Digital meets Culture

The 7 Most Endangered programme to save the EU's immense and multifaceted cultural heritage

The vulnerability of the European cultural heritage

The 7 Most Endangered programme was launched in 2013 as part of a civil society campaign to save Europe’s endangered heritage.

Each year, 7 European heritage sites are selected as the most endangered. This selection aims to draw attention for mobilization of necessary public or private support, including funding, and as a way to raise awareness of the vulnerability of cultural heritage.

It is run by Europa Nostra– the European voice of civil society committed to cultural and natural heritage – in partnership with the European Investment Bank Institute and the support of the Creative Europe programme of the European Union.

An international committee consisting of experts in history, archaeology, architecture, conservation, project analysis and finance selected the 12 most threatened heritage sites in Europe for the 2021 edition and announced their names in December.
Among these, 7 sites will be selected which, for the first time in the 2021 edition, will receive an EIB Heritage Grant of up to 10,000 euros.

The heritage significance and cultural value of the sites, the engagement of local communities in ther preservation, the potential of these sites for socio-economic development of their localities as well as the serious danger that they are facing, are the criteria that the Advisory Panel used to grade the sites.

The 12 most threatened heritage sites in Europe shortlisted for the 7 Most Endangered programme 2021 are:

Further information:

The 7 Most Endangered Programme

12 European heritage sites shortlisted for the 7 Most Endangered Programme 2021

By Culture Action Europe, European Cultural Foundation, and Europa Nostra

The #CulturalDealEU campaign to propose a Cultural Deal for Europe framework

Culture Action Europe, European Cultural Foundation, and Europa Nostra have recently launched the #CulturalDealEU campaign to propose a new Cultural Deal framework that should demonstrate the EU’s political commitment to place culture at the center of the political debate and decisionmaking.

On 18 November 2020 they supported the online debate “A Cultural Deal for Europe”, which involved Members of the European Parliament, policy experts, stakeholders, and over 450 participants from the European cultural community, where “#CulturalDealEU” was first presented publicly.

“Culture is more than just a sector. It is a vector for positive change”.

Starting with the assumption that Europe needs culture for its revival and to build cohesive, sustainable equal and free societies, they proposed the Cultural Deal as a roadmap towards a more balanced comprehensive, and inclusive European development model.

The strategy proposed by Culture Action Europe, European Cultural Foundation and Europa Nostra aims at both facilitating the contribution of culture to Europe’s sustainable development and providing the sector with the credibility and resources for realising its full potential; it places culture at the center of the European project and aims at mainstreaming it across all policy fields.

Further information:
#CulturalDealEU webpage

Joint Statement: A Cultural Deal for Europe

Art Is Still Here: A Hypothetical Show for a Closed Museum

Experimental on line exhibitions at M WOODS museum, in Beijing

Text by Caterina Sbrana.

It might seem difficult to talk about art, ecology and nature, during the pandemic from Covid-19.

Giving the public the opportunity to live the art even when the museums are closed is a challenge that not all museums have picked.

That’s not what happened at the M WOODS museum, in Beijing’s 798 Art District.

Thanks to its Artistic Director and Chief Curator Victor Wang, the health emergency that has affected many communities in China and in the world leaves a space in which the arts can reflect.
We can read the question put by the Director and his staff on the home page of the museum website: “How we then experience art during times of institutional closure: what are the forms that art and art museums must take when galleries become inaccessible to the public?”

The answer is in the online exhibitions inaugurated on February 13 2020, whose title is “Art Is Still Here: A Hypothetical Show for a Closed Museum”.

Screenshot image of the home page of M WOODS museum; https://www.mwoods.org/Art-Is-Still-Here-A-Hypothetical-Show-for-a-Closed-Museum

These experimental exhibitions continued for 9 weeks; the museum presented artworks, videos, photographs, and invited many artists to talk about issues such as “ecology, nature, extinction, isolation and kinship”.

Different galleries of the museum have been opened virtually, “with accompanying artworks presented online through the museum’s online platforms – Weibo, WeChat, Instagram and Facebook”.

In the art world, virtual art exhibitions are a groundbreaking concept in the experience of art itself. Social media could connect many communities both locally and internationally, without space or time limits, and share information also during the quarantine period.

