The inaugural session of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) Webinar Series was held on 18 June 2020, centering on the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on living heritage in the Asia-Pacific region. Co-organized by ICHCAP and the UNESCO Bangkok Office, the first session featured presentations that addressed how the pandemic unsettled the transmission of ICH, particularly the involvement of communities, groups, and individuals in ICH safeguarding activities. Significantly, the first session looked into the possible roles ICH might take in a crisis—a crucial understanding of living heritage especially in imagining the future that is indubitably defined by the challenging measures the pandemic has brought upon us. Delving deeper into the impacts of the pandemic on heritage with the state of higher education in mind, the second session of the webinar series is intentioned to look into the teaching of heritage-related disciplines during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The incalculable damages the pandemic has had on cultural tourism and heritage conservation practices—with the Luang Prabang World Heritage in Laos, Borobodur in Indonesia, and other important sites of tangible heritage in Asia on lockdown for months—have crisp implications on the link between heritage education and economic development, the study of professional heritage conservation and risk assessment, as well as site management and policies that also consider the livelihood of communities related to specific tangible heritage sites. The harsh effects of the COVID-19 pandemic are strikingly visible in universities, too. In the Republic of Korea and China, academic gatherings have been cancelled, with the drastic change being instruction largely served through online platforms. In this survey of universities with academic programs related to living heritage, these two East Asian countries have university degrees that solely focus on ICH. Meanwhile, with varied border closure, lockdown, or curfew strategies to restrict mobility and travel in countries where there are academic degrees or post-graduate programs that are highly related to ICH such as India, Thailand, Vietnam, Mongolia, Myanmar, and the Philippines, we can only expect to find ourselves among academics, researchers, and higher education students looking for innovative teaching and learning models, instructional designs, and alternative practices of scholarly study that respond to the needs of heritage instruction amidst the pandemic.

How does COVID-19 pandemic affect the way we think about the relation between heritage and educational institution? What are the new issues and understanding for teaching or research to address that have been raised by the pandemic (e.g. role of heritage, creativity, community, sustainability, etc.)? What alternative practices are formulated to cover the objectives of traditional methods of critical inquiry such as fieldwork, survey, and interview? These are some of the important questions the Session II of the ICH Webinar Series will address. Co-organised by ICHCAP, UNESCO Bangkok Office, and the Asian Academy of Heritage Management, the session will be held on 2 July 2020 at 17:00 (Korean Standard Time). It will be chaired by Boram Kim of ICHCAP and moderated by Dr. Hanhee Hahm of Chonbuk National University (Republic of Korea), featuring presentations by Dr. Neel Kamal Chapagain of Ahmedabad University (India), Kristal Buckley of Deakin University (Australia), Danilo Pesce of Polytechnic of Turin (Italy), and Dr. Nikhil Joshi of the National University of Singapore.

The ICH Webinar Series is free and open to the public. Interested parties should register through this link. Please visit this webpage for a consolidated information about the series.

La 14e réunion annuelle du réseau d’experts de l’Europe du Sud-Est sur le patrimoine culturel immatériel aura lieu le 26 juin 2020, selon une modalité virtuelle en raison des restrictions de voyage imposées par l’urgence du Covid-19.

L’atelier 2020 est destiné à fournir aux participants l’occasion de 1) partager leurs connaissances et leurs expériences sur l’impact de la crise Covid-19 sur la sauvegarde du patrimoine culturel immatériel, ainsi que sur les réponses apportées par les acteurs concernés dans la région ; et 2) stimuler la réflexion critique et inspirer des actions concernant la sauvegarde du PCI en période Covid-19, au-delà de la période d’urgence actuelle.

La réunion est organisée par l’UNESCO par l’intermédiaire du Bureau régional de l’UNESCO pour la science et la culture en Europe, en coopération avec le Secteur de la culture de l’UNESCO - Entité du patrimoine vivant, avec le soutien du Centre régional pour la sauvegarde du patrimoine culturel immatériel en Europe du Sud-Est (Centre de catégorie 2 fonctionnant sous l’égide de l’UNESCO, basé à Sofia, Bulgarie).

