Heritage education

Training

Training course for Ministry of Culture officials

“Safeguarding cultural heritage: taking the Intangible Bonds in Festive Landscapes project as a starting point.”

The Museum of Rome in Trastevere presents “Intangible Bonds, Twenty-Eight Festive Landscapes”. This exhibition is the result of two years of photographic documentation of festivals, accompanied by ethnographic surveys conducted by anthropologists from the Central Institute for Intangible Heritage. Research for the project includes a study dedicated to the Festa del Soccorso (The Feast of Our Lady of Perpetual Help) in the town of San Severo in the province of Foggia. This particular festival was to prove crucial to the development of the entire project, providing an exemplary model for future ethnographic research. The festival’s creators, local institutions, and Ministry of Culture officials came together to resolve myriad issues facing the continuing existence of the festival as a genuine celebration remaining true to its roots. This cooperative process led to the eventual adoption of new safeguarding methodologies. The Festa del Soccorso model is being replicated at other festival sites, using an ethnographically-informed approach to overcome complex stumbling blocks that would otherwise put the celebrations themselves at risk, with resulting issues for social cohesion.

The training course focuses on cultural heritage, starting with the concept of celebration itself, and then explores the best practices for safeguarding that are currently being implemented throughout Italy.

Programme

10.00 a.m.

“Intangible Bonds, Twenty-Eight Festive Landscapes” guided tour led by the curators (the guided tour is repeated in the early evening to allow all participants to talk to the curators).

10.30 a.m.

Welcome and introduction

Ilaria Miarelli Mariani, Director of the Museum of Rome in Trastevere, Capitoline Superintendent for Cultural Heritage of the Capital City of Rome

Leandro Ventura, Central Institute for Intangible Heritage, Ministry of Culture

Training session, part 1

Cristina Ambrosini, Emilia-Romagna Region, and Patrizia Cirino, Regional Directorate of National Museums, Emilia-Romagna

The Mutoid Waste Company arrived in Santarcangelo di Romagna in the early 1990s. Here, on the site of a former gravel quarry on the banks of the Marecchia River, they established Mutonia, a scrap village. Mutonia is a space for creative reuse practices, transcending art and craftsmanship to create post-industrial interpretations of waste. The park is open to the public.

Fabio Fichera, Central Institute for Intangible Heritage Ministry of Culture

The Madonna del Soccorso Festival in the town of San Severo illustrates the challenges of established tradition facing inevitable transformation. The success of the cooperative and collaborative approach was replicated across other celebrations that participated in the project and exhibition. These events are currently the focus of ongoing ethnographic research. Ethnographic research and methodology was crucial to confronting the issues that arose during the preparations for this festival. The most urgent issue, of implementing updated safety and security policies, has now been resolved.

Cinzia Marchesini, Central Institute for Intangible Heritage Ministry of Culture

The Institute has implemented a range of research and cooperation initiatives resulting in carefully considered, effective, and collaborative strategies to safeguard intangible heritage. This presentation focuses on the challenges and obstacles encountered during the Institute’s research, and proposes viable solutions.

Fabio Mugnaini, University of Siena

The term “paper communities” arose during discussions at a recent SIAC conference. It was coined as a reference to the risk of a shift in heritage practices that could result in the self-supporting and self-referential reality of procedure being superimposed onto the complex and elusive reality of intangible heritage. The topic is further developed by considering examples from the long history of the UNESCO ICH Convention, with a focus on procedures for defining the heritage of festivals.

Daniele Parbuono, University of Perugia

The School of Specialization in Demo-ethno-anthropology and the ICPI have been collaborating on ethnographic projects for more than four years. Looking back over the experience today helps identify research proposals for future collaboration. The presentation considers the critical issues arising from the small number of demo-ethno-anthropologists employed at the Ministry of Culture, and the scarcity of tools currently available for implementing effective safeguarding policies. The presentation goes on to demonstrate how ethnography and long-term research can lead to solutions that embrace difference and are grounded in people’s everyday lived experience.

1.00 p.m. lunch break

 

2.00 p.m.

Training Session, Part Two

Antonio Bartolini, University of Perugia

The presentation highlights the complex distinction between intangible heritage and cultural heritage, considering critical issues of legal coordination, the flexibility of “soft law” versus mandatory norms, and the paradoxes of constraints on collective identity. It analyses the difference between conservation (with reference to tangible assets, or things) and safeguarding of intangible heritage, examining functional aspects such as status creation, ethnographic investigation and patrimonialization.

 

Annalisa Gualdani, University of Siena

Analysis of Law No. 152/2024, which mandates the Government to adopt regulations for the protection of intangible cultural heritage. A reflection on the principles and guiding criteria of the mandate. The role of private participation in the processes of identifying and safeguarding cultural heritage. A reflection on possible new models of safeguarding beyond those established by the Code.

 

Giulia Mazzoni, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart

The presentation examines the legal and organizational structure envisaged for religious walks, in light of recent initiatives by the Ministry of Tourism. It also considers the eventual implementation and operation of the Ecclesiastical Cultural Parks envisaged in the Italian Episcopal Conference’s Beauty and Hope for All initiative.

 

Girolamo Sciullo, AEDON/il Mulino

Experiences in safeguarding intangible cultural heritage from a legal perspective: the cases of the Madonna del Soccorso Festival and Mutonia Park. Reflections on the present and ideas for the future.

 

4.00 p.m.

Work Proposals for Intangible Heritage

Luciano Donato, or Deputy Anna Bondini, Legislative Office, Ministry of Culture

Fabrizio Magani, Directorate General for Archaeology, Fine Arts, and Landscape, Ministry of Culture