I visited some online exhibitions screened in the “Art is still here” series, of which I suggest the vision to the public of DIGITALMEETSCULTURE.NET

Screenshot image by the M WOODS website, regarding Michael Najjar’s work “Terraforming” (Week 5, Room 5; the image chosen is at 22.22 minute of the video); https://www.mwoods.org/ROOM-0319HZ

The museum dedicated a room to each week. Within the virtual museum rooms we find several artists. Biography, exhibitions and synopsis of the work presented by each artist are written in English. A video, with a comment spoken and written in Chinese, shows the work of the artists.

The German photographer Michael Najjar presented a work titled “Terraforming” in which the artist focuses on the transformation of a natural environment though energy input.

Rodrigo Braga, whose work was presented by the museum along with that of other artists in the Week 9, Room 9, “addresses the conflict between man and nature, human and animal. In Tônus (2012), he ties himself to a goat and attempts to run in a different direction, an action that results in them both spinning endlessly in circles. He also fights the claws of a crab with his bare hand, a duel that ends in stalemate – a metaphor for the human condition in a landscape impossible to tame” (https://www.mwoods.org/ROOM-0416LY)

Screenshot by the M WOODS website, regarding Jonathas de Andrade’s work: O Peixe; Week 9, Room 9; the image chosen is at 44.31 minute of the video; https://www.mwoods.org/ROOM-0416LY;

As mentioned on the presentation of the museum, “M WOODS is an independent, not-for-profit art museum founded in 2014 by collectors Lin Han and Wanwan Lei. Across two museum sites, M WOODS 798, housed in a former munitions factory in Beijing’s 798 Art District, and the newly inaugurated M WOODS Hutong, inside the M WOODS Art Community, located in the city’s historic Dongcheng district, present a year-round programme of exhibitions, performances, music, education, live events and talks that situate contemporary art at the heart of the city and beyond”.

Screenshot by the M WOODS website, regarding Basim Magdy’s work: 13 Essential Rules for Understanding the world 2011; Week 3, Room 3; https://www.mwoods.org/ROOM-0227BS

In 2020, M WOODS was formally granted official heritage museum qualifications by The National Bureau of Cultural Heritage in China.

I really appreciated the exhibitions that the museum presented, the artists chosen and the themes that these artists use in their artworks that I consider very topical.

I think it is important to reflect on the response that humans can give to serious events such as that of a pandemic, their reaction that demonstrates the will to continue to live and to surround themselves with the beauty of art, their choice to use digital technologies to reach not only the usual audience of the museums, but a much wider audience making art accessible at all times and in all circumstances.

In the museum presentation page we read “Remaining dynamic and experimental, at the core of M WOODS is the idea that art should be ‘Free, Alchemical, and Timeless’ (FAT)”, an extremely concise but effective definition of art with which I fully agree.

https://www.mwoods.org

https://www.mwoods.org/About-M-WOODS

https://www.mwoods.org/ROOM-0319HZ

https://www.mwoods.org/ROOM-0416LY

https://www.mwoods.org/ROOM-0227BS

Infected Cities: livecasts on creative resilience in European cities

How can urban culture and creativity be a driver of social impact?

The last December 10, the first of the “Infected Cities” livecasts on creative resilience in European cities was launched by DutchCulture together with Pakhuis de Zwijger in Paris.

It was the first of four new livecasts to reflect on how urban culture and creativity can be a driver of social impact.

In this time Europe is facing a without precedents situation: on one side, European cities have to deal the resurgence of the coronavirus, on the other, social crises emerge that concern, for example, social inequality and the living conditions of migrants.

In the series, people from cultural and creative sectors explain which roles culture and cultural participation can take to have a social impact in their city favouring resilience and innovation.

In each city, the so-called ‘city makers’, such as artists, designers and other storytellers give an insight into their daily works and explain how they commit to making a positive impact in their city in these ongoing corona times and support those who suffer the most.

Organising:
The series is organised by the international organization DutchCulture together with Pakhuis de Zwijger.

DutchCulture is a network and knowledge organisation for international cultural cooperation. It supports the Dutch cultural and creative sector and connects cultural and creative professionals, organisations within the art and design sector heritage institutions, public authorities and networks with each other and with international partners in the context of international cultural cooperation.

