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| Sharing Heritage Expertise |
No.12, July 2020 |
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 | From L
to R: Randall Sasaki (translator), Namihira (resident of the island of Tarama,
Japan) & José Schreurs (RCE). Photo taken in 2019 during the Van Bosse
project (photo: RCE).
Welcome
to the Summer edition of our newsletter! After our special COVID-19 issue, we
return with a regular newsletter, during a time when for many of us, life is still
far from going back to normal. In many countries, the cultural heritage sector has
been and will continue to be affected by the current crisis. And more recently,
we have witnessed how heritage has become entangled in antiracism protests
around the world, stimulating heritage professionals to reflect on their own
role and responsibility towards such heritage and society at large. In the
meantime, the Shared Cultural Heritage Programme of the Cultural Heritage
Agency of the Netherlands (RCE) has been looking together with its partners
into avenues for collaboration for the upcoming policy period 2021-2024. On our website, you can find the
results of the international brainstorm session and the reporton the subsequent live video discussions in which many of you took part. In
this newsletter: the feature article shares how the involvement of younger
generations has contributed to the sustainable conservation of sounding
heritage in Suriname, and has resulted in a good practice in the context of a collaboration
between this country and the Netherlands. Our partner in the spotlight is
Schipper Bosch and we finish off with an overview of our recent projects and
activities. Good readings and stay safe! |
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|  | | Good practice: giving the past a future by involving younger generations |
| During
the demonstration of the “Orgelkidsorgan” at the RK Choir School in Paramaribo (photo: Stephen Fokké).
This article focuses
on a good practice developed during a long-term collaboration between Suriname
and the Netherlands, on the sustainable conservation and use of “sounding
heritage”. This refers to historical objects such as pipe organs, carillons,
and tower clocks, which can be used to play and make music, and to mark the
time. Suriname was a colony of the Netherlands until 1975, during which time
churches and other buildings were constructed that house many elements of this
sounding heritage. The project is in its final stages and has been carried out
within the Shared Cultural Heritage programme of the RCE. One practice that has
been particularly successful is the focus on the role of young people in the
sustainable conservation and use of Suriname’s sounding heritage.
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|  | | Meet our partner, Schipper Bosch |
| Workshop participants during
fieldwork at Indonesia’s former mint premises in Jakarta, February 2020 (photo: Jacob Gatot Sura).
Schipper Bosch is a family-owned company committed to projects and research that accelerate
the transformation of cities. Its office is situated close to the RCE in
Amersfoort and on the site of one of the company’s key projects, De Nieuwe Stad (The New City). This project
demonstrates how it is possible to give new impulse to a former industrial area
in an adaptable way and without the use of a blueprint. The former Prodent
toothpaste factory is the heart of the area and is the last remaining building
of the original industrial complex. In 2013, Schipper Bosch bought the factory
and searched for collaborations with the municipality, local stakeholders and
potential tenants in the city. The buildings were quickly adapted for reuse and
accommodated a mix of functions. De Nieuwe Stad became an innovative microcity:
a social environment with spaces to work, learn and relax.
This project exemplifies
Schipper Bosch’s approach to the adaptive reuse and redevelopment of historical
urban areas and buildings. The company often works together with the RCE’s
Shared Cultural Heritage programme and regularly receives its international
visitors at its office in Amersfoort. As part of this ongoing collaboration, in
November 2018, experts from Schipper Bosch presented lectures in Moscow about
its work and approach. And last February, they contributed to a workshop on the
redevelopment of cultural heritage in Jakarta together with Jean-Paul Corten
(RCE). The experts of Schipper Bosch welcome
collaborations and sharing their approach with colleagues, governments or other
interested parties. For more information, please contact Mendel Robbers, the creative director of Schipper Bosch. |
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| | | Informative set of
cards with sounding heritage (Suriname) // In the fall of
2020, the recently established Vereniging Klinkend Erfgoed Suriname (Association
of Sounding Heritage) will produce and make available a pocket-sized set of 25
laminated cards, with photos and concise information about different elements
of sounding heritage in Paramaribo and surroundings, aimed at students,
tourists and other interested parties. The set of cards will be published through
a partnership between Klinkend Erfgoed Suriname, the Stichting
Gebouwd Erfgoed Suriname (Surinamese Built Heritage Foundation) and the RCE within
the framework of the Shared Cultural Heritage programme, and the collaboration
between Suriname and the Netherlands on sounding heritage (see feature
article). This publication hopes to contribute to the broader goal of this
project to raise awareness for and interest in sounding heritage in Suriname.
