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| Sharing Heritage Expertise |
No.6, Dec. 2018 - Feb. 2019 |
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.JPG?v=20190205091227 "The now empty coal silos in Sawahlunto are currently used as a climbing wall by the local alpinist association (photo: Jean-Paul Corten).") | | In 2019, we celebrate one year of our ‘Sharing Heritage Expertise’
newsletter! Every two months, we
will continue to bring you information about the knowledge and the unique
expertise of our Shared Cultural Heritage programme. This edition includes a
long read about the Training Manuals for the UNESCO Foundation Courses on the
Protection and Management of Underwater Cultural Heritage – developed together
with our Maritime Archaeology experts. To foster further collaborations, we give
you an insight into the work of one our partners – this time, the Reinwardt
Academy, a leading Dutch institute in the field of heritage and museology. And
we finish off with an overview of our recent and upcoming projects and
activities, spread around the world and across the three themes which together make
up our programme – Collections, Built Environment and Maritime Archaeology. Happy
readings! |
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|  | | The UNESCO Training Manuals and the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands – building capacity together for the protection of underwater cultural heritage |
| In 2012, the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands (RCE) and the
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
developed a training manual for UNESCO’s
foundation courses on the protection and management of underwater cultural
heritage. This first training manual focused on Asia and the Pacific. The RCE,
together with UNESCO, is currently developing a new manual adapted to Latin
America and the Caribbean region, which will be published later this year and
translated into Spanish. Ahead of the upcoming manual, this newsletter’s feature article explains how these
manuals came into being and why they are valuable tools for building
capacity in the field of underwater cultural heritage around the world.
Capacity building is one of the missions of the RCE and because underwater and
maritime cultural heritage is often shared between countries, it is one of the
focuses of the RCE’s Shared Cultural Heritage programme.
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|  | | Meet our partner, the Reinwardt Academy |
| In December last year,
the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands (RCE) organised, in
collaboration with the Reinwardt Academy (Amsterdam University of the Arts), the first international training course on
‘Sharing Stories on Contested Histories’. This was the starting
point of a fruitful partnership which will involve two further trainings, the
next one to take place later this year. As the sole vocational university in
the Netherlands in the field of Cultural Heritage with a strong background in
Museology, the Reinwardt Academy is known for its practice based theoretical
approach. Students of its Bachelor’s and international Master’s programme in Museum Studies
carry out practical internships during their studies, and the lecturers,
alongside their work at the university, have valuable experience of the
heritage field. Embedded in the New Museology, the Academy recently developed
the Emotion Networking method, which allows
to bridge controversy and build mutual understanding. This method is of
especial interest to those professionals working with shared – and potentially
contested – cultural heritage.
The work of the
Reinwardt Academy extends also abroad, through the development of various
training programmes in the field of heritage and museology. An example is the
ongoing ‘Sustainable Capacity Building Programme for Indonesian Heritage Professionals’. These trainings
vary from specific hands-on and in-house training programmes (e.g. collection
handling) to full-fledged curricula for professional training in cooperation
with other universities. The Reinwardt Academy hopes to develop further
international collaborations in the field of museology. For more information
about the trainings or to discuss possible collaborations, please contact Ruben
Smit (ruben.smit@ahk.nl). To know more about
the international Master’s programme, please contact Menno Welling (menno.welling@akh.nl).
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| | | Workshop in South Africa \\ 18 – 22 February
2019 \\ The Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands (RCE), together with
the National Archives of the Netherlands (Nationaal Archief) and Amsterdam’s
City Archives (Stadsarchief Amsterdam), is supporting, through knowledge
exchange, a workshop on conservation, management and architectural drawings in
various South African archives. The workshop is organised by four archival
institutes in Gauteng that are currently struggling with these architectural
drawings: the National Archives of South Africa, Transnet, the University of
Pretoria and the University of the Witwatersrand. This workshop is a follow-up of the visit that the four institutes made to the Netherlands last year.