Pakhuis de Zwijger is a cultural organisation founded in 2006 and grown to be an independent platform for and by the city of Amsterdam and its inhabitants.

The four livecasts:
Thursday 10 December 2020 – Infected Cities #11: Paris
Thursday 17 December 2020 – Infected Cities #12: Athens
Thursday 14 January 2021- Infected Cities #13: Warsaw
Thursday 21 January 2021 – Infected Cities #14: Madrid

The UNCHARTED community is enriched by a new member

New liaison between UNCHARTED project and Net4Society International Network

UNCHARTED project has just established a collaboration with Net4Society, the international network of National Contact Points for the Societal Challenge 6 in Horizon 2020.

Net4Society will support the UNCHARTED project in the activity of dissemination and the exchange of knowledge concerning the societal value of culture and the impact of cultural policies in Europe. In the next release of its newsletter, it will dedicated a short space to UNCHARTED and to the first outputs of its research activity.

The network was founded in 2008 during the 7th European Research Framework Programme (FP7, 2007-2013) as the network of National Contact Points (set up to guide researchers in their quest for securing EU funding) for Socio-Economic Sciences and the Humanities.

Currently it is the network of NCPs for Challenge 6 “Europe in a changing world: inclusive, innovative and reflective societies” in Horizon 2020 and includes more than 80 European and International National Contact Points of over 50 countries.

Its aim is to support the successful integration of Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) throughout Horizon 2020 and to increase the visibility of SSH research as well as the topics of Societal Challenge 6 and their impact on society and the European Research Area:

It supports networking among SSH researchers and helps with the drafting of proposals.
It promotes successful integration of SSH research throughout Horizon 2020.
It fosters visibility of SSH research and awareness of societal impact.
It improves the quality of NCP services for Societal Challenge 6.

Further informations:
Showcase of Net4society on UNCHARTED website
Net4society website

until 20th January, an online survey gathers information on practices in this field, which will converge in a publicly accessible study to be released in September 2021

CitizenHeritage Survey on citizen science in the cultural heritage sector

img. UA Saarinen, 1949, Museovirasto – JOKA archive, CC-BY

CitizenHeritage, funded within the Erasmus+ programme of the European Commission, is a project about the involvement of citizens in cultural heritage as a booster for sustainable university research and higher education.

The starting point for the project’s activities and reflections is a substantial, evidence-based review of practices of Higher Education engagement in citizen-enhanced open science in the area of cultural heritag, including a short survey just launched.

This survey is a collective effort of several European institutions to collect and analyze practices in a less developed field: citizen science in the cultural heritage sector.
We wish to gather initiatives, activities or practices on the topic of tangible and intangible heritage in Europe and in which citizens have been involved within the framework of a scientific project. We particularly wish to analyze the role of universities in this respect.

The form is accessible here.

Learn more about the Study here.

All practices which will be analyzed and showcased in an open access study expected in September 2021.

The survey will be open until January 20, 2021 and you can answer in any of following languages: EN, FR, DE, IT, NL, EL, ES. All data will be treated in compliance with GDPR.

Discover about the project: https://www.citizenheritage.eu/

The work of the Nespelem Art Colony of Clyfford Still

Art that observes but doesn’t preserve

Clyfford Still was one of the leading figures in the first generation of Abstract Expressionists.

Indigenous art has inspired many Abstract Expressionists painters (like Pollock and Newman), but Still was the only one to make contact with these tribes.

In 1937, while he was teaching at Washington State College, he co-founded the Nespelem Art Colony (NAC), located in the Nespelem River area of Washington, home to the Colville Confederated Tribes.
Here the artists focused to record Native American culture and the history of a group of individuals involved with American Indian events.
NAC’s artists, first among everyone Clyfford Still, produced portraits and landscapes depicting Colville Indian Reservation Native American life documenting the Nespelem people.

This work, however, rather than supporting the tribe, was limited to observe and report, the daily lives of Indigenous subject, without embracing or materially supporting their lifestyle; from this point of view the colony worked as an educational experience for Washington State faculty and students; the work of these artists, rather than preserving indigenous culture, told the story of the indigenous people just during their submission, when their lives were changing and their population was dwindling.

Further information:
https://clyffordstillmuseum.org/

To learn more about the Colville Reserve: on March 18, 2021, there will be an online talk “Photography from the Colville Reservation“.

