Traditionally, cultural heritage revolves around cultural sites, monuments, old cities, literature, etc. However, we live in a day and age when even digital content can be included in this array. In any case, the concept of cultural heritage means that all of these factors we’ve named before need to be preserved and valued for a wide array of reasons.
The process conducted depends on the form. For instance, preserving monuments is probably the most complex out of these. If you want to learn more about it, you should visit this website. Now, we would like to talk about a couple of tips that will help you with valuing cultural heritage properly. Let’s take a look at these.
Consult Country’s Legislation
Before you do anything, it is an absolute must to comply with the legislation of the country you’re in. Not only that taking a look at the local laws is important, but you should also consider the international agreements the country has. The reason why this is important is that this is a process that consists of a couple of crucial steps that simply cannot be overlooked.
Besides that, there are a couple of well-established practices, that have been developed by international institutions who have the goal of protecting cultural heritage. We are not just talking about a physical part of the work, we are also talking about the documentation, studies, and a wide array of other factors implemented in each case.
Cost Analysis
As you can presume, no project of this sort can be done without assessing the costs before it starts. The reason is quite simple, depending on the type of cultural heritage, the team behind it will need to run some tests to determine how each all of these sub-processes will cost. Determining the budget will help the project to run smoothly.
Otherwise, many problems can pop up. These categories include electric utility, gas, labor, and management costs. All of these factors add up to the complete budget. Sure, there are always some costs that can pop up unexpectedly. Anyway, having a rough idea about what you can expect can provide you with many benefits down the road.
Institutionalize Knowledge
In every project of this sort, there are one or more maintenance technicians that are put in charge of the whole project or some sub-category. Naturally, the decision on which ones will be in that position depends solely on their skills, experience, and capabilities. Also, they will have all the required knowledge about the monument itself. So, they have all the responsibilities regarding preservation.
Every day, they will go through all the daily tasks and fulfill them. They can delegate the tasks to people who are under them in this hierarchy. Probably the most important task these technicians have in front of them is institutionalizing the knowledge. Meaning, they will need to record all the things that have occurred during the project and create a user’s manual.
Management System
Next, it is crucial to talk about the management system. The system has a goal of overseeing the whole process and it makes sure that everything goes as smoothly as possible. Plus, the members of this system have the task of controlling all the documentation relevant to the project itself.
Above all, they need to provide the right conditions for the project to be as effective and fast as possible. For instance, if the subject that needs to be restored or preserved requires certain conditions like low or high temperature, the managerial staff needs to find a way to provide it. Besides that, they have the responsibility to act whenever something goes wrong, no matter what it is.
Potential Partnership
In case institutions who are responsible for this sort of valuation do not have enough money to fund the project, it is possible to develop a partnership with a company or an independent institution that will provide funds. To be honest, this is not something you would encounter in a vast majority of countries in the world. Still, there is always a possibility this will happen. Knowing when to consider it is an upper hand.
Volunteers
When there are no funds and people who can do the whole process properly, then looking for volunteers might be the only way to go. Besides that, if you are a lone ranger who looks to participate in this sort of project, then you can become a volunteer in one of the international institutions that work on these.
Thankfully, you will see that there are a lot of them to choose from, which are funded by official international institutions. All in all, we can see that volunteering can be a crucial factor in these procedures.
Responsibility
There is no better way to provide a chance for the younger generation to develop a sense of responsibility, especially when it comes to preserving and valuing cultural heritage. We are talking about an aspect of society and culture that needs to be respected. It’s because this heritage belongs to every member of society. We are talking about the collective identity, which is local, ethnic, national, etc.
The younger generation is the future of this world of ours. So, helping them understand all the factors that revolve around this topic, and providing them with a sense of responsibility is a must. That way, young people can continue to spread this sense to the ones who come after them. Besides that, it is important to know the difference between items or arts that deserve to be considered as cultural heritage or not.
Summary
We will all agree with the fact that cultural preservation is an important topic. It has the aim to tie the people who live in a certain area with a sense of community and unity. In this article of ours, you can take a look at a couple of tips on how this should be done properly. We’ve talked both about formal and practical tips. We are certain that all of these will provide helpful insight into the topic.
