Italy this year is
promoting cultural heritage protection in Washington D.C. as
current rotating president of the European Union National
Institutes for Culture (EUNIC).
The EUNIC Protecting Our Heritage program - a network of
national institutes for culture from EU member States - will be
launched by the Italian Cultural Institute and is being
inaugurated Thursday with an exhibition opening at the Italian
embassy in the US capital.
An exhibit titled Passages showcases photos by photographer
and archaeologist Massimiliano Gatti exploring the history of
ongoing conflicts in the Middle East.
The show, which runs through March 15, will be introduced
by Professor Jonathan Green, founding executive director of the
ARTSblock cultural complex at the University of California,
Riverside, and by Dr. Alexander Nagel, an archaeologist at the
Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History.
The program will continue throughout 2016 with conferences,
seminars, exhibits, screenings and concerts organized in
partnership with leading American and European cultural
organizations.
The initiative is sponsored by UNESCO and supported by the
European Union's delegation to the US in Washington.
It pursues two goals - raising public opinion awareness and
boosting the network of international operators acting to
protect cultural heritage from dangers ranging from terrorism
and crime to climate change and oblivion.
The program will remain open throughout 2016 to new input
and projects from interested organizations.
The themes already scheduled for debate have been presented
in the form of open-ended questions.
"The protection of the cultural heritage of humanity is a
theme that is very dear to Italy around which we are registering
great enthusiasm here in Washington as well," commented
Ambassador Claudio Bisogniero.
"We will use this occasion to give our contribution to a
global cause, to help the international community forge a
coalition based on its commitment - an imperative for all - to
preserve our common memory at all cost," Bisogniero said.
"We will do this through commemorative events, to remember
the sacrifice of those who went as far as putting their lives in
danger to protect art," continued the ambassador.
He cited the so-called monuments men who helped recover
artistic and cultural treasures during World War Two, the
so-called mud angels who acted to save Florence's heritage
during a catastrophic 1966 flood, and archaeologists working in
crisis areas today.
"Most of all, we will do it by trying to share experiences,
catalyze energies and projects and explore new working
methodologies together," he concluded.
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