Tag Archives: community engagement
Unlocking the Power of Community Engagement: HERITΛGE Workshops Lead the Way
In a rapidly changing world, the role of community engagement has never been more critical for cultural heritage. HERITΛGE’s mission is to empower heritage managers with the skills and knowledge needed to make a difference through community engagement. Our recent three-day workshop equipped 16 heritage professionals from around the world with the tools to engage with their communities, bridge cultural differences, and preserve our shared heritage.
Community engagement is not just a buzzword; it’s the linchpin of heritage preservation. HERITΛGE recognizes that communities are not monolithic entities; they are diverse, dynamic, and rich with unique traditions, perspectives, and values. To truly honor these differences, a cookie-cutter approach won’t suffice. We believe in the power of community-led initiatives and social research to foster engagement that resonates with the specific cultural and social dynamics of each group.
Our recent workshop, held from 27 to 29 October 2023, brought together heritage managers from Africa, North America, Asia, and Europe. These dedicated professionals were not just participants; they were change-makers in the making. Through a combination of lectures, discussions, and hands-on exercises, they delved into the heart of community engagement, exploring methodologies grounded in ethnography and oral history.
Understanding Community Engagement as a Process
One of the key takeaways from the workshop was the profound understanding of community engagement as a dynamic process over time. Participants learned that this approach is not just a strategy but a fundamental aspect of heritage management.
Overcoming Key Challenges
Working with local communities can be challenging, and the workshop equipped our participants with essential knowledge about the primary obstacles they may encounter. With this understanding, they are better prepared to navigate these challenges effectively.
Creating Tailored Engagement Initiatives
The workshop’s focus on understanding the unique traits, requirements, and capacities of different communities was a game-changer. Participants left with the skills to develop engagement initiatives that are specific to each community’s distinct characteristics, needs, and capacities.
Distinguishing Between Communities and Audiences
One of the key lessons learned was the importance of distinguishing between communities and audiences. This insight is invaluable in designing engagement strategies that resonate with each group.
Introduction to Ethnographic Approaches
The workshop introduced participants to ethnographic methodologies, fostering the creation of collaborative research-driven community engagement initiatives. This hands-on experience allowed them to understand the communities they work with on a much deeper level.
Oral History Techniques
Oral history, a powerful tool for eliciting and documenting both tangible and intangible heritage, was another focal point of the workshop. Participants acquired knowledge about the methods and techniques used in oral history, making them proficient in preserving and sharing heritage through storytelling.
A Deeper Appreciation for Heritage
Throughout the workshop, participants gained a profound appreciation for the inherent values associated with heritage. They left with a renewed sense of purpose and a commitment to preserving our cultural and natural treasures.
What’s Next?
The journey doesn’t end with the workshop. A follow-up tutorial session is scheduled for 6 November, offering participants the opportunity to seek guidance, ask questions, and receive expert advice on enhancing their final assignments.
Meet the Instructors
The HERITΛGE workshops were led by a team of expert instructors:
- Dr. Evangelos Kyriakidis, the founding Director of HERITΛGE, brings a wealth of knowledge in Mycenaean administration, Minoan religion, and iconography.
- Dr. Aris Anagnostopoulos, manager of community engagement programs, specializes in the politics and poetics of the material aspects of the past in the present.
- Dr. Eleni Stefanou, manager of programs in Ghana, is an archaeologist and specialist in museum and heritage studies.
At HERITΛGE, as we look to the future, we are excited to see the impact these dedicated professionals will make in their respective regions and the global heritage community.
HERITΛGE also offers an annual summer school in community engagement. Find out more and apply here.
2023-2024 Training Calendar for Heritage Professionals
Introduction to Heritage Interpretation for Site Managers | 6 – 8 October 2023
Transform a visit into a captivating experience. Acquire the skills to create meaningful and unforgettable experiences for visitors, during this 3-day online workshop. Only accepting last-minute waiting list applications.
Project Management for Heritage Managers | 7 – 9 October (US only) & 9 – 10 December 2023
This intensive 3-day online workshop led by Tim Healing will show participants the way to run a successful project from inception through planning to implementation and closure. A special US pilot program is still accepting last-minute applications.
