Dear reader,
Welcome to our quarterly newsletter! Here you can read about recent news and developments of the International Heritage Cooperation programme of the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands (Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed, RCE).
Do you
have any questions or suggestions? Please let us know.
Happy readings!
|
|
|
|---|
|
|
|
|
|---|
| | | | Since the beginning of
this year, Michaela Hanssen is no longer Programme Director of our International
Heritage Cooperation programme. Her tasks are divided among the other team
members. If you have questions for our team, please contact Sofia Lovegrove,
programme officer. |
|
|
|---|
|
|
|
|
|---|
| | |
|---|
| | | Upcoming museum and heritage professionals and academics have until 28 June
to send us their application for this year’s edition of the programme Sharing
Stories on Contested Histories. We are looking for participants from all 24
partner countries who want to learn more about how they can ethically engage
with complex heritage to shape more equitable futures.
The training approaches challenges in the field of
cultural heritage that are widely shared by bringing together professionals
from different countries and backgrounds to exchange perspectives and develop
new knowledge and practices together. These shared challenges are not
confined to national borders, and we believe that it is only by joining
forces and learning from each other that we can fully benefit from the
potential of cultural heritage to address societal challenges.
The 2023-training will be divided in two parts: From 23 September
through 3 November we will meet each other online (one day per week). From 12
through 18 November we will meet each other in Cape Town, South Africa. Click
the button below to read more about the programme and requirements. | |
|
|
|---|
|
|
|
|
|---|
| | | Nijmegen on the banks of the river Waal © Joran Quinten |
| | | This summer, the RCE again
organizes the course Urban Heritage Strategies in close cooperation with the Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies (Erasmus University) and the Section Heritage and Architecture of Delft University of Technology. This year’s edition is tailored to the city of
Nijmegen and addresses four global challenges: Climate Adaptation, Urban
Densification, Social Housing and Adaptive Reuse. Twenty candidates, all
professionals working in heritage and urban management, have been selected from our partner
countries to participate in the hybrid course. Part one will be conducted
online and mainly focuses on cognitive skills. Part two, on the other hand, is conducted on-site and is directed towards practical skills and network
building. During this second part, the participants will visit the Netherlands for
field work in Nijmegen. On 2 August, a network event will be organized at the
RCE in Amersfoort, giving the participants and Dutch heritage professionals the
opportunity to meet and exchange experiences. Click the button below for more information about the event and
how to register. Please note that this a live event at our offices in Amersfoort, and will not
be streamed online. | | |
|
|
|---|
|
|
|
| | | Participants at work in Cairo |
| | | As a spin-off from the Urban Heritage Strategies course from 2022, last May Egypt and the Netherlands collaborated in a workshop on El-Manial Island in Cairo and the question whether and how cultural heritage can contribute to making this island in the Nile more liveable. The workshop focused on climate adaptation (more greenery, less traffic), the quality of the public space (sidewalks and roads, access to parks and the Nile), all linked to new economic prospects, especially for the poorer neighbourhoods. The Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport (Smart Village Campus), the Urban Development Fund of Egypt, and the RCE brought together designers, young professionals and authorities to exchange knowledge and perspectives on the role cultural heritage can play within plans for the future. During the three-day workshop, Egypt brought in new perspectives on intangible heritage. In turn, the Netherlands was able to show different approaches to heritage in social issues. In a later edition of this newsletter, we will reflect more extensively on this workshop and its outcomes. |
|
|
|---|
|
|
|
|
|---|
|
| | | This June, we have started a project in collaboration with the National
Museum in Colombo and the Dutch Rijksmuseum to create a long term plan for
knowledge exchange on museum management between museums and experts in Sri Lanka (in specific the
National Museum) and the Netherlands. An important goal of this visit is to intensify cooperation between our
countries on the topic of restitution of cultural heritage, as part of the
Dutch policy on colonial collections. Our programme is involved in our country's Consortium Colonial Collections because of our collaborations with many of the
countries of origin of objects, including Sri Lanka.
The Consortium was established in 2022 at the request of the Ministry of Education, Culture
and Science. It is a collaboration between five organisations: Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen, Rijksmuseum, Museum Bronbeek, NIOD Institute
for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, and the RCE. The Consortium will support the Dutch museum field in carrying out provenance research into objects and
collections from a colonial context and will be an open and accessible agent between the Dutch and international heritage sector, specifically for the countries of
origin. One of the goals of the Consortium is to develop an online data hub,
where collections from a colonial context and archives are made accessible and
people and events linked via open data. We will soon update you via our
newsletter on the project with Sri Lanka, the Consortium and the data hub. |
|
|
|---|
|
|
|
|
|---|
| | | Our
programme is invited to hold a session during the Cultural Training Program for
Post Disaster Recovery in Turkey, organized by Spaces for Culture this
June.
On 6 February, two major earthquakes hit Turkey. This not only
altered the demographics of the cities and created a major trauma for individuals and
society; but destroyed much of the tangible and intangible cultural life and heritage in
the region, leaving the collective consciousness and memory shattered. Many culture and arts organizations have
found themselves unable
to maintain their regular
activities or community outreach. Spaces of Culture aims to support these cultural
actors by organizing three special training programmes with participants from
Izmir, Diyarbakır and Gaziantep,
and their surrounding cities. The trainings intend to correspond to the needs of
the post-earthquake situation through sharing of knowledge on psychosocial recovery,
community engagement,
cultural preservation and socio-cultural awareness. Bringing novel perspectives
into practice, fresh and vivid ideas with an additional know-how, the programmes will
contribute to the contextual cultural urgencies as well as to the well-being of earthquake survivors,
facilitating a healing process.
