Final workshop of the Heritage Values Network: Heritage Values and the Public

The third and final workshop of the Heritage and Values Network project was held at the University of Barcelona on 19-20 February. The discussion topic was “Heritage Values and the Public” and it was attended by a multi-disciplinary group of more than fifty established professionals (Photo 1) and student volunteers[1] (Photo 2).

There were five discussion lines during the workshop: Inclusivity; Participatory and Sustainable Heritage; Virtual Heritage, Heritage Values and the Public; Tourism; and World Heritage. The two-day event was inaugurated by Joan Pluma, the General Director of Archives, Libraries, Museums and Heritage of the Government of Catalonia (Generalitat de Catalunya) (Photo 3). It included a combination of papers (Photo 4), round tables (Photos 5-6), activities, discussions and debates. Among the activities, the two voted as most successful were a politics slam role-play (Photo 7) and a heritage tour of the Gothic Quarter of Barcelona (Photos 8-9). In the latter, small groups of participants had the task of discussing the city’s heritage and its relationship with both tourists and local residents. Thus signposts, playgrounds, use by schools, special attention to particular communities and gentrification were considered and discussed. A video explaining the process of the Rua Xic project was followed by a discussion with members of the Marabal Cultural Association that ran the project (Photo 10) and in which members of GAPP had a key role. This contrasted with the more theoretical discussions based on information provided in the papers given by speakers working in the academic and non-academic heritage sectors. The participants were from the areas of tourism, commercial archaeology, museums, state agencies, state and regional departments and universities.

The workshop was preceded by a seminar funded by the University of Barcelona held on 18 February (Photo 11). This seminar, one of the first of its kind in Spain, dealt with many of the projects that are taking place to engage the public in archaeological heritage. The audience, made up of more than a hundred students and professionals, heard a full programme on sustainability, tourism, new technologies and citizen participation. After the workshop, on 21 February, a visit to the World Heritage city of Tarragona was organised. There, the Tarragona municipal archaeologist, Imma Teixell, organised a tour explaining the city’s heritage management (Photos 12-14). The visit was partly funded by the Centro Tarraconense El Seminario.

The workshop and the seminar were organised by Ana Pastor and Apen Ruiz, helped by all the other members of GAPP .

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Grup-dArqueologia-P%C3%BAblica-i-Patrimoni/1479210948973844.

Margarita Diaz-Andreu

ICREA Research Professor

PI Barcelona H@V team

[1] Thanks to Marina Campa, Laura Coltofean , Núria Freixes, Laia Gallego Vila, Elisa Gómez Sánchez-Albornoz, Laura Palau Nadal and Iumari Saez de Ibarra.