Cultural Heritage Awareness Webinars

The Hellenic Committee of the Blue Shield in collaboration with the University of Nicosia and the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens organized a series of Webinars in order to raise awareness for the protection of cultural heritage (both tangible and intangible) in emergency situations, such as in cases of armed conflict and environmental disasters, in line with the objectives of the Blue Shield. The events were interdisciplinary in character and thematically focused on five issue areas that are considered critically important for the management of the evolving challenges of cultural heritage protection, namely: (a) cultural heritage and international security, (b) intangible cultural heritage safeguarding in times of crises, (c) cultural heritage and climate change, (d) return of antiquities illegally removed from their countries of origin, (e) legal and managerial issues pertaining to the collections of Museums and Cultural Institutions. The organizing institutions’ initiative sought to bring together academics, students, practitioners, professionals of cultural institutions, representatives from NGOs, policy makers and representatives of the civil society from Greece, Cyprus and other countries, in order to discuss the current challenges in areas that underpin cultural heritage protection in emergency situations. The webinars took place virtually due to the COVID-19 restrictions. At the end of each event an open discussion followed.