Traces of Slavery and Colonial History in the Art
Collection of the RCE // The RCE searched its
art collection for traces of slavery and colonial history through what started off
as a pilot project. The first
results were presented in a digital magazine. The next step is
to sort out the almost 2,000 objects that were ‘found’ in the collection related
to colonial history, and to supplement them with further information. Hence
this sub-collection will be made more accessible to researchers and others who
are interested. Furthermore, a guide will be developed for smaller museums on
how to carry out such a research. This second project is a collaboration with
Erfgoed Gelderland and museums in the provinces of Gelderland and Friesland.
Sharing Stories on
Contested Histories rescheduled for 2021 // In 2018 and
2019 the RCE and the Reinwardt Academy (RWA)
jointly organised the international training Sharing Stories on Contested
Histories. This training was motivated by the need to gain more experience
and develop working practices on engaging with contested heritage and it explores
existing approaches and tools to present contested heritage from multiple
perspectives. Due to the impact of COVID-19, the RCE and RWA decided to
reschedule the third edition to 2021. Keep an eye on our website for further
information on the exact dates and the reopening of the call for applications. In
the meantime, you can check this video for an impression of the 2019 training. |
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| | UHS Training - Urban Heritage Strategies for World Heritage Cities, Rotterdam (the Netherlands) // 3
August – 14 August 2020 // How to restore vitality to a historic city center? How to use cultural
heritage to achieve this goal? And what new impulses and future perspectives
can this heritage, in turn, be offered? These questions are the focus of the 6th edition of this summer course, organised by the RCE with Erasmus University
Rotterdam and Delft University of Technology. This edition focusses on the world heritage cities of Paramaribo
(Suriname), Willemstad (Curaçao), Salvador da Bahia (Brazil) and Sawahlunto
(Indonesia). Due to the impact of COVID-19, the course will start with an
online element this year, mainly aimed at knowledge transfer. The follow-up
will take place in 2021 in Rotterdam, during which the focus will be on
practical skills and knowledge exchange. The 20 participants will conclude the
course with a strategic plan for their own World Heritage City. For more
information and registration, please see the website of IHS.
Publication of
report about workshop on the Historic Urban Landscape (HUL) approach:
Safeguarding and rejuvenating the identity of a river city // Banjarmasin’s (Indonesia)
historic urban landscape consists of numerous riverside settlements and the city’s
authorities aim to preserve and develop this unique water-related identity. This newly published report presents the results of the Workshop HUL Quick
Scan Banjarmasin (South Kalimantan) that took place at the end of 2019.
Publication of
report about future perspectives for Sawahlunto: Towards a sustainable and
attractive place to live, work and recreate // This recently available report presents the results of a study of the development
potential of Sawahlunto (Indonesia) towards a sustainable and attractive place
to live, work and for recreation. This former
mining town and the RCE have a longstanding cooperation, starting in 2004
shortly after the coal mines were closed. This cooperation intensified during
the process of world heritage listing of Swahlunto’s coal mining heritage.
Second edition of “Reuse, Redevelop and Design. How the Dutch Deal with
Heritage” // With the growing foreign demand for this
publication that focuses on how the Netherlands deals with adaptive reuse, and
since the first edition sold out, the RCE and publisher NAi-010 published a reprint. In this edition, three recent projects have been added: the
former railway workshop in Tilburg, the former monastery complex Mariënhage in
Eindhoven and the Amsterdam Burgerweeshuis. The book accompanies the travelling
exhibition under the same name. The aim of this Shared Cultural Heritage
project is to stimulate a reciprocal debate on adaptive reuse, realising
that the Dutch approach is not timeless, but rather changeable and
can learn from other approaches. To do so, the RCE uses exhibition and book in
combination with workshops and lectures in collaboration with Dutch architects. |
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| | | Due to the impact
of COVID-19, much of the planned international fieldwork has been postponed or
put on hold, and there is much uncertainty regarding when these can take place.
One example is the Van Bosse project. In 1857, the Van
Bosse ship was transporting cargo from Shanghai to Singapore when it was blown
off its course and sank on the reefs that protect the island of Tarama in
Japan. The wreck hasn’t been located, but the stories about it are very much
alive. The Van Bosse project, led by José Schreurs (RCE), aims to collect
stories of the descendants of the survivors of this disaster by using the oral
history method. The photograph used in the header of this newsletter was taken
last year. This project, like others, has been put on hold for the time being
due to restrictions on international travel. Fortunately, there have been many other
developments: the RCE released the midterm review of the Maritime Heritage
International Programme (in Dutch) in May this year, detailing the progress
made in the last three years. Chapter 4 focuses on the
projects within the Shared Cultural Heritage programme in the field of maritime
archaeology. Furthermore, the team’s data management, communication and
capacity building has been receiving extra attention: the Maritime Stepping Stones platform is now filled
with more than 1000 wrecks all over the world! |
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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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