The CHARTER Alliance consortium met from 5-7 July for the first in person General Meeting in Vienna. Under the theme “CHARTER: Reaching out to the heritage community”, this meeting aimed to identify gaps and needs in cultural heritage labour market and consequences for the education and training sector through a series of presentations and break-out sessions; have a mid-term assessment of the ecosystem model of cultural heritage proposed by WP2 and its new developments; present hypotheses and preliminary conclusions arising from the year and a half of intensive work.
The importance of reaching out to the wider cultural heritage community in Europe underpinned the overall theme of the meeting. The third day was open to external cultural heritage stakeholders and was mainly dedicated to external views and positions.
DAY 1
In order to contextualise our meeting, the first session was structured around cultural heritage in Austria. The panel was joined by many key stakeholders on this particular ecosystem: Sabine Haag (Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna), Ulrike Herbig (Icomos Austria), Hannah Leodolter (Federal Ministry for Arts, Culture and Sports), Manfred Matzka (ICOMOS Austria – WG on Law and Monument Protection), Beate Sipek (Association of Austrian Conservators-Restorers), Christoph Tinzl (Federal Monuments Authority Austria). We were able to learn about legal framework, monument protection, federal & regional competences and responsibilities, working processes, preventive monitoring, etc. Each stakeholder shared their priorities and challenges for their own organisation or field of work.
DAY 2
The second day started with parallel sessions. On one side, WP2 conducted a workshop aimed to test their methodology for competences profiles using their new spiderweb diagram. On the other side, WP3 (Vocational Education and Training (VET) and beyond) shared their lessons learned from the first round of contributions to the CHARTER Education & Training Database to keep improving its development.
Afterwards, Gunnar Almevik and Linda Lindblad (WP4 (Sector Integrated Dynamics), University of Gothenburg) conducted a survey on internal stakeholders analysis to reflect on CHARTER members role in cultural heritage and listen to their perspectives and ideas on how develop both the project and the alliance.
Next sessions were focused on the work of WP3. First, Marzia Piccininno (Fondazione Scuola dei Beni e delle Attività Culturali) and Marleen Hofland (Erasmus University Rotterdam) presented their methodology to identify gaps and needs in cultural heritage education as a preview of their next session. In addition, a preliminary analysis on the Literature Collection and results of the survey on innovative and emerging curricula were presented.
Following the last session, project partners were divided into 6 groups to work in an exercise to detect gaps and needs in CH education. WP3 used real programmes uploaded to the E&T Database and fictional students’ personas to analyse the potential gaps they would face in their education.
As in every General Meeting, we held the General Assembly, where all WP leaders had the opportunity to share their progress and next steps. To finish the day we visited the Institute for Conservation and Restoration of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, where we were guided through the paper, modern art, wall painting, paintings and wood departments.
DAY 3
The open-day for stakeholders started with a session dedicated to what we have learned so far in the project. WP2 highlighted the mixture of organisations in their group as a representation of the variety of the cultural heritage field, the importance of physical meetings and engaging with EU bodies. WP3 stressed the challenge they faced on addressing such complex and diverse systems in CH education. WP4 focused on what they learned from the regional workshops in Bilbao, Sibiu and Milan, and shared preliminary results of their survey, which is till open for response
Following the first part, we asked everyone in the room what is the most important goal for CHARTER to achieve for the cultural heritage sector in Europe. Participants were able to post their thought on Slido and engage in a discussion and exchange where many important points were raised. Some of the comments received included the importance of explaining what the sector is and what can be to society, inclusivity, diversity, education at early stage, etc. We will share later all the diversity of inputs received, which are valuable for everyone in the sector.
François Mairesse (Université Sorbonne Nouvelle Paris 3) presented the main takeaways from the Report on Museum Training Worldwide by UNESCO, in which more than 500 studies were mapped. Later a roundtable on stakeholders’ views on gaps and needs in CH was held. The panel was integrated by Patricia Alberth, François Mairesse, Connor Newman, Martina de Luca and Margherita Sani as moderator. Some of the keywords mentioned to address the question include mediation, communication, transversal skills, soft skills, sustainability, etc.
Johanna Leissner (Chair of the EU OMC Expert Group “Strengthening cultural heritage resilience for climate change”) presented the lessons learned from the OMC Report on cultural heritage and climate change. Heritage is not only a victim of the situation, but is also the solution to mitigate and contribute to the Green Deal. This presentation led to the second roundtable: How to ensure long-term resilience of the CH sector in Europe? The panel was joined by Claire Giraud-Labalte, Jermina Stanojev, Johanna Leissner, Dietmar Wiegand and Karin Drda-Kühn as moderator. Right skills, awareness and knowledge transfer between sectors are key elements for CH organisations to be suited to be role models.
We look forward to the next months when several CHARTER developments will be shared with the cultural heritage community! Remember to follow-up closely on the project by registering to our newsletter here.
WP2 (Strategic analysis of cultural heritage competences and occupational profiles) concentrated the next sessions. The group introduced their ecosystem model mid-term assessment. Bosse Lagerqvist (ICOMOS) and Susan Corr (The Heritage Council), explained in detail all the process carried out by the group in relation to the model and its function, as well as its new developments. The group has now integrated the cultural heritage (CH) functions into a spiderweb matrix where competences profiles can be mapped, also in correspondence with the EQF.
Linked to the previous session, WP2 presented the results and conclusions from its 2 surveys. The first one aimed at analysing how occupational profiles are recognised by the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO), presented by Elis Marçal (E.C.C.O) and Anna Mignosa (Erasmus University Rotterdam). The second one consists on a Vacancy Data Collection, for which data was extracted from official websites and job vacancy platforms as a reflection of the needs and dynamics of the professional heritage field (conducted and presented by Ben Falkenberg, Chen Min Loh, Fabian Schlott & Kübra Karatas from Erasmus University Rotterdam).
The first day finished with a great guided visit to the Austrian Parliament. We were able to witness an astonishing amount of work on conservation-restoration, as well as new sections designed for the building.