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| Sharing Heritage Expertise |
Special edition, April 2020 |
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 | | Welcome
to this special edition of our newsletter! In the past, each of our
organisations has faced challenges, but the current crisis related to the
spread of COVID-19 and its impact on the cultural heritage sector around the
world are unprecedented. More than ever, the connections between our countries
are evident. To foster these connections, especially now we are all dealing
with social distancing, cultural lockdown and travel restrictions, we would
like to share updates on the situation in the heritage sector in each of our
Shared Cultural Heritage partner countries. For this, we have received input
from several guest reporters, who we would like to thank for their efforts in
these hectic times. Also, in the Meet our Partner section you can read about how
you could contribute to DutchCulture’s Helpdesk COVID-19. In July, we will
return with a regular newsletter. Until then: keep well and stay safe. |
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|  | | For
this special edition, we contacted partners in each of the 10 Shared Cultural
Heritage partner countries, to ask how the current crisis is affecting the
cultural heritage field in their country and their own institution. Unfortunately,
museums, heritage and archaeological sites and monuments have closed to the
public in all countries, due to national measures to prevent the spread of
COVID-19. In many countries, the cultural heritage sector is severely affected
by loss of revenue. But our partners also shed light on how they are creatively
adapting to the current crisis, and finding optimism in these difficult times.
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| | | In Australia,
we contacted Andrew Viduka, Assistant Director Maritime and Commonwealth Heritage of
the Government’s Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment. There,
COVID-19 has significantly impacted heritage through the
restrictions on public movement. The closure of World, National and local
heritage sites stopped the public’s physical access and impacted employees and
those who indirectly benefit from heritage tourism. Nonetheless, many
heritage properties still have staff undertaking maintenance and other
activities to ensure heritage values continue to be managed. Equally affected
are planned national and international heritage conferences, and natural and
cultural heritage and public archaeology programmes, which have been delayed or
cancelled. The Australian government is actively exploring ways to
financially support heritage sites and individuals directly and indirectly
impacted. The Australian Government’s Heritage Branch has responded to the
pandemic by rapidly moving towards working from home, reprioritising activities
and assisting the broader Australian government’s efforts to address the
pandemic. |
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| | | From Carla Rabelo
Costa we heard that in Brazil all non-essential public services have
been shut down, including the National Heritage Agency (IPHAN), where she works. All public servants
are working from home and fortunately they don’t face the threat of losing
their job. However, private museums and art galleries are facing financial difficulties
and the government still hasn’t made financial aid available. The greatest
impact of COVID-19 on IPHAN’s work is on listed cities in Brazil, since the
Agency is responsible for their inspection. IPHAN’s state representatives issue
construction permits to preserve the outstanding values of each site, however,
these permits are now being issued online and deadlines have been extended. Surveillance field
work, which helps monitor the impact of interventions on heritage, has stopped in
most listed cities, and thus IPHAN is currently unable to control the damage on
historical sites. The Agency often works with universities, communities and
other stakeholders, but most of its joint projects have been postponed. IPHAN’s
Management and Policy Coordination team is now creating national and local
policy guidelines to improve its
collaborative work. |
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| | | Nowshad
Padiyath, from the Muziris Heritage Project, shared that in India all activities connected to conservation have stopped.
