Working Group on Cultural Heritage and Property
The SIEF Working Group on Cultural Heritage and Property (CHP) was established at the 2008 Derry congress, to address multiple dimensions of cultural heritage, its symbolic and economic power, as well as contingent political implications. Its interests and activities encompass issues of heritage policy, theory, and practice.
Any SIEF member is welcome to join our working group. To join, visit the CHP WG page of the SIEF website and register online for the CHP WG listserv. If you would like to learn more, or become involved in WG activities, send an email to Carley Williams or Robert Baron.
CHP WG Symposium
The CHP Working Group’s biennial convening, Transformations and Applications of Folkloristic and Ethnological Knowledge: Historical Perspectives on Public Practice, is a collaboration with the Historical Approaches in Cultural Analysis Working Group. It will be held 27-29 May at IDEAS in Aix-en-Provence, and Salagon, a research centre and gardens in Haute-Provence. While in-person attendance is now at capacity, all are welcome to attend the symposium online. See the news of Working Group on Historical Approaches in Cultural Analysis and Cultural Heritage and Property for more details about the event and to register to join us online!
As ever, CHP members are involved in a number of important heritage related activities:
Report on the legal and policy frameworks of crafts in Europe has been published
A research team from the Latvian Academy of Culture (LAC) associated with the UNESCO Chair on Intangible Cultural Heritage Policy and Law published the Report on Legal and Policy Frameworks of Crafts in Europe: Approaches at the State Level, within the framework of the research project Tracks4Crafts. It analyses how crafts are supported, regulated and developed across different countries as part of cultural heritage and the creative economy. The report provides an in-depth overview of how craft skills and knowledge in Europe are being protected, transmitted to future generations, and adapted to contemporary social, economic, and cultural contexts. The annex to the report analyzes the reports submitted by European countries to UNESCO on the implementation of the 2003 Convention.
Read the Report
Read the Report Annex
Rethinking Commemoration in Urban Spaces – international seminar
On 13 April 2026, the UNESCO Chair on Intangible Cultural Heritage in Public and Global Governance at the University of Warsaw contributed to the international seminar Rethinking Commemoration in Urban Spaces, organised within the World Cities Culture Forum Leadership Exchange Programme.
The event explored how commemorative practices in urban environments relate to intangible cultural heritage, public memory, and participatory governance. It brought together city representatives, researchers, and cultural practitioners to reflect on evolving forms of remembrance in contemporary cities.
Hanna Schreiber’s contribution to the World Cities Culture Forum Leadership Exchange Programme in Warsaw, April 2026.
Perspectives of Intangible Cultural Heritage Series
The UNESCO Chair on Applied Studies of Intangible Cultural Heritage at the University of Tartu hosts the series Perspectives of Intangible Cultural Heritage, showcasing research and initiatives on intangible cultural heritage. Featuring monthly lectures and discussions, the series brings together scholars, students and practitioners working on and thinking about intangible cultural heritage and related themes.
The final session of this series will take place on 14 May: Heritage Institutions Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage: Perspectives from Armenia and Scotland featuring Christine Abrell and Emma Ramsay, alumnae of the Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Education in Museums and Heritage (EDUMaH).
Kaustinen ICH Summer Academy and Festival 2026
Kaustinen ICH Summer Academy, which runs in connection with the Kaustinen Folk Music Festival, creates space for exchange among students, researchers, practitioners, and performers working with intangible cultural heritage. The ICH Academy offers a Blended Intensive Program, organised by the Centria University of Applied Sciences in collaboration with the Finnish Folk Music Institute, enabling undergraduate students to gain course credits. Speakers, who come from Europe and beyond, have included several CHP WG members. The programme of lectures and seminars aims to raise awareness and share best practices and grassroots methods for safeguarding ICH. Participants enrich their lived experience of traditional music and dance through immersion in the environment of this major festival.
Kaustinen Festival & Program
Kaustinen ICH Academy (2025 Program; 2026 details to come)
Watch Programming from previous Academies
SIEF & UNESCO ICH
CHP WG members continue to be heavily involved in UNESCO ICH activities as experts in State Party delegations, members of the Evaluation Body, and as active participants in the ICH NGO Forum and its Working Groups.