Engaging Communities in Cultural Heritage | 27 – 29 October 2023
During this 3-day workshop, we aim to develop a different approach to community engagement based on social (and art) research with community-led initiatives. By adopting a research-led approach, we can foster collaborative design and actions that truly resonate with the unique cultural and social dynamics of each specific group or community, as well as their interactions with others. We will explore methodologies grounded in ethnography and oral history, while also engaging in practical exercises to reinforce learning.
Interpretive Writing for Natural and Cultural Heritage | 10 – 12 November 2023
Written text that grabs and holds the visitor’s and reader’s attention is the key to effective word-based heritage interpretation. During this 3-day online workshop with Steven Richards-Price you will discover and practice a wide range of techniques to engage visitors and master the techniques of interpretive writing.
Climate Change, Community Engagement & Interpretation | 1-3 December 2023
Brand new, 3-day workshop on climate change, heritage interpretation, and community engagement that seeks to empower participants with the tools and skills necessary to engage local communities in climate action through the lens of heritage interpretation.
Temporary Exhibition Design: Agile Exhibitions in a rapidly changing environment | 2-4 February 2024
This up-to-date 3-day workshop focuses on how temporary exhibitions can enhance and promote an institution’s mission, create new audiences and generate revenue, from building an institutional strategy for exhibitions and partnership-building to planning and putting on temporary exhibitions for display at home and on tour. Attendees are encouraged to bring their own ideas and projects to the workshop and time is allocated for 1:1 consultation with the workshop facilitators.
Community and Economic Development | 16-18 February 2024
Cultural heritage managers increasingly have to both demonstrate and create economic benefits for local, regional, and national economies. This workshop will provide attendees with a firm understanding of the motivations for mobilizing cultural resources for economic benefit; the limits of that mobilization; different strategies for creating economic benefits; and how economic impacts are measured and communicated. The workshop will then guide attendees through the development of a plan for the creation of economic benefits for their own case studies, including the development of goals; selecting appropriate strategies; judging economic feasibility; and monitoring and evaluation procedures. As a result of the course attendees will be able to implement economic development strategies in their own community.
Communication Strategy & Strategic Marketing for Cultural Organizations | 8-10 March 2024
You have organized the best exhibition of the year or set up a ground-breaking educational program. You have worked hard with curators, conservators, educators, and everything is ready to rock, but now you wonder… how can I bring people in? How can I reach my audience, and what should I be telling them? This 3-day course is a focused learning experience that provides a systemic approach to successfully attract key audiences’ attention through traditional, new, and social media.
Fundraising for Cultural Heritage Organizations | 22 – 24 March 2024
This 3-day workshop provides a survey of fundraising strategies and skills needed to start-up and build an organization’s contributed revenue with the aim of increasing its impact in the world. Participants learn best practices and apply them to create the case for support and letter of inquiry for their own organization or project.
Conservation II: First Aid for Finds | 12-14 April 2024
The workshop will provide step-by-step instruction on the best practices in the care of freshly excavated archaeological and historic objects as well as in the care of objects belonging to collections that have just been damaged. It will also examine the case of providing first aid measures to architectural heritage. It will go through all the processes that are essential during preparation, application of treatments and monitoring.
Strategic Planning for Heritage Managers| 26 – 28 April 2024
Strategy is a key factor for success in all areas of human activity. This 3-day interactive course aims to provide the tools and methodologies to effectively address the topics of successful strategy formulation and implementation in organizations managing cultural heritage in today’s complex environment.
Conservation I: Introduction to the General Principles of Cultural Heritage Conservation | 24 – 26 May 2024
Following the success of your first Conservation workshop in 2023, we are again accepting applications for this 3-day interactive course that aims to teach the principles and objectives of conservation, and in so doing to introduce its methodology. The workshop will deliver the fundamentals, the ethics, the evolution, and the contemporary international context of conservation.
