heritage Management Organization, the Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), and the African Union (AU) are partnering in celebration of the African Union Year of Arts, Culture, and Heritage (2021). 

Aiming to build capacity in Heritage Management Institutions around Africa, we are launching a comprehensive scholarships program, which acknowledges the significance of heritage in the African continent as a lever for education, local pride, and sustainable economic development. 

This is the first time that the UN Economic Commission for Africa partners with another institution to launch a cultural heritage program in Africa . In this first- ever partnership our role is to deliver capacity-building programs (mapping capacity, organizing workshops, and giving out scholarships) to Ethiopia, Benin, and The Gambia and to offer consultancy services in all 5 projects that the UN ECA is running in Africa.

In the context of the program, the Heritage Management Organization is offering 30 scholarships, for Heritage Management Capacity Building to train heritage experts, working for African heritage organizations. The scholarships will be granted for the period 2021-2022 as follows: 

• Interpretive Writing for Natural and Cultural heritage, 22-24 October 2021
• Engaging Communities in Cultural Heritage 5-7 November 2021
• Project Management for Heritage Managers, 3-5 December 2021
• Introduction to Heritage Interpretation for Site Managers, 21-23 January 2022
• Successful Fundraising for Heritage Managers: Strategies and Best Practices, 11-13 March 2022
• Communication Strategy and Strategic Marketing for Cultural Organizations, April 2022
• Strategic Planning for Heritage Managers, 13-15 May 2022
• Digital Tools for Cultural Heritage Management Summer School, 16 May-10 June 2022
• Travelling Exhibitions, June 2022
• Engaging Communities in Cultural Heritage Summer School Programme, 19 June-1 July 2022

We are delighted to have been given the opportunity to collaborate both with the Economic Commission for Africa and the African Union in heritage-related management programs highlighting our conviction that heritage management can be a significant stepping stone towards creating jobs, supporting sustainable development as well as strengthening democracy. Heritage is a major tool for Socio Economic development.