Exploring intangible cultural heritage in museum contexts

ICOMOS-UK Intangible Cultural Heritage Committee (ICHC) is pleased to present this report of the pilot project Exploring Intangible Cultural Heritage in Museum Contexts. It is a collaborative developmental initiative between the ICHC and Arts Council England (ACE). The Report demonstrates the need for involvement of ICH practicing communities, and of artists as intermediaries between the diverse groups of bearers and cultural organisations, in order to forge an equitable tripartite curation that can make collections and museum spaces alive and relevant to contemporary society. The framework for the project was based on UNESCO’s 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage – an international standard-setting instrument, which provides definitions of ICH for the safeguarding of intangible culture and the role of bearer communities. Four museums, Hastings Museum & Art Gallery, Weald and Downland Living Museum, Museum of Cambridge, and Peterborough Museum and Art Gallery, rose to the challenge and volunteered to be part of the pilot. A bespoke methodology comprising two layers of processes were used to gauge museums’ level of awareness and knowledge of ICH, test the use of ICH as an interpretative tool, explore the role of artists as intermediaries to facilitate interactions between the practicing communities and museums, and establish what types of synergies and dynamics the threeway relationship could yield in curating collections in the museums and those held by the bearer communities. The project was showcased at ICOMOS-UK’s ICH Committee’s conference of the 23rd of March 2019 focusing on safeguarding ICH – the passing on of our diverse living heritages to future generations.