Since many monuments and museums are managed by central or state governments,
employees are receiving their salaries on time, despite the heavy loss of
revenue. Freelance professionals and others, however, are struggling with the
situation. The Muziris Heritage Project was planning to complete its pending
museum works by March 2021, however, the current situation will have an effect
on ongoing activities. It is expected that the widespread revenue loss will also
have a significant impact on the Muziris Heritage Project, yet its management
team has decided not to reduce its staff. The management team is making
the most of the current limitations to work on other important tasks: for
instance, a SWOT analysis was carried out regarding the organisation, its strategic,
medium and immediate goals have been revisited, and museum managers were
asked to resubmit their targets for 2020-21 and to consider new avenues for
revenue. |
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| | | We were informed by
Punto Wijayanto from the Indonesian Heritage Trust (BPPI) that many cultural organisations making a living from cultural heritage
sites are currently unable to earn enough income, thus the government is
setting up an assistance programme to support them. The government is also developing
an online training to improve heritage professionals’ competency in
conservation practices. The Indonesian Heritage Trust is working with its
partners, including heritage institutions and universities, to mitigate the
impact of the crisis on heritage activities. For instance, they are considering
how they can continue to engage with audiences online. It is currently impossible to carry out work on-site,
but some projects are still under preparation or taking place with the
necessary adjustments to the situation. The Indonesian Heritage Trust continues
to campaign for heritage conservation by holding discussions through video conference
and social media channels. The Trust has organised online events that have been made
available on YouTube. Furthermore,
UNESCO and five World Heritage Sites in Indonesia went live to celebrate World Heritage Day 2020. |
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| | | In Japan, it
is currently difficult to work on projects related to the cultural sector. With
many projects being cancelled or postponed, professionals working in this field
are worried about continuing their work due to the current uncertainties regarding
the future, since it isn’t known when the situation will improve. Daiki
Nakagawa let us know that since it’s impossible to physically visit sites, the
Japan and Netherlands Architecture Cultural Association (JNACA) can only do
non-onsite research and online meetings. For the Association, these limitations
are not a critical issue if projects are postponed. However, its members of
staff are worried that some might be cancelled, which makes it hard to keep
up the motivation. In Japan, remote work wasn't very common before the current
situation but the JNACA staff rapidly adjusted. Through the necessary changes in
modes of working, the balance between work and personal life has changed. Nakagawa
sees it as a good opportunity to rethink lifestyles, and future perspectives regarding
activities related to cities, rural towns and heritage. |
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| | | In the Netherlands,
not only are museums and monuments closed, but archaeological excavations have also
become challenging. Vocational training without practical lessons is hardly
feasible and many cultural organisations and freelancing professionals are
struggling with revenue loss. To help them survive and to prevent loss of
employment, the government has allocated extra budget. The Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands (RCE) works with a range of stakeholders, from
private owners to research and knowledge institutes, specialist contractors and
government authorities, to monitor the impact on the heritage sector, support
where possible and anticipate on the afterlife of the new corona virus. According
to Jinna Smit, for the Shared Cultural Heritage Programme of
the RCE, the corona crisis means that some projects are put on hold, postponed
or cancelled, but at the same time, the exploration of other modes of
collaboration has accelerated. Thus this period also provides new opportunities
for professionalisation and reflection on the long-term effect of this crisis
for international collaboration. |
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| | | In Russia, cultural
institutions are severely suffering from the loss of revenue. Pavel Kouzmine
of the Netherlands Embassy in Moscow let
us know that it is expected that some independent cultural organisations might
not survive the current crisis, even though the government has alleviated the
tax pressure and loan payments. Museums are increasing the number of online
tours, webinars and other digital ways of working. They
cannot, however, develop paid services as audiences themselves have less
money to spend. Most staff members of the Embassy are currently working
from home. The cultural section is working on ongoing projects that don’t
involve public gatherings. Public events have been postponed, and there
has been less contact with the Embassy’s partners in the field. Fortunately, however,
its members of staff are keeping busy with ongoing activities that started
before the current crisis, as well as with new
heritage-related initiatives. There are therefore plans to start financing new
projects. |
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| | | From
Catherine Snel of the Sanlam Archives in South Africa, we heard that the
heritage sector went into a complete standstill, meaning a loss of income,
especially for the private sector. Government, university and corporate museums
and heritage sites will continue to receive financial support. Many activities
have been cancelled or postponed, and preventive conservation is currently a
significant problem. Most work is now done remotely, and museums are creating
virtual tours. The current crisis has made Sanlam’s staff members realise how
important it is to have contingency policies in place for events such as the
current crisis. The South African Naval Museum is one of the many museums that closed its
doors on 16 March. Curator Commander Leon Steyn shared with us that curatorial
work is financially supported by donations received from the public, which
means that this crucial means of income has come to a halt. The museum has been
offering virtual tours and it seems like it has received even more
(virtual) visitors during the lockdown than when physically open to the public! |
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| | In Sri Lanka, although there are indications that the lockdown measures
will be relaxed from 4 May onwards, no announcement has yet been made as to
whether museums, heritage and archaeological sites will then reopen to the
public. The Embassy of the Netherlands in Colombo, where Mahendra Ratnaweera works, is currently
working from home and some essential staff go to the embassy when needed. (Shared)
cultural heritage continues to be discussed during the weekly policy meetings,
which are now done via MS Teams conferencing. Unfortunately, the lockdown came
at a time when the Embassy had just invited proposals for new projects, which now
had to be put on hold. The only project which had been finalised and was about
to be implemented was an exhibition on Dutch Forts in early May. It is now
scheduled to take place in September and in principle it will be shown in
different locations around the country: Galle, Jaffna, Mannar, Trincomalee and
Batticaloa.