The ICH NGO Forum recently launched the online publication Participatory Approaches to Living Heritage: NGO Perspectives. The editorial team from the Working Group Research and contributors included several CHP members. The publication includes an introduction to issues concerning community involvement and self-determination in ICH safeguarding as well as case studies from multiple regions of the world.
The eleventh session of the General Assembly of the States Parties to the Convention (11.GA) for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage will be held at UNESCO Headquarters, Paris, from 17-18 June 2026. During two days, the 185 States Parties will gather to discuss issues relating to the safeguarding of living heritage around the world and the future of the Convention. The agenda will include the periodic reporting mechanisms of the Convention, a proposal for related amendments to the Operational Directives, the plan for the use of the resources of the Intangible Cultural Heritage Fund, and the accreditation of non-governmental organizations.
As SIEF is an accredited NGO to the 2003 UNESCO ICH Convention, members may attend the General Assembly in person, and anyone can follow the proceedings online. The 11.GA meeting page has a link for in-person registration, and the link to watch live proceedings online will be posted there in due course: https://ich.unesco.org/en/11ga
As SIEF is an accredited UNESCO NGO, any SIEF member can also join an ICH NGO Forum Working Group through emailing the contacts on the working group page of the ICH NGO Forum website. Activities of the ICH NGO Forum appear in its newsletter, on the Facebook group: Intangible Cultural Heritage and Civil Society and the LinkedIn group: ICH NGO Forum.
These upcoming ICH NGO Forum events and activities which will likely be of interest to our CHP working group members:
Call for Articles #HeritageAlive: Traditional Masks and Masquerades
#HeritageAlive is a biennial journal supported by ICHCAP that highlights NGOs’ experiences in safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) (HeritageAlive – ICH NGO Forum). The next edition, to be published by the end of 2027, will focus on Traditional Masks and Masquerades. Submissions of articles are invited that showcase best practices in safeguarding the diverse manifestations of intangible cultural heritage associated with masks and masquerades.
Deadline: 31 May 2026
Visit the website for full details.
Call for Short Films: Safeguarding Living Traditions
#HeritageAlive is also inviting accredited NGOs to submit short films (under 8 minutes) on the theme of living heritage and cultural traditions. They are looking for compelling visual stories that highlight the safeguarding, transmission, resilience, and continuity of intangible cultural heritage traditions of communities from around the world. A total of 6 films will be selected and featured at a side event at the 21st Session of the Intergovernmental Committee of UNESCO 2003 Convention (21.COM) in Xiamen, China in 2026. Deadline: July 30, 2026
Submission and technical guidelines
**NB: Please let Carley and Robert know if you are interested in submitting a film on behalf of SIEF, as only one film may be submitted by an NGO.
Interdisciplinary Conversations on Intangible Cultural Heritage and Tourism
The ICH NGO Forum Working Group on ICH and Tourism has announced a new series of online ICH Tourism dialogues which will be of interest to the CHP Working Group and other SIEF members.
Interdisciplinary Conversations on Intangible Cultural Heritage and Tourism Dialogues will address important topics which include overtourism, festivals and world heritage sites.
A preview of the 2026 program:
- 23 June 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. CEST Dialogue on tourism (and over tourism) in Carnivals in Colombia with Giovanny Arteaga - Fundación Mundo Espiral (Colombia) Chaired by Martín Andrade-Perez (SIEF member / Fundación Erigaie / ICH NGO Forum)
- 19 August 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. CEST Nationalised Heritagisation Discourse in the Arabian Gulf Region with Dr. AlAnood AlShaikh – Postdoctoral Associate, NYUAD, Vice Chair-ICOMO UAE and Saad Hanif, Adjunct Lecturer at the University of BahrainChaired by Ananya Bhattacharya (Contact Base / ICH NGO Forum)
- 5 November 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. CET Intangible Cultural Heritage Tourism in World Heritage Site: Case Study of Lijiang, China with Dr. Junjie Su, Director of the Yunnan Provincial Research Base of Intangible Cultural Heritage and Associate Professor at the School of Ethnology and Sociology, Yunnan University, China Chaired by Robert Baron (SIEF CHP WG Co-Chair / Goucher College / ICH NGO Forum)
This series of online dialogues take place in the framework of the ICH NGO Forum’s Web Dossier on Intangible Cultural Heritage and Sustainable Tourism. Through open conversations, the Dialogues look to expand the scope of understanding around the relationship between ICH and tourism.
