First Aid and Resilience for Cultural Heritage in Times of Crisis (FAR) Courses

National Museum, Brazil. Notre Dame, Paris. Shuri Castle, Japan. Table Mountain, South Africa. Invaluable heritage resources get destroyed in catastrophic fires every year. In most cases, they are highly preventable. In order to develop tailored solutions, it is important to better understand the nature of fire risk for heritage and work with relevant stakeholders.

Amid the current pandemic, many cultural heritage institutions find themselves vulnerable to the risks of fire, flood, typhoons, earthquakes, and other such hazard events. The threats are however, not just limited to natural hazards, but also include man-made causes like looting, chemical explosions and armed conflicts. Often, heritage professionals are confronted with complex scenarios, where one hazard overlaps with another to create an even...

Are you interested in learning how to safeguard cultural heritage in times of crisis? Targeted at professionals working in the fields of humanitarian assistance, civil protection, military and disaster risk management, and those working in the field of cultural heritage, First Aid to Cultural Heritage in Times of Crisis (FAC) 2019 offers an interconnected learning and field-application opportunity.

Culture is a vital resource. Whether it's the rescue of the ancient manuscripts in besieged Timbuktu or the careful salvage of destroyed temples in the earthquake that struck the Kathmandu Valley, affected communities will always strive to protect their cultural heritage following an emergency.

Cultural heritage is of great value to communities worldwide. It connects us to the past, serves as a basis for our identity and as a source of knowledge. Furthermore, it can contribute to economic growth and sustainable development. However, heritage is vulnerable, especially to the impact of natural disasters.

#culturecannotwait: Many different types of professionals respond to an unfolding crisis. This course provides strategies for interlocking culture specialists with humanitarian specialists during an emergency situation and aims to unify these sometimes conflicting perspectives.

According to the Emergency Events database EM-DAT, from 2000-2012, around 2.9 billion people were adversely affected by disasters caused by natural hazards (e.g., earthquakes, floods, storms etc.).