Tag Archives: Mellon Foundation
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.
HERITΛGE Community Engagement Workshop in Rwanda: Empowering Heritage Managers and Tourism Stakeholders
HERITΛGE is happy to announce the completion of its first in-person, 3-day training workshop in Rwanda, organised in partnership with the Rwanda Cultural Heritage Academy (RCHA) .
28 stakeholders took part in the Community Engagement for Heritage Management workshop on 29-31 May, led by HERITΛGE Director, Dr. Evangelos Kyriakidis. During the workshop, heritage managers and tourism stakeholders were given the tools and knowledge to enhance community involvement in preserving and promoting cultural heritage with a view to also enhancing sustainable tourism development.
“We would like to thank Dr Kyriakidis for sharing his incredible knowledge with us,” said Ambassador Robert Mazorera, RCHA’s Director General. “ It was an awakening course for us in relation to local community engagement in line with heritage management. ”
Dr. Kyriakidis noted that HERITΛGE’s first in-person workshop in the country is an important milestone for the organization. “It was great honour to visit Rwanda and to witness the very strong efforts being made across communities to preserve and strengthen local heritage,” Dr. Kyriakidis said. “HERITΛGE will continue to provide training and support heritage managers in working with RCHA to transform Rwanda’s heritage assets into dynamic sources of learning, community identity and sustainable economic development.
The workshop is part of HERITΛGE’s HerMap – Africa Program which has received funding from the Mellon Foundation’s Humanities in Place program.
CALL FOR APPLICATIONS: SMALL GRANTS FOR AFRICAN HERITAGE PROJECTS
The Heritage Management Organization (HERITΛGE) is launching a new call for concept notes for small grants ($5000-$50000) for organizations, groups, and individuals working with heritage in Africa.
The grants are part of our Heritage Management Project – Africa (HerMaP-Africa) which is funded by the Mellon Foundation’s Humanities in Place program. They will fund projects that focus on the protection of and/or promotion of local heritage for socio-economic development in the continent.
“We are looking to untap the potential of heritage in Africa, in order to make a difference for the development of local communities, “ said HERITΛGE Director, Dr. Evangelos Kyriakidis. “Heritage has the ability to empower and we are ready to partner with local organizations around the continent to this end.”
Applicants will have to demonstrate that their project addresses one or more of three criteria:
1) Sustainability – Our focus is on projects that will have a lasting impact, much beyond the duration of the project, for example protecting heritage sites from desertification by creating green belts, preserving/stabilizing/restoring and adaptively reusing a historic building for community needs, researching the public heritage landscape, installing solar panels at heritage sites to generate income or decrease expenditure in the long term, building eco-friendly tourism infrastructure, direct interventions that strengthen social institutions, like traditional methods of mediation, etc.
2) Capacity development and network building – We encourage projects that strengthen local skills and build closer links with peer organizations in the HERITΛGE network. Examples include on-the-job training in preventive conservation (e.g clearing or fencing sites), experience and expertise exchanges with other local NGOs on shared issues such as desertification or erosion of sites, co-operative training on museum exhibition design, etc.
3) Concrete and community impact – We encourage projects with strong, measurable incomes in terms of heritage protection and benefits to local people. Each project should provide clear indicators of the planned impact. These indicators will depend on the type of work carried out but some examples include increased visitation to a heritage site or program, financial benefits to the local community in terms of increased employment opportunities or local businesses created; tourism earnings; money savings by solar panel installation; the size of area protected from desertification, etc.
To apply for these grants please complete the concept note application form you will find here.
About HerMaP-Africa: Made possible by a $5 million grant from the Mellon Foundation’s Humanities in Place program, it aims to strengthen HERITΛGE’s Africa programs, fund initiatives that link heritage with socio-economic impact, develop the capacity of local organizations, and help them preserve African heritage and culture.
About The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation: The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation is the largest supporter of the arts and humanities in the United States. Since 1969, the Foundation has been guided by its core belief that the humanities and arts are essential to human understanding. The Foundation believes that the arts and humanities are where we express our complex humanity and that everyone deserves the beauty, transcendence, and freedom that can be found there. Through its grants, it seeks to build just communities enriched by meaning and empowered by critical thinking, where ideas and imagination can thrive. Learn more at mellon.org.
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