Intangible Cultural Heritage Safeguarding: Inventorying, Documentation and Transmission – Amsterdam, 2–6 Aug 2027

Programme overview

Introduction:

Intangible cultural heritage disappears quietly: a last master weaver stops teaching, festival songs survive only on one elder's memory, and well-meant promotion turns a ritual into a stage act that its bearers no longer recognise. Heritage bodies often respond with scattered recordings that no community approved and no plan follows. This Core Concept course gives heritage authority staff, cultural NGOs and researchers a working method for safeguarding living heritage, from community consent and fieldwork inventorying to transmission and responsible promotion. Participants produce an Inventory Entry and Safeguarding Plan for one element.

Course Objectives:

• Identify living heritage elements across the five UNESCO domains and assess their viability and the threats to their transmission
• Explain the UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage and the purpose of its lists and register when advising on nominations
• Obtain and record community consent and agree roles with practitioners, bearers and custodians before any documentation begins
• Conduct inventorying fieldwork using structured interviews, audio-visual recording and consistent metadata for every recorded item
• Design safeguarding measures for transmission through apprenticeships, formal and non-formal education and accessible digital archives
• Judge tourism and creative industry proposals for decontextualisation, over-commercialisation and misappropriation risks to an element

Target Audience:

• Heritage authority functions responsible for national or local inventories of living traditions
• Cultural NGO functions that run community programmes for crafts, music, oral traditions and festivals
• Research and documentation functions in universities and cultural centres that record practitioners in the field
• Archive and library functions that store and give access to audio-visual heritage recordings
• Culture policy and planning functions that prepare safeguarding strategies and nomination files
• Cultural programming functions that link heritage bearers with education, tourism and creative sector partners

Course Outline:

Day 1: Living Heritage Concepts and Viability Baseline

• Five UNESCO Domains: Oral Traditions, Performing Arts, Social Practices, Knowledge of Nature and Traditional Craftsmanship
• Traditional, Contemporary, Inclusive, Representative and Community-Based Characteristics of Living Heritage
• Bearers, Practitioners and Custodians: Stakeholder Mapping Grid
• Element Viability Assessment Checklist: Practitioner Numbers, Learners and Frequency of Practice
• Threat Scan: Urbanisation, Migration, Language Shift and Loss of Raw Materials

Day 2: The Convention, Its Lists and Community Consent

• UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage: Purposes and Obligations at Overview
• List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding versus Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity
• Register of Good Safeguarding Practices as a Source of Transferable Models
• Community Consent Protocol: Prior Informed Consent Forms, Withdrawal Rights and Customary Restrictions on Secret Knowledge
• Participatory Workshop Formats for Selecting and Prioritising Elements with Communities

Day 3: Inventorying and Fieldwork Documentation

• Inventory Entry Template: Element Identification, Domain, Location, Bearers and Viability Fields
• Semi-Structured Interview Guide for Elders, Masters and Young Learners
• Audio-Visual Recording Kit: Microphone Placement, Camera Framing and Field Logs
• Metadata Schema for Recordings: Descriptive, Rights and Technical Fields
• Transcription, Translation and Community Validation of Field Materials

Day 4: Transmission, Archiving and Promotion Risks

• Master-Apprentice Transmission Schemes: Selection, Stipends and Progress Records
• Living Heritage in School Curricula and Non-Formal Community Classes
• Digital Archive Workflow: File Formats, Backup Copies and Tiered Access Permissions
• Tourism and Creative Industry Proposals: Decontextualisation and Over-Commercialisation Tests
• Ethics and Risk Register: Misappropriation, Freezing of Practice and Benefit-Sharing Agreements

Day 5: Element Case Study and Safeguarding Plan

• Case Study: Endangered Weaving Craft with an Ageing Master and No Formal Apprentices
• Case Study: Seasonal Festival Facing Tourist Crowds and Staged Performances
• Safeguarding Plan Logic Model: Objectives, Measures, Responsible Parties and Resources
• Monitoring Indicators: Active Practitioners, New Learners and Community Satisfaction Feedback
• Inventory Entry and Safeguarding Plan Drafting and Peer Review

Skills You Will Gain:

• Living Heritage Identification
• Viability Assessment
• Community Consent Management
• Ethnographic Interviewing
• Audio-Visual Field Recording
• Heritage Metadata Cataloguing
• Transmission Programme Design
• Heritage Ethics Risk Review

Why Attend This Course:

• Return with an Inventory Entry and Safeguarding Plan for one element, tested on case studies during the course
• Leave with consent forms, interview guides and a metadata sheet ready for the next field visit
• Spot proposals that would turn a living tradition into a stage product before they reach approval
• Compare inventorying and transmission practice with peers from heritage bodies, NGOs, universities and archives

Conclusion:

Living heritage survives only while people keep practising and teaching it, so safeguarding work has to start and end with its bearers. The one week move from the five domains and viability, through the Convention, its lists and community consent, to interviews, audio-visual recording and metadata, then to apprenticeships, education, digital archiving and the risks of tourism and commercial use. The final day applies two element case studies and closes with an Inventory Entry and Safeguarding Plan reviewed by peers.