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| | | Regarding Suriname, Stephen Fokké, director of the Suriname Built Heritage Foundation or SBHF (Stichting Gebouwd Erfgoed Suriname), let us know that there are currently no tourists in the country since all flights to and from Suriname have been cancelled. Sites like the Surinamese Museum, Jodensavanne and the Open Air Museum Fort Nieuw Amsterdam are suffering from the loss of revenue and members of staff risk losing their jobs. Tourists are an essential source of income for heritage tourist sites in Suriname. Although the Surinamese government has announced that it will establish a COVID-19 Emergency Fund, as of 27 April no financing was made available. After being closed for several weeks, the office of the SBHF is now open a few days a week with limited staff and working hours. Most work is still being done from home. All planned participations in regional and international conferences and workshops have been postponed or cancelled. Other heritage institutions, such as the National Archive of Suriname, are currently also closed. |
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| | | In the United States, Sophie van
Doornmalen of the Consulate General of the Netherlands in New York (CGNY), informed us that cultural events and programming have been
cancelled for the foreseeable future. Although governmental and private funds
made relief support available, most of the American cultural organisations
depend heavily on ticket revenue and philanthropy. With a severe loss of
revenue, cultural organisations are forced to furlough employees and for
smaller institutions this could mean definite closure. On a positive note, the
online presence and views have dramatically increased as organisations are
making their collections, research, educational resources, webinars, virtual tours
and talks with curators available online. Through their creativity and
community engagement, the sector is offering moral support and showing the
importance of culture, especially in these challenging times. In the midst of this crisis, the CGNY
is still promoting Dutch arts and culture through the Dutch Culture USA social
media and website. The CGNY is still in the process of adapting to this ‘new normal’ and we
continue to anticipate how to best support the Dutch arts and culture in the
U.S. |
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|  | | Meet our Partner, DutchCulture |
| DutchCulture is the Dutch network and knowledge organisation for international cultural
cooperation and it is one of the executing organisations of the national Shared Cultural Heritage programme. Within this
programme, DutchCulture‘s main objective is to improve the coherence of
activities carried out within the programme and the visibility of shared
cultural heritage, by offering a number of services to Dutch and
international heritage professionals and institutions. These include providing
advice on Shared Cultural Heritage projects, funding projects (through the
Shared Cultural Heritage Matching Fund) and the travel expenses of Dutch legal
entities and setting up visitors programmes for international heritage
professionals (such as this one).
In
March, DutchCulture created the Helpdesk COVID-19 for international cultural
cooperation, a page that shares relevant information for cultural professionals
that are mainly located in the Netherlands who work internationally. On this
page, DutchCulture has also been monitoring and collecting information about
the developments of the corona crisis in the countries that are part of the International Cultural Policy of the Netherlands.
These includes the 10 Shared Cultural Heritage countries. Each country webpage
is updated regularly, and provides information about the general situation in
the respective country, the measures that have been taken, travel advice,
relevant information for the cultural sector and online initiatives that have
been developed (when available).
If you have relevant information regarding the
cultural heritage sector in your country, please send an email to infopoint@dutchculture.nl so it can be added to the respective country webpage. Currently these webpages
are only available in Dutch, but until an English version becomes available,
you can use the GoogleTranslate tool to translate them
into your own language. |
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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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