22nd January 2009 at 6.00pm
UCL CENTRE FOR SUSTAINABLE HERITAGE
Anatomy J Z Young Lecture Theatre,
Anatomy Building
Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT

A lecture to be delivered by Dr. Christopher Young, Head of World Heritage and International Policy, English Heritage

The World Heritage Convention is the most popular UNESCO heritage treaty with 781 World Heritage Sites in 145 countries.  Over the last 30 years the idea of what can be a World Heritage Site has changed greatly to include ever widening ranges of heritage, both natural and cultural.  Over time, UNESCO, its World Heritage Committee and its advisors have become much more involved in the management of individual sites and therefore in the heritage management systems of many countries. Increasingly, World Heritage provides a focus for many of the issues affecting the conservation of heritage as a whole.  Can we still sustain the World Heritage Convention and World Heritage Sites?

Please email Ben Glynn at b.glynn@ucl.ac.uk you are able to attend

Please note that this is a public lecture and all are welcome to attend

http://www.ucl.ac.uk/sustainableheritage/

Architectural Records, Inventories and Information Systems for Conservation

2 September – 2 October 2009, Rome, Italy

Application deadline:
Applications should reach ICCROM by 16 February 2009 to ensure inclusion in our selection process

This international course on architectural records, inventories, and information systems for the conservation of cultural heritage will address the needs, methodology, and techniques for acquiring and using this knowledge. The course will draw upon the vast wealth of cultural material in Rome and will be taught by leading experts in the field. Records, inventories, and information management tools are continuously being developed and must be considered as a fundamental part of the conservation process.

The course will feature a range of learning strategies that will draw upon participants’ own professional knowledge while adding new information and skills through readings, discussions, and a number of collaborative practical exercises. The course will include a required preparatory phase prior to arrival at ICCROM. This preparatory phase will allow participants to increase their background knowledge in key topic areas through readings and exercises that they will undertake while in their home countries.  The course will be structured around three main blocks of knowledge, through four weeks of study, on specific matters relating to:

Architectural Records: theory and practice for generating records will include direct, topographic, GPS, photogrammetric, and 3D laser scanning techniques, and archival research (historic, archaeological, structural, condition);
Inventories: the course will stress the notion of ‘inventory’ as the core element of information systems to be able to establish links between the various aspects and fields relating to architectural documentation processes;
Information Systems: planning, practice, access and dissemination of information (computer graphics, multimedia) will be emphasized, in particular principles, design and management of records in data base systems (GIS) and methods to process architectural records and related information.

Participants
This international course is designed for a maximum of 18 conservation professionals.  The course will be for conservators, architects, planners, engineers, archaeologists, historians, topographers, photogrammetrists, surveyors, cartographers, documentalists, and other conservation professionals involved in the field of recording, documentation and inventories through information management systems.

Admissions
Preference will be given to candidates working in positions in which they can share, transmit and disseminate the skills and information gained during the course.  Preference will also be given to applicants from ICCROM Member States.

Course fee: 900 € (Euro).

Read more information and download an application form

An interactive exhibition at the Croydon Clocktower, April to July 2009

The Sutton Subrang Dance Ensemble, Photo: Rolf Killius

The Museum of Croydon and the London Sitar Ensemble will open a major exhibition in the Croydon NOW gallery of the Museum of Croydon, and other public display areas at Croydon Clocktower, from April to July 2009. The exhibition will showcase the outputs of the ‘String and Dance Festival’ Project which is being run by London Sitar Ensemble. The core exhibition, which will be displayed in two separate galleries at Croydon Clocktower, will comprise of oral history interviews (video), musical instruments and associated objects from the Community Groups involved and other donors (potentially the Horniman Museum), photographs and videos showing musical performances and dances from the Indian Sub-Continent as performed in the UK, costumes and associated musical instruments of all eight classical Indian dances and three folk dance genres from western India. Within the musical instruments display the emphasis is on string instruments like the sitar, sarangi, violin, veena, sarod, santoor and the supporting instruments like drums and cymbals.

Two photo exhibitions will complement the exhibition and will be displayed in other public areas of the Clocktower: one showing Croydon-based dancers and musicians; and the other about a music instruments collection project in India. The exhibition is embedded in a string of events like workshops, rehearsals, oral tradition interviews and concerts. Taking and using a wealth of digital video, still photography and audio recordings constitutes a major part of the activities and display.

Indian music and dance is one of the finest traditions in the world. Tracing its roots back to times immemorial, these art forms have an interesting pattern of evolutionary changes. Many changes, transformation and evolution have taken place, enriched by the contribution of the musicians and dancers, great and small, famous and unknown. The India – Britain story is a 400 year long tale of travel, migration and cultural exchange. This journey has made a significant influence on the cultural scene of British Arts. The ‘Indian Strings and Dances’ project, undertaken by London Sitar Ensemble and Croydon Museum and supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund, aims to explore the evolution and contribution made by the musicians and dancers in Britain.

The exhibition will be curated by Lata Desai and Rolf Killius in close collaboration with Rob Shakespeare, Acting Museum Service Manager.

III ICOMOS Scientific Committee Theory and Philosophy of Conservation and Restoration Conference

Florence, March 5th-9th, 2009

Call for Papers – Abstract Submission Open

The Romualdo Del Bianco Foundation of Florence, ICOMOS (International Council on Monuments and Sites), and ICCROM (International Centre of the Preservation and Restoration of the Cultural Heritage) are glad to announce that the abstract submission for the III ICOMOS Scientific Committee Theory and Philosophy of Conservation and Restoration Conference The Image of Heritage: Changing perception –permanent responsibilities is now open.