HERITΛGE provides scholarships to most participants in its training programmes. These scholarships can cover up to 90% of the cost of attendance, depending on the circumstances of the participants and the availability of funding. On average, participants contribute around 300 euros to attend one of our 3-day training workshops.
Empowering Ethiopia’s Heritage Sector: HERITΛGE’s First In-Country Workshop
Preserving cultural heritage goes beyond the institutional practices of protecting ancient structures; it involves engaging communities, understanding shared heritage values , and building a future that respects local perceptions of the past. It is with this in mind that HERITΛGE held its inaugural workshop in Ethiopia in July, training 22 key heritage managers in Community Engagement in Heritage Management.
HERITΛGE Director, Dr. Evangelos Kyriakidis, and Xanthippi Kontogianni, Ethiopia Programs Manager, held the 3-day intensive workshop in Addis Ababa, welcoming heritage professionals representing a diverse range of stakeholders within Ethiopia’s cultural and creative industries. Among the participants were representatives from a diverse range of stakeholders including Jinka University, Madda Walabu University, the Ministry of Tourism, the Ethiopian Heritage Authority, the National Library, and various civil society organizations among them the Waku Gutu Foundation, Heritage Watch, and Save Heritage, History and Culture of Ethiopia.
The workshop is part of HERITΛGE’s program for Ethiopia, supported by the Mellon Foundation’s Humanities in Place program.
Nurturing Capacity for Community Engagement
At the heart of our Communities Engagement workshop lays a commitment to building capacity within heritage management. In an ever-evolving world, local communities are keepers of key information for the understanding of heritage while accountability for protecting their own history and values is indispensable and crucial for sustainable heritage preservation. HERITΛGE has structured the workshop to address these needs comprehensively.
Throughout the workshop discussion facilitated by Dr. Kyriakidis, participants shared examples and case studies from the Ethiopian context and explored the issues affecting the the management of cultural assets in the country, highlighting among others the challenges, needs and opportunities facing heritage managers.
Workshop Outcomes:
- A Network of Collaborators: The workshop serves as a nexus for like-minded professionals to network, share experiences, and collectively envision a future where heritage management is a catalyst for positive change.
- Diverse Perspectives: With participants from universities, government bodies, regional offices, and civil society organizations, the workshop brought together diverse viewpoints, sparking enriching discussions and cross-pollination of ideas.
- Community-Centric Approach: HERITΛGE’s emphasis on community engagement resonated strongly, setting the tone for a future where heritage sites become integral to community development.
- Concrete Strategies:Participants departed the workshop armed with practical strategies to enhance community involvement, integrate local narratives, and develop sustainable heritage management plans.
Plan ahead, check out our upcoming training opportunities
HERITΛGE is happy to announce three upcoming training workshops for Heritage Professionals.
At HERITΛGE we train professionals in the management of heritage sites, independently of project specifics. We have trained more than 1000 individuals and organizations in over 77 countries and are now on course to impact a quarter of global heritage hotspots by 2025.
Our upcoming opportunities include:
Engaging Communities in Cultural Heritage – Online and In-Person
This course draws from our long experience with community engagement through heritage and will discuss several examples from our own and others’ work. At HERITΛGE aim to develop a distinct approach to community engagement, based on social (and art) research with community-led initiative.
Introduction to Heritage Interpretation for Site Managers – Online
Heritage Interpretation is a structured approach to non-formal learning, specialized in making visitors’ experience meaningful and unforgettable. In this 3-day course, participants will familiarize themselves with the principles of quality heritage interpretation and will practice how to use interpretation on their own sites.
Interpretive Writing for Natural and Cultural Heritage – Online
The key to effective word-based Heritage Interpretation is written text that grabs and holds the reader’s attention. During a 3-day online course, participants will discover and practice a wide range of techniques to engage visitors and master the techniques of interpretive writing.
*There is funding available through the Benefactor Scholarships of the Heritage Management Organizations. The scholarships are available for qualified candidates and cover a large part of the cost, excluding travel and hotel expenses for in-person training.
