 | | Welcome to our April newsletter! Museums and their
collections are continually subject to different internal and external threats.
Earlier, we wrote about risk management in
the context of collection management. In this edition, our long read will focus
on the 9-step method developed by the Cultural Heritage Agency of the
Netherlands to support professionals with managing indoor climate risks in
museums. From museum collections, we move to funerary heritage and to the
foundation Dodenakkers.nl, a key partner for anyone working with historical
cemeteries with a Dutch background, in and outside the Netherlands. Last but
not least, we are happy to announce that we have recently produced a short film that provides an
overview of the purpose and activities of our Programme and its three themes:
Collections, Built Environment and Maritime Archaeology. Happy reading and
watching! |
|
|
|
 | | Managing indoor climate risks in museums: the 9-step approach |
| Museums around the world aim to show their cultural heritage and preserve it for present and future generations. But that is not always an easy task. One of the challenges museums face is dealing with the threats (and the effects) of an incorrect climate. With this in mind, the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands (RCE) developed a method to support the process of managing indoor climate risks in museums. This risk-based decision-making approach allows practitioners to make informed decisions in a sustainable way. Our feature article explores this method and presents the different instruments that the RCE developed to share this knowledge and make it more accessible.
|
|
|
|
 | | Meet our Partner, the foundation Dodenakkers.nl |
| The foundation Dodenakkers.nl is a key
partner for anyone dealing with historical cemeteries or churches with a Dutch
background around the world. These sites are excellent examples of shared
cultural heritage since they connect past and present, and people across
different countries. Dodenakkers.nl
started in 2001, when René ten Dam and Leon Bok created a website about Dutch historical
burial grounds and cemeteries motivated by the limited information available
online about this field. Since then, many others have joined their initiative.
The website contains today numerous open-access articles, making it an
invaluable repository of knowledge. Besides the website, expertise is also
shared through other media. Of special mention is the book ‘Buried at the other side of the bay’ published last year
on Dutch funerary heritage in Japan between 1609 and 1870.
Dodenakkers.nl is made up of a wide network of
experts whose daily professional work ranges from church history, conservation,
funerary archaeology, amongst other fields. Hence the foundation’s range of
expertise – both practical and theoretical – is equally wide. Dodenakkers.nl
has significant experience of developing conservation and management plans,
inventories, research and plans for the redevelopment or reuse of historical
cemeteries. The foundation offers advice and tailor-made trainings and
workshops within these fields of expertise, both in the Netherlands and abroad.
In recent years, Dodenakkers.nl has provided advice on cemeteries in Indonesia and Japan and, more recently, in Suriname and India. The starting point of the work of Dodenakkers.nl is always the
involvement of local stakeholders, such as residents, employees and
governmental departments. The main goal is the transfer of knowledge towards
the sustainable management of cultural heritage. For information or to request
advice or training, please contact René ten Dam (info@dodenakkers.nl).
|
|
|
|
|
| Second
phase of the restoration project of Sounding Heritage in Colombo (Sri Lanka) \\ 29
April – 27 May \\ Project organised by the Netherlands Embassy in Colombo with
the Christian Reformed Church in Sri Lanka (formerly known as the Dutch
Reformed Church), with the support of the RCE \\ In this second phase of the
restoration works of Sounding Heritage in Sri Lanka, the pipe organ of the
Wolvendaal Church in Colombo, dated to c. 1850, will sound again after years of
silence! Elbertse, a Dutch organ building firm, is
working together with local people to restore these instruments in a
sustainable way.
Russian
museum delegation visits the Netherlands in the context of the Rostov Veliky Shared Cultural Heritage project \\ 15
– 19 April \\ Visit facilitated by the Netherlands Embassy in Moscow in
collaboration with the Reinwardt Academy, the RCE and several other
institutions in the Netherlands \\ Natalia Karovskaya (director of Rostov
Kremlin Museum) and Lidia Lobanova (Head of Education and Research Projects at
the Polytechnic Museum in Moscow) will visit the Netherlands to exchange
knowledge on New Media and Storytelling in relation to a new permanent
exhibition on the history of Rostov Veliky and the Dutch fortifications around
the historic city. While in the Netherlands, they will give a public talk about
the challenges and opportunities they deal with in their work, during the
ICOMOS NL lecture evening on 17 April.