The conference will be divided into 4 sections:

SESSION I: Changing the approach to the cultural property in the past: physical and intellectual

SESSION II: Media between man and cultural property: their influence on the perception

SESSION III: Mass tourism and cultural property: the place of cultural tourism

SESSION IV: Responsibility for the future; the role and responsibility of mass media; the sustainable cultural tourism

Please submit your abstract (and specify the session chosen) no later than December 10^th 2008 to icomos.theory@fondazione-delbianco.org. The abstract should not be longer than 5.000 characters (without images). The first-order headings should be in Times New Roman 12, bold, upper/lowercase letters with the text in Times New Roman 11, 1.5 spacing.

Among all the abstracts received:

a.       20 of them will be selected by December 20^th, 2008 by the ISC Theory Commission Members (headed by Prof. Andrzej Tomaszewski ) for the oral presentation during the conference in Florence ;

b.       the ISC Theory Commission reserves the right to select other abstracts whose authors will be invited to submit final reports; those reports will be included in the virtual proceedings of the conference and visible on the official ISC Theory Commission’s web site. The authors will also have the opportunity to take part in the conference in Florence as auditors (non-speakers).

The official ISC Theory Commission’s web site will also host a Forum where users can interact with the Members of the ISC Theory Commission.

If you have any queries regarding this meeting, please email: icomos.theory@fondazione-delbianco.org

ICOMOS-UK Christmas Lecture and Wine Reception
Thursday 11th December 2008, London

PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELLED

How can sustainable farming feed the planet, be environmentally sensitive but also respect our cultural environment? There has been much debate on the links between farming and nature conservation, but rather less on links between farming and cultural heritage conservation.

At a time when pastoralism as a way of life is only hanging on by a thread in all Mediterranean countries, and the uplands are highly vulnerable in the UK, the lecture will consider how increased food supplies could be provided sustainably alongside habitat conservation and respect for the cultural values of farming communities and landscapes.

Download information and booking form

Stenness, Orkney; Copyright: Historic Scotland

Scottish Ministers announced today their decision to refuse planning permission for the proposed development of three wind turbines at Merranblo, Stromness, Orkney. The application was considered at a local public inquiry in January 2008. ICOMOS-UK appeared at the inquiry along with other organisations, such as Historic Scotland, Orkney Archaeological Trust, Orkney Skyline Concern and Scottish Natural Heritage.

The World Heritage Site (WHS) in Orkney was inscribed on the World Heritage List as “a major prehistoric cultural landscape that provides a graphic depiction of life in a remote archipelago in the far north of Scotland some 5,000 years ago. [...] The monuments of Orkney, dating back to 3000-2000 BC, are outstanding testimony to the cultural achievements of the Neolithic peoples of northern Europe” (UNESCO World Heritage Centre). At the Inquiry ICOMOS-UK expressed concern about the adverse impact of the turbines on the historic environment of the WHS and its setting, as we believed that the site of the proposed development was located within the area of visual impact of the WHS.

The World Heritage Convention in 1972 was set out to identify, protect and preserve for future generations cultural and natural heritage around the world considered to be of outstanding universal value to humanity. ICOMOS-UK believed that the erection of the proposed wind turbines would compromise this very sensitive Scottish landscape and therefore have a detrimental impact on the outstanding universal value for which the WHS was inscribed in 1999.

The report by the Scottish Ministers concluded that “given the international importance of the cultural heritage resources of the area [...] the objective of preserving these monuments within an appropriate setting is consistent with the fundamental objectives of national policy”.

Tuesdays at 7.30pm BBC2 Wales from 4 November

A new five-part television series following the investigative work of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales. The Commission and the FBI are both 100 this year – watch the ‘Welsh bureau of investigation’ uncovering clues to our past.

4 November - Building Pontcysyllte Aqueduct. Rediscovering a lost church in the Conwy Valley. The oldest gate in Europe?

11 November - Uncovering an Industrial Revolution copperworks in Swansea. Deciphering a ninth-century inscription. Revealing an Iron Age hillfort.

18 November - The Roman army at Trawsfynydd. Exploring social history with Huw Edwards at a great Llanelli chapel. Tracing Tudor master-carpenters.

25 November - Lumps and bumps in the uplands. A Victorian millionaire’s farm. Rediscovering wall paintings in the Wye Valley.

2 December - A disappearing mansion at Llandeilo. How would Wales have fought a Nazi invasion? Searching for a castle of the Welsh princes at Portmeirion.

Available on iPlayer at www.bbc.co.uk/wales/history/

www.tinyurl.com/hiddenhistories

24th October 2008, St.Peter’s Church, Belper, Derbyshire

A Joint conference organised by the Royal Town Planning Institute, Royal Institute of British Architects and the Belper Civic Forum. This significant annual conference will be held in Belper to closely examine problems such as the conflict between economic development and conservation in a World Heritage Site context. Concessions available for local residents and Civic Forum members.

“New Challenges in Urban Design” Conference Poster

Conference Booking Form

Sir James Dyson on 7 October scrapped plans for a  £56 million School of Design Innovation in Bath at the old Stothert and Pitt site at South Quays within the City of Bath World Heritage site, which the forthcoming UNESCO/ICOMOS joint mission was to have considered.

The Bath Chronicle reported that Dyson abandoned his plan after the Government’s rejection of a funding proposal and after facing a planning inquiry last August, which was called due to opposition from the Environment Agency.

The school had originally been due to open this autumn. Read full article on the Bath school plans.