Expert visit from the Muziris Heritage project delegation \\ 17 December
2018 \\ A delegation of professionals from the Muziris Heritage project (Kerala, India)
visited the Netherlands. This visit was organised by DutchCulture in
collaboration with the RCE, and it was initiated by the Netherlands Embassy in
Delhi. The goal was to reflect on the possibilities of working together in the
areas of Collections, Built Environment and Maritime Archaeology.
Expert visit from IBRAM \\ 10 – 16 December 2018 \\ Colleagues from
the Brazilian Institutes of Museums (IBRAM) visited the Netherlands, as part of
the MoU between IBRAM and the RCE. The visit was organised by DutchCulture and
the RCE. The aim of this visit was to survey potential partnerships and to
exchange knowledge on sustainable strategies for museums. Topics discussed
included economic sustainability and the impact of museums, the role of museums
for local communities and the shift from public to private management.
Training ‘Sharing Stories on Contested Histories’ \\ 1 – 14
December 2018 \\ During two weeks, professionals from 9 shared cultural
heritage partner countries and the Netherlands explored different themes
regarding multiperspectivity in relation to storytelling in museums. The closing session took place on 14
December 2018, during which the participants presented their final work and
discussed the topics addressed during the training with the audience. In 2019
and 2020, the RCE and the Reinwardt Academy will run this training again. The
goal of these trainings is to examine how contested shared cultural heritage
can be represented from different angles in order to improve our understanding
of it. The international exchange of knowledge and expertise will contribute to
an increased awareness of the complexity of contested shared cultural heritage.
Restoring Sounding Heritage in Paramaribo (Suriname) \\ 20 November – 4
December 2018 \\ Last year, expert Rudi van Straten (RCE) and Johan Ploegaert,
a Dutch volunteer specialised in clockworks, travelled to Suriname to restore
four timepieces together with local specialists. One of them was the 1840
Amsterdam timepiece in the tower of the building of the Ministry of Finance.
Furthermore, the second phase of the large-scale restoration of the historical
organ in Paramaribo’s cathedral began. The main goal of this visit was the
further training of specialists in Suriname, in order to render future
maintenance, knowledge and expertise more sustainable.
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| | Documentary ‘Reuse, Redevelop and Design –
How the Dutch deal with heritage’ \\ A documentary has been
produced to accompany the exhibition and book under the same title. In this
documentary, four key players are interviewed: Paul Meurs and Marike Steenhuis,
the authors of the book and curators of the exhibition, give an overview of the
Dutch experiences in the field of adaptive reuse. Susan Lammers, director
general of the RCE, explains the facilitating role of her department. Floris
Alkemade, Government Architect, talks about the
role architects play in the redevelopment process. Bart Schoonderbeek, Dutch
entrepreneur, shares his experience in redeveloping the former toothpaste
factory in Amersfoort. The documentary can be watched here.
Expert visit from Brazil \\ 11 – 15 February 2019 \\ Between 11 and 15 representatives from the INCITI/UFPE –
Research and Innovation for Cities, a research laboratory of the Federal
University of Pernambuco (UFPE) – will be visiting the Netherlands. The aim of
the visit is the exchange of knowledge on the topic of regeneration of urban
heritage precincts. During their visit, the experts will consult with several
Dutch governmental parties and NGO’s. The visit will also be used to prepare
the joint Brazil-Netherlands workshop in Recife, scheduled for September this
year, which concerns the potential future use of historical features.
Contribution to UNESCO World Heritage nomination of
the Ombilin coal mining town of Sawahlunto, Sumatra (Indonesia) \\ February 2019 \\ To
support the team in Indonesia that is currently preparing the nomination
dossier for the UNESCO World Heritage listing of the coal mining town of
Sawahlunto, additional research will be carried out in February by Leidelmeijer
Historisch Onderzoek en Advies, at the request of the RCE. The research should
provide further insight into the exchange of expertise in coal mining between
Asian and European parties.
