How can we protect heritage sites?

The University of Brighton welcomed academics from across the world to a research workshop based around safeguarding cