UNESCO

Every year on 18 April, ICOMOS celebrates the International Day for Monuments and Sites. The 2018 theme is ”Heritage for Generations”. But Sarah May and I are asking: how does the cultural heritage sector know which monuments and sites we preserve will benefit our grandchildren and which could harm them? Can loss of heritage provide benefits too?

CH presents a lecture on “What does UNESCO World Heritage tell future generations?” to our students at Linnaeus University in the course “Cultural Heritage and Communication” (23 Jan 2018)

CH runs a half-day workshop on heritage futures for the “Unique historical Kalmar and Öland” regional development project group, Linnaeus University, Kalmar (1 Feb 2018)

CH presents a paper on “What’s the Plot? Preservation, Patina and Pastness”, Clean Enough? Workshop, University of Gothenburg (6 Feb 2018)

CH discussed the work of the Chair with Mats Djurberg, General Secretary of the Swedish UNESCO commission. He also attends a meeting for members in ICOMOS International Committees followed by a seminar on cultural tourism, organised by ICOMOS Sweden in Stockholm (14 Feb 2018)

CH holds a seminar on “Beyond Romantic Nationalism – A New Paradigm for Heritage?” at the Center for Archaeology, Columbia University, New York, USA (23 Feb 2018)

CH presents a public lecture on “Vad gör jag som UNESCO professor?” for students on Linnaeus University’s Campus Kalmar (28 Feb 18)

CH lectures on “Heritage Futures and the Future of Heritage in Europe” as the second in a series of lectures organized by the Flemish support center for cultural heritage FARO and the Flemish heritage network Herita under the theme of TEIM: Thank Europe it’s Monday and linked to the 2018 European Year of Cultural Heritage. Palace on the Meir, Antwerp, Belgium (5 March 2018).

“Vårt kulturarv – där historien möter framtiden”. Så lyder mottot för EU-kommissionens Europaår för kulturarv 2018. Men faktum är att kulturarvsexperter sällan funderar över framtiden…. (interview med Cornelius Holtorf på P1 Kulturnytt, 2’45 min lång) Mer här: http://sverigesradio.se/sida/artikel.aspx?programid=478&artikel=6905360

2018 is the European Year of Cultural Heritage. This “unprecedented year of events and celebrations” was put under the motto “Our Heritage: Where The Past Meets The Future”. But the heritage sector is rather badly prepared for the future and its challenges. Read more here...

As of today the following researchers at Linnaeus University are affiliated to the Chair:

• Professor Anders Högberg
• Dr Claudio Pescatore
• Ulrika Söderström, PhD student
• and Dr Sarah May (University College London)

CH takes part and gives a talk on “Destruction and Reconstruction of Cultural Heritage as Future-Making” at the technical meeting on the future of the Bamiyan buddha statues organised by UNESCO Afghanistan in Tokyo, Japan, (27-29 September 2017)

CH participates in a regional meeting on culture with a talk on “The role of cultural heritage in societal development towards the future” at Kalmar County Council, (13 October 2017)

CH presents a lecture on “Heritage Futures and the Future of Heritage” at the annual meeting “The Future of Heritage” on the occasion of the 80^th Anniversary Conference of Instituto do Patrimônio Histórico e Artístico Nacional (IPHAN) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (26-27 Oct 2017)

CH on field visit with Sarah May to COVRA Intermediate Nuclear Waste Storage facilities near Vlissingen, Netherlands, making enquiries about their approach involving art and cultural heritage (1 Nov 2017)

CH participates with Sarah May in a workshop on “Heritage Futures” with a joint presentation entitled “Heritage Futures, Nuclear Futures” at the University of Amsterdam, Netherlands (2 Nov 2017)

CH gives a conference presentation on “Remembering loss: some thoughts about sustainability and resilience in heritage” at the Contemporary and Historical Archaeology in Theory Conference (CHAT) conference, Amsterdam, Netherlands (3 Nov 2017)

CH takes part in a regional dialogue about national cultural policy on behalf of Folk och Kultur, Kalmar (6-7 Nov 2017)

CH participates in a knowledge exchange workshop run by Sarah May on “Water Futures: Deep Futures” as part of the Heritage Futures project in Lake District, UK (14-15 Nov 2017)

CH attends the Second Coordination Meeting of Category 2 Institutes and Centres under the auspices of UNESCO and UNITWIN NETWORKS/UNESCO CHAIRS related to the UNESCO Culture Sector, UNESCO Headquarters Paris, France (23-24 Nov 2017)

CH actively participates in a knowledge café on “Building sustainable Heritage futures in the Anthropocene” and in the Heritage Futures lunch and card game “The thing of the future”, as part of the Heritage Futures project, during the 19^th ICOMOS General Assembly in New Delhi, India (11-15 December 2017)

During the 23-24 November 2017 meeting, the message of the responsible UNESCO staff to the assembled UNESCO Chairs (and representatives of some other UNESCO programmes) in the area of culture came across loud and clear: UNESCO would like to receive from us concrete evidence for how culture including heritage can contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as suggested in the Agenda 2030 adopted in 2015.

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Can heritage be thriving in an age of extinction? Reading Chris D Thomas (2017), Inheritors of the Earth. How Nature is Thriving in an Age of Extinction. Allen Lane. 

Will human interference on Earth during the Anthropocene imply a massive amount of species going extinct and a serious loss of biodiversity, as we sometimes are being told? Do we need to act now to reduce the damage our descendants will suffer as a result of the loss of much of our natural heritage?

(By Cornelius Holtorf and Robyn Raxworthy)

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