Archival research on Sukuta fountain on Bali
(Indonesia) \\ January 2019 \\ To support the current efforts to reconstruct the
so-called Sukuta fountain on Bali (a gift from Queen Wilhelmina of the
Netherlands to the Raja of Karangasem in 1912), PKMvR, a Dutch heritage
research consultancy, is carrying out archival research. The RCE commissioned
this research from KPMvR, at the request of the local authorities, that are
responsible for the restoration of the fountain.
Expert Meeting UNESCO
World Heritage, Asia-Pacific \\ 28 – 30 November
2018 \\ At the request of the Indonesian Ministry of Culture, the RCE
(Jean-Paul Corten) attended the expert meeting on World Heritage Nominations in
Jakarta (Indonesia). Five sites with Dutch colonial roots have recently been
nominated by Indonesia to the UNESCO World Heritage List – the nutmeg islands
of the Banda Archipelago; the old town of Jakarta, the former headquarters of
the VOC in Asia; the former mining town of Sawahlunto on Sumatra; the colonial
city of Semarang; and the botanical gardens of Bogor. The meeting established
the way forward for the nomination dossiers, which concern their historical
importance and future perspectives.
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| | European Year of Cultural Heritage and Maritime Heritage \\ 2018 was the European Year of Cultural
Heritage. In March last year, the theme ‘Water’ was launched. The Maritime
Archaeology theme asked the public what they considered to be their favourite
maritime heritage. Interesting stories about tangible and intangible maritime
objects and events have been collected. Naturally, well-known shipwrecks such
as the Titanic were mentioned, but remarkably, most of them were personal
(family) histories. In 2019, we would like to continue the search for favourite
or important maritime heritage(s) – a wreck, an object, a happening, a song, a
movie – that are part of the history of the relationship between people and
water. It is important for the RCE to understand how people experience maritime
heritage, since that can hopefully help increase awareness of the need to
protect it. Do you have a favourite? Let us know here.
Working together with Cuba \\ In 2018, the RCE and the National Council of
Cultural Heritage of Cuba (CNPC) signed
an agreement to work together in the research, management and protection of
underwater cultural heritage in Cuban waters. The focus will be on the many
Dutch wrecks of privateers and pirates that were lost in the 17th and 18th centuries. In the last couple of months, some equipment
that is needed for the joint research of four shipwrecks of the Fleet of
Cornelis Jol (1640) has already been shipped to Cuba with the help of the Dutch
Embassy in Havana and the Cuban Embassy in The Hague. Soon the archaeologists
will follow for their first fieldwork season.
Collaboration between Dutch and Indonesian governments \\ 21 November
2018 \\ Last year, the General Director of the RCE, Susan Lammers, met with the
Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Director General for America and
Europe, Mr Muhammad Anshor, to sign a Letter of Intent. In this document, both
sides committed to further cooperation in the field of maritime heritage
between the RCE and its Indonesian partner, the National Centre for Archaeology
(Arkenas). On behalf of Arkenas, the agreement was signed by its director I
Made Geria. This collaboration is part of the agreements made in 2017 between
the Dutch and Indonesian governments following the discovery of the wrecks of
three Dutch warships that sank in the Java Sea during the Second Word War.
MaSS website 2.0 \\ The website MaritimeStepping Stones (MaSS) has been
improved. The most important development is that it is now possible to register
for an account, after which you can make adjustments, include images or even
add complete sites. With these improvements, the possibilities to tell stories
about shipwrecks have been upgraded and now everyone can contribute to that
mission! Check the complete list of changes here.
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| | Sharing Heritage Expertise is the newsletter of the Shared Cultural Heritage Programme of the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands. This programme follows from the International Cultural Policy Framework of the Dutch government. Other organisations executing the national Shared Cultural Heritage Programme are DutchCulture and the National Archives of the Netherlands, and the Embassies of the Netherlands in the 10 partner countries. For more information on their activities, see their respective websites.
For more information, please visit our website (English and Dutch) or contact the editor, Sofia Lovegrove (lovegrove.sofia@gmail.com). We welcome comments and suggestions regarding the content of our newsletter. |
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