UNESCO Chair assists museums in their work with living heritage

For Estonian museums a practical info kit on living heritage is going to be published in June. To this end, the UNESCO Chair on Applied Studies of Intangible Cultural Heritage (University of Tartu) collaborates with the Estonian Museum Association and the Estonian Folk Culture Centre.

The term living heritage is used as a synonym for intangible cultural heritage and emphasizes that it’s about the knowledge, skills, customs, and traditions that are part of people’s lives in the present day and that can change over time.

In April, the Estonian Museum Association organised the training session Living Heritage in a Living Museum. The aim was to reflect on living heritage and the role of museums in this context: should they serve as mediators, as spokespersons, or as partners for the communities. Elo-Hanna Seljamaa, the UNESCO Chairholder, gave the lecture titled “Living Heritage the UNESCO Way: An Opportunity and a Challenge for Museums.”

As a result of the training, a practical info kit will be published in June to help museum staff highlight and use living heritage more consciously.

The training was co-organized by the Estonian Folk Culture Centre, Department of Intangible Cultural Heritage.