The Workshop on Cooperation and International Assistance in the field of Intangible Cultural Heritage (22-23 June 2020) is one of the activities planned under the project “Strengthening capacities for the effective implementation of the 2003 Convention of the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage in Lebanon”, funded by the Government of Japan.

The COVID-19 pandemic has seriously caused public disruption manifesting in different forms such as places on lockdowns, untimely shutdown of schools, cancellations of mass gatherings, and temporary closure of businesses. As the field of intangible cultural heritage (ICH) contends with the effects of the pandemic, ICHCAP and UNESCO Bangkok Office are organising sessions of interlinked online seminars dubbed as ICH Webinar Series to tackle important issues around ICH safeguarding in the time of COVID-19 and the future ahead of it. While the first couple sessions of the series will hear reports and studies about the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on ICH safeguarding, the series itself is conceived to be a platform of ideas relevant to key areas in ICH Safeguarding such as information-sharing, networking, and cooperation among stakeholders in the ICH field.

The first session of the ICH Webinar Series will assess how COVID-19 pandemic has affected the cultural lives of peoples in the Asia-Pacific region and identify possible roles ICH might take in crisis. In light of the many vulnerabilities the pandemic has exposed in ICH communities, the session will hold a discussion of innovative solutions for ICH safeguarding and transmission. Slated on 18 June 2020 at 17:00 (Korea time), the first session will feature presentations from Juliette Hopkins (Living Heritage Entity, UNESCO), Anna Yau (The University of Hong Kong), Kirk Siang Yeo (National Heritage Board, Singapore) Professor Christopher Ballard (The Australian National University), and Professor Eric Zerrudo (University of Santo Tomas).

The ICH Webinar Series aims to foster public participation in discussions about living heritage. Questions are welcome from the public. The concept note of the first session is accessible through this link

Those interested to join the conversation are advised to write their questions in this pre-registration form

Within the framework of the project “Strengthening national capacities for safeguarding Palestinian intangible cultural heritage”, the UNESCO Ramallah Office holds the workshop on preparing nominations and requests for international assistance, thanks to the generous support from the Abu Dhabi Department of Culture and Tourism.

Après les trois ateliers précédents à Bichkek (2017), Almaty (2018) et Tachkent (2019), cette quatrième formation de formateurs sur le patrimoine cultural immatériel pour l’Asie centrale se tiendra à Douchanbé (Tadjikistan) du 2 au 6 mars 2020. Co-organisée par l’UNESCO et le Centre international de formation pour le patrimoine culturel immatériel dans la région Asie-Pacifique (CRIHAP), elle sera l’occasion pour les participants de quatre pays d’Asie centrale d’approfondir leurs connaissances sur la Convention de 2003 et de renforcer leurs capacités autour de plusieurs thèmes, notamment les mécanismes de coopération internationale prévus par la Convention de 2003 pour la sauvegarde du patrimoine culturel immatériel.

approche innovante de l’éducation en invitant les enseignants et les apprenants à explorer leur patrimoine vivant et à s’informer non seulement sur lui, mais aussi avec et par lui. Au cours des derniers mois, les enseignants et les élèves de dix écoles associées à l’UNESCO sélectionnées dans toute l’Union européenne ont élaboré et mis en œuvre des projets pilotes dans leurs propres écoles. Accompagnée par des animateurs formés par l’UNESCO, chaque équipe scolaire a mené des activités visant à identifier le patrimoine vivant présent dans leur communauté scolaire et à l’intégrer dans les plans de cours de matières aussi diverses que les mathématiques, la physique ou les langues, ainsi que dans les activités extrascolaires.

Dans ce contexte, l’UNESCO, en étroite coopération avec la Commission néerlandaise pour l’UNESCO, a réuni les dix équipes scolaires du réSEAU afin de partager leurs expériences, d’analyser les approches utilisées et de contribuer à l’élaboration des ressources documentaires destinées aux enseignants en Europe, qui seront produites d’ici la fin du projet.

L’atelier se tenu du 27 février au 1er mars 2020, à Rotterdam, aux Pays-Bas.

Organized by Khartoum UNESCO Office in collaboration with the National Council for Cultural Heritage and Promotion of National Languages. The workshops are part of the project of “Strengthening National Capacities for Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage in Sudan”, sponsored by Abu Dhabi Tourism and Culture Department (UAE).