Tag Archives: Capacity Building
HERITΛGE launches HerMaP Mexico with Mellon Foundation Grant
The Heritage Management Organization (HERITΛGE) is proud to announce the launch of HerMaP Mexico, a two-year intervention made possible through a $1 million grant from the Mellon Foundation’s Humanities in Place program. The project will support heritage management initiatives across six Mexican states that share a border with the United States — Baja California, Sonora, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas — and empower local communities to harness their cultural heritage as a source of identity, learning, and sustainable development.
Building on the success of HERITΛGE’s international programs, this new project represents a major milestone in the organization’s growing engagement in North America. It will bring together heritage professionals, community organizations, and cultural leaders from across the region to map heritage ecosystems, build capacity, and support community-led projects.
“We see HerMaP Mexico as a transformative initiative — both for the organization and for heritage professionals across Mexico’s border states,” said HERITΛGE’s Denise Navarro Becerra, HerMaP Mexico Project Manager. “With the Mellon Foundation’s generous support, we aim to connect and empower those heritage managers and stewards in one of the world’s most dynamic cultural regions.”
A Four-Pillar Approach to Strengthening Heritage
HerMaP Mexico’s activities are structured around four key pillars:
- Mapping: Identifying actors, capacities, infrastructure, and gaps in heritage management across the six states.
- Capacity Building: Delivering targeted heritage management training programs adapted to and inspired by the local contexts through in-person and online sessions.
- Networking: Organizing regional networking events to connect local, national, and international actors in heritage management.
- Re-granting: Distributing small grants to community-focused heritage projects.
These activities will engage a wide range of stakeholders and topics in cultural heritage management, highlighting the richness and diversity of the border region’s cultural heritage. The program will run until September 2027, combining in-person activities with digital learning resources available through HERITΛGE’s Training Platform.
HERITΛGE visit to The Gambia – Meeting with heritage sector beneficiaries and stakeholders & Executive Leadership Workshop
The Heritage Management Organization (HERITΛGE) completed an in-person visit to The Gambia for the HerMaP Gambia program on 17th – 24th August to build on and develop the program’s capacity mapping and building functions for the heritage sector.
The team, headed by Project Manager Mina Morou, held meetings with The Gambia’s Vice President, Badara Alieu Joof and key heritage beneficiaries and stakeholders as well as training sessions with local heritage managers.
“We are happy to be in The Gambia after the lifting of the pandemic restrictions to further implement the HerMap Gambia program which serves as a springboard to develop the capacity of the country’s heritage sector, empowering local communities to grow sustainably by building on their culture, history, and traditions,” said Morou.
Morou, along with expert educator and trainer of trainers (ToT) Iordanis Paschalidis, and ethnomusicologist Stella Paschalidou, delivered an executive leadership workshop on Capacity Development: Strategies and Best Practices, attended by 25 cultural managers from Barra, Wassu, Janjanbureh, Juffureh and Albreda, and Banjul and its greater area.
HERITΛGE is grateful to The Gambia’s National Centre for the Art and Culture (NCAC) and its General Director, Hassoum Ceesay, for introducing and hosting the workshop as well as supporting our mission throughout its visit.
About HerMaP Gambia: The program is aimed 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.
The worskshop was funded by the European Union with funding partly matched by the UN Economic Commission for Africa. The HerMaP Gambia in co-funded by the European Union.
