MedINA participated in the “4th Summer School on Rural Cultural Heritage”, organized by the Directorate of Modern Cultural Heritage (DINEPOK), Ministry of Culture, at the Convention & Cultural Center of beautiful Dimitsana from 23 to 30 July, on the theme “Cooperating with communities: Designing and implementing actions for the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage”.
A series of courses, workshops and activities took place during the week, with the participation of experts in Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) management and 22 students. The former President of the Hellenic Republic, Prokopis Pavlopoulos, honoured the summer school with his presence on the first day and shared his thoughts on ICH and its significance. Representatives of DINEPOK and other officials of the Ministry of Culture as well as the Ministry of Education, researchers, teachers, and members of associations raised a number of issues related to policies on ICH, its safeguarding and good practices, cooperation with communities for its promotion, the challenge of its integration in education, and the need to teach traditional arts and crafts in a more systematic way.
Irini Lyratzaki, MedINA’s cultural heritage expert, participated in all the activities of the summer school. Rigas Zafeiriou, manager of the Terra Graeca programme, contributed as a speaker to the workshop “Designing Interventions for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage”, presenting MedINA’s holistic approach to the safeguarding of the agrifood heritage of Lemnos Island from 2017 to date.
The week of the 4th Summer School ended with a traditional event, a festivity at Agios Georgios of Dimitsana and the handing out of the certificates to the participating students.
We would like to thank the Directorate of Modern Cultural Heritage for the invitation and the opportunity to actively participate in the endeavour of safeguarding the living heritage of our country.