A new version of our archaeological ethnography and heritage summer school
By Dr. Aris Anagnostopoulos
It is almost a decade since we first had the idea to create a summer school for archaeological ethnography and heritage in the village of Gonies, in Crete. From the beginning, we had two basic ideas in our minds: one, that this would not be simply a school transferred into a remote place, but it would be a way to teach by doing research and by engaging with local populations. The other was that we had to find a way to involve locals as experts in their own heritage in the process. It was a very instructive experience for all of us, not only for its successes, but also because it made us think again about the way we work and the way we think about heritage, collaboration, and local communities in a more global way.
In this new version of our Engaging Communities in Cultural Heritage summer school, we have moved to an entirely different setting, the island of Paros, in close collaboration with a grassroots festival, the Paros Festival. Besides the change of location, the form of the summer school itself has changed towards a more hybrid form. Faced with the pandemic and lockdowns, we took the whole process online, but at the same time sought to keep a close link with the locality, even remotely.
We realized that remote work, especially with increased online presence of local places, may bring unexpected insights to the whole process of research and engagement. We already had evidence that the online presence of heritage projects increases their accountability and can serve as a research and engagement field of its own. At the same time, online work may bring together participants from a wide variety of backgrounds and contexts. This is important to the way we approach community engagement in heritage, as something that does not follow a blueprint or a set of ready-made techniques, but as an open-ended response to the needs and capacities of local places, groups, and stakeholders. At the same time, however, we have had to deal with the limitations of online work, especially structural inequalities in access and infrastructure. While we have found ways around this, such as the development of asynchronous modules that people can access in their own time, we are now geared towards creating hybrid forms for our workshops, that combine physical presence and online components, as a way to counter these inequalities.
Dr. Aris Anagnostopoulos is an Head of Community Engagment at HERITΛGE , Honorary Lecturer at University of Kent and Researcher for the Ottoman Heritages project .
Community Engagement Summer School page: https://heritagemanagement.org/training/summer-schools/engagingcommunities/
HERITΛGE in the news
The Heritage Management Organisation’s people, programs and partners have all been in the news. You can find some of the articles below.
Heritage Director, Evangelos Kyriakidis, told Euronews’ Jonny Walfisz that Britain must seize the opportunity for cultural diplomacy and give up its fears regarding the restitution of the Parthenon Sculptures to Greece and the British Museum needs to see past the legal arguments it has been presenting on the issue…
Read more on Euronews.com
Staying on the same topic, Dr. Kyriakidis told Euronews a few weeks later that European museums must do more than just return artefacts….
Read more on Euronews.com
Irene Onyancha of the United Nations, Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) speaking on behalf of Nita Deerpalsing during the “Community Engagement Workshop with Community Leaders on the Promotion and Protection of Heritage Resources” which was held in Nairobi, Kenya, told participants that ECA is partnering with stakeholders including the Africa Union Commission and HERITAGE, to implement its heritage management programme which aims to empower local communities and experts…
Read more on ModernGhana.com
Press in The Gambia and beyond reported on Heritage’s “Engaging Communities in Cultural Heritage” and “Heritage Interpretation for Site Managers” workshops. Cultural heritage managers in Banjul, Barra, Janjanbureh and beyond took part in the workshops which address the needs of the country’s heritage organizations and local groups as they themselves set them out in a survey conducted by the Heritage Management Organisation. The workshops are part of the HerMaP Gambia project, co-funded by the EU ….
Read more on AllAfrica.com, ThePoint.gm and ModernGhana.com
Naftemporiki, one of Greece’s oldest and best-known financial papers/websites, features Hertigage’s work in Africa, highlighting that this is the first time that the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) has collaborated with an organization to develop a cultural heritage program in the continent…
Read more on Naftemporiki.gr
Greek media reported on the upcoming conference on “Emerging Trends and Technologies (EMTech) in Cultural Organizations: Management Innovation and Network Collaboration” that HERITAGE is organizing at the American Farm School in Thessaloniki to mark the conclusion of the international TEACH FOR FUTURE project. The project was co-funded by the European Union’s Erasmus+ programme and took place in Bulgaria, Greece and Romania…