Colville Reservation

the new programme will run until 2027 and will also help rebuild a post-COVID-19 Europe

Commission welcomes political agreement on Creative Europe programme

PRESS RELEASE – 14th December 2020

Today, the Commission has welcomed the political agreement reached between the European Parliament and EU Member States on the new Creative Europe programme (2021‑2027). Trilogue negotiations have now concluded, pending the final approval of the legal texts by the European Parliament and the Council.

Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, Mariya Gabriel said: “I welcome the political agreement on the new Creative Europe programme. The programme has been critical for promoting Europe’s cultural diversity as well as the competitiveness of cultural and creative sectors. Now it has been modernised to better equip these sectors to face today’s challenges, including those brought about by the pandemic.”

Commissioner for Internal Market Thierry Breton noted: “The culture and creative ecosystem continues to be deeply affected by the current crisis. Today’s agreement is an important signal for all European media partners, small and big, and all our creators, at a time when they need our support more than ever before. Creative Europe is an essential tool for further digitalisation and internationalisation of these key sectors. It will also strengthen the resilience of our media and audiovisual industry and reinforce media freedom and pluralism across the European Union.”

Creative Europe banner – moving dancers. EACEA website.

The Creative Europe programme is the flagship instrument in support of the cultural and creative sectors – and the only one designed by the EU to support them specifically.

With a dedicated budget of more than €2.4 billion, made up of €1.8 billion in current prices and an additional top-up of €0.6 billion in 2018 prices, the new programme will continue to promote cultural and linguistic diversity, heritage and competitiveness, and will allow cultural and creative organisations and professionals to co-create and cooperate across borders and to reach wider audiences, tackling current societal questions and supporting emerging artists. The MEDIA strand will keep supporting projects with a European dimension and an international one; as well as nurturing talent and supporting the use of new technologies to strengthen the competitiveness of the sector.

For the first time, the news media sector will be supported throughout different actions promoting media literacy, pluralism and media freedom under the cross-sectoral strand.

Next steps

Implementation of the new programme is planned for early 2021. The new programme will run until 2027.

On 10 November 2020, a political agreement was reached between the European Parliament, EU Member States in the Council as well as the Commission on the next long-term EU budget and NextGenerationEU. As a next step, the legal adoption of the MFF package along with the ratification of the Own Resources Decision is now urgently needed.

Once adopted, the EU’s long-term budget, coupled with the NextGenerationEU initiative, which is a temporary instrument designed to drive the recovery of Europe, will be the largest stimulus package ever financed through the EU budget. A total of €1.8 trillion* will help rebuild a post-COVID-19 Europe. It will be a greener, more digital and more resilient Europe.

(*in 2018 prices)

For More Information

Creative Europe

Recovery plan

2021-2027 long-term EU budget & Next Generation EU

a desktop research and a survey are currently in preparation, to feed reflections and best practice examples for citizen engagement with cultural heritage

Reviewing existing initiatives and projects about citizen participation in cultural heritage

CitizenHeritage, funded within the Erasmus+ programme of the European Commission, is a project about the involvement of citizens in cultural heritage as a booster for sustainable university research and higher education.

The starting point for the project’s activities and reflection is a substantial, evidence-based review of practices of Higher Education engagement in citizen-enhanced open science in the area of cultural heritage. The research for past and existing initiatives involving citizens with cultural heritage will define best practices regarding Higher Education Institutions organisation, open practice, sustainability, and civic engagement. And it will identify any untapped potential where the Universities can play a more active role thus to connect civic engagement with the open science virtuous circle, in the cultural heritage sector.

In other words, CitizenHeritage is currently exploring the role of Higher Education Institutions as incubators of the next generation open science citizens (in terms of staff and student skills, curricula and interdisciplinarity) and as institutions situated in a broader social context where citizens advocate a more important role in decision taking in modern societies (active citizenship, civic engagement, bottom-up public intervention). Although open and citizen science offers opportunities to Universities to break up with a more traditional image of knowledge creation behind walled gardens and to genuinely connect to social groups, there is still unused potential in their involvement in citizen-enhanced open science and also in connecting the user engagement generated through civic participation with the open science cycle.

Discover more about the project: https://www.citizenheritage.eu/