The focus
of our session during this training will be on the role museums can play to
strengthen the situation of local communities, and how these communities can
use museums to better their positions and to strengthen their own power and
social cohesion. Grassroots case study museums that
help communities rise from their situation will be used as examples.
Spaces ofCulture is initiated by Goethe-Institut, the Consulate General of Sweden in
Istanbul, the Embassy of the Netherlands and the Institut Français de Turquie;
in cooperation with Anadolu Kültür and Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts
(IKSV). |
|
|
|---|
|
|
|
|
|---|
| | | | In the past
couple of months we had the pleasure of receiving two groups of visitors at our
office in Amersfoort: |
|
|
|---|
|
|
|
|
|---|
| | | Students presenting their findings during the workshop Integrated Conservation |
| On 17 April, we welcomed students of the Master of the Raymond Lemaire International Centre for Conservation of KU Leuven, Belgium. We started the day with a presentation and discussion about the International Heritage Cooperation programme. Amongst other topics, we discussed how the colonial past plays a role in perceptions and approaches to international cooperation around heritage, and we addressed the shift in focus of the programme from “shared heritage” to shared challenges. The students also participated in a workshop on Integrated Conservation.
This is not the first and only contact with the distinguished Centre. Several of our colleagues studied at the institute and recently we had the pleasure of receiving one of its students to carry out her internship within our programme. In an earlier edition of this newsletter, we published an item about her thesis concerning the Dutch East India Company cemetery in Surat (India).
|
|
|
|---|
|
|
|
| | | METU-team during their post-earthquake recovery programme in Antakya © Özgun Özçakır |
| | On 11 May, we received a group of Conservation Architects from the Middle Eastern Technical University (METU, Ankara). This was part of a visitors programme organized by the Centre for Global Heritage and Development and the Netherlands Institute in Turkey (NIT, Istanbul). METU, being one of Turkey’s leading universities in architecture and conservation, is also one of RCE’s long time partners. Last year, RCE was invited by METU to discuss adaptive reuse. Our colleague Hilde van Meeteren lectured in Ankara on the subject. She was accompanied by Stadsherstel Amsterdam and Braaksma-Roos Architects. This year’s counter visit to the Netherlands continued on the topic of adaptive reuse. Therefore, we also introduced the visitors to our neighbours SchipperBos at De Nieuwe Stad in Amersfoort. Additionally, the devastating earthquake in Southeast Turkey of last February was addressed. The METU-team shared their experiences in post-earthquake damage assessment in Antakya (the former legendary city of Antioch) during a ICOMOS-lecture in the evening. A most urgent and significant job, conducted under extreme difficult conditions. The assessment not only serves the heritage, but first and foremost should restore shelter to a traumatized population, that suffers from great personal and material loss. |
|
|
|---|
|
|
|
|
|---|
|
| | | |
|---|
| | | Cover Consolidation paint and ground |
| | In our last two newsletters, we introduced the series of brochures on
Paintings Conservation. Recently, the fourth brochure of this series was
published: Consolidation of Paint and Ground. The brochures are created for conservators of easel paintings, wishing to keep up with
current knowledge, and to learn how to apply new techniques in their field.
They were compiled in cooperation with the Foundation
for Cultural Inventory (SCI), SRAL -
The Conservation Institute, and
Dutch embassies in the partner countries They serve as a reference, bringing
together current practices and new knowledge regarding materials and methods
for practical use. The content provided can be used by professional
conservators who are aware of the ethical and contextual aspects and
complexity of conservation decision-making.
This fourth brochure consists of information about ethical
considerations, degradation patterns leading to the necessity to consolidate,
concurrent treatments required to successfully apply consolidation, and the
materials and tools needed by the conservator to carry out consolidation. | |
|
|
|---|
|
|
|
| | | Van Ostrande-Radliff House | Van 't Lindenhoutmuseum |
| | In the latest edition of
RCE’s magazine Tijdschrift, we published an article about the project Albany
exchange Neerbosch. It reflects on the possibilities for international online cooperation on comparable case studies. The project was
initiated by Historic Albany Foundation, Van ‘t Lindenhoutmuseum
Neerbosch-Nijmegen, and the RCE. It brought together experts from the United
States and the Netherlands to discuss the heritage sites Van Ostrande-Radliff
House in Albany (U.S.) and Kinderdorp Neerbosch in Nijmegen (the Netherlands). The three-part exchange, aimed at experts in
built environment, explored development potentials of the sites, examining
the cases from different, complementary angles: area development, adaptive
re-use and restoration practices. Taking two heritage sites situated in
different contexts, the programme discussed the similarity of challenges they
face and ways to address them.
Read more about Albany exchange Neerbosch,
the knowledge exchange, and gained insights in the English version of the article on our website. | |
|
|
|---|
|
|
|
|
|---|
|
| | | | This is the newsletter of the
International Heritage Cooperation programme of the Cultural Heritage Agency of
the Netherlands. Our programme follows from the International Cultural Policy
Framework 2021-2024 of the Dutch government. Other organisations executing the
national International Heritage Cooperation programme are DutchCulture, the
National Archives of the Netherlands, KIEN and the Embassies of the Netherlands
in the partner countries. For more information on their activities, see their
respective websites.
|
|
|
|---|
|
|
|
|
|---|
| |
|
|---|
|
|
.jpg?v=20230403194733 "Nijmegen")
.jpg?v=20230607094501 "Workshop Cairo RCE")
.JPG?v=20230607093459 "Cover Consolidation paint and ground")
