Under the patronage of His Highness Dr. Sheik Sultan bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, Ruler of Sharjah, Member of the Supreme Council of the United Arab Emirates

Partners

• ICCROM (International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property)
• Sharjah Department of Culture and Information
• Sharjah Museums Department
• American University of Sharjah
• University of Sharjah

Duration: 3 days (1 - 3 June 2010)

Place: Sharjah, United Arab Emirates (Sharjah Archaeology Museum)

Participants
Participants from eleven Arab countries (Morocco, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, United Arab Emirates, Yemen) attended the meeting, in addition to representatives from international and regional organizations such as ALECSO, ICCROM, UNESCO, ECCO, MOSAIKON, and the Association of Arab Universities.

Aim
To enhance the relationship between conservation curricula and practice in the Arab Region.

Content
The workshop combined presentations, discussions, plenary brainstorms and group work concerning the following units:

• Review of international documents on definitions of conservation professions;
• Practitioners views of needs/specializations in the context of regional conditions, with special references to the 2nd cycle of World Heritage periodic reporting for the Arab States;
• Reflecting on the scope of education and training programmes-needs for transformation of existing curricula;
• Mapping key areas of focus of participating institutions in their relevant expertise.

Main achievements
The institutions involved identified action plans to be implemented in the coming months, as follows:

• Undertaking a survey addressed to the nature and scope of existing training programmes dealing with heritage conservation;
• Conducting a follow-up workshop in order to establish a regional body of professional conservators and specialists;
• Consolidating the work of the existing network and expanding it to ensure inclusive participation of all educational and training institutions;
• Developing pilot projects and initiatives aiming to integrate heritage conservation in university curricula at undergraduate level;
• Presenting the result of the ATHAR network to official bodies in the Region (e.g. Ministries of Culture and Higher Education) at their relevant meetings in the framework of the Arab League.

Member States represented: Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates and Yemen

updated on: 25 May, 2011