Second
train-the-trainer workshop at Western Cape Archives, Cape Town (South Africa) \\ 25 – 28 March \\ Workshop
organised by SAMA (South African Museums Association), the RCE and the
University of Amsterdam (UvA), with the support of the Netherlands Embassy in
Pretoria \\ Alexandra van Kleef (RCE) and Bas van Velzen (UvA) delivered the second
of a six-part train-the-trainer programme on the conservation of museum
collections for professionals in South Africa. This second workshop focused on
hands-on-training in conservation of works on paper and it included a session
on how to train others. The aim of this programme is to establish a network of
museum professionals in South Africa with extensive knowledge of conservation,
and to learn from these professionals about South African museum practices.
New intern at the RCE: Iris
Volkers \\ February – July \\ Since her Bachelors in European
Culture and Literature, Iris has had a special interest in the colonial past
and present of Western Europe and the way in which they are dealt with in the
cultural sector, the media and society at large. She is currently following the
Masters in Heritage and Memory Studies at the University of Amsterdam wherein
her main focus is on contested heritage. During her internship at the Shared
Cultural Heritage programme, her main task is to support Arjen Kok with the
development of the 2019 training ‘Sharing Stories on Contested Histories’,
following the first edition in 2018.
|
|
|
|
| Russian delegation
visits the Netherlands in the context of the Rostov Veliky Shared Cultural
Heritage project \\ 19 – 23 May \\ Visit organised by DutchCulture and
the RCE, with the support of the Netherlands Embassy in Moscow \\ Olga Kazakova
(city architect), Andrei Baterin (Deputy Director of FISP, a Russian
organisation supporting the Rostov Veliky project) and a representative of the
Yarolslavl Oblast (region) will come to the Netherlands to discuss with Dutch
design experts the redevelopment of the fortifications as a catalyst for the
revitalisation of the historic centre of Rostov Veliky.
Second
Seminar on Shared Cultural Heritage in Indonesia at TU Delft (the Netherlands) \\ 7 March \\
Organised by the Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) with the Bandung
Institute of Technology (ITB), supported by the Netherlands Embassy in Jakarta and
the RCE \\ Following an MoU signed in 2018 between the ITB and TU Delft, the
Architecture departments of both universities started a Shared Heritage Studio,
consisting of three batches. The first and second batches focused on the
revitalisation of different precincts in the centre of Bandung. The third batch
will focus on the city of Semarang. For each batch, students from Indonesia
travel to the Netherlands. In March, students of both universities came
together for a seminar focused on heritage-based place-making for inclusive and
healthy cities, featuring the Indonesian case studies of Semarang and Bandung.
The seminar was given by experts from the RCE, TU Delft and ITB.
New report: ‘Industrial sites along the Yauza river. Past, Present and Future’ \\
Following an investigation carried out in 2015 within the framework of the
Shared Cultural Heritage programme of the RCE, this new report presents the
outcomes of the study of past developments, present state and future
perspectives of the main industrial sites along the Yauza River in Moscow
(Russia). The report provides an insight into the threats and opportunities for
their conservation and development, including adaptive re-use. The adaptive
re-use of outdated industrial sites as a strategy for conservation is a topical
issue in Russian and Dutch cities today.
|
|
|
|
| | Maritime archaeology on the
Houtman Abrolhos in Western Australia \\ May \\ Project organised by the RCE together with the University of
Western Australia, the West Australian Museum and Flinders University, as part
of the ‘Roaring 40s’ project \\ The RCE (Martijn Manders) will participate in a
new study on the southern archipelago of the Houtman Abrolhos, the location of
the Dutch East India Company’s (VOC) shipwreck ‘Zeewijk’, that sank in 1727. This
working phase has two goals: to investigate the claim that another VOC ship
(the ‘Aagtekerke’) also sank alongside the ‘Zeewijk’; and to record cultural
heritage on the islands, such as possible survival camps of stranded seafarers. In July, the Houtman Abrolhos will be designated as a
National Park. The information that has already been collected on the other
islands, such as Batavia's Graveyard (Beacon Island) and West and East Wallabi
Islands, as well as what is currently being documented, will be used to shape
the management plan, which also covers tourism. The information is of added
value to visitors and for dealing with sometimes conflicting interests between
tourism and heritage management. For the RCE, the data will be complementary to
the management of Dutch sovereign ships abroad. |
|
|
|
| 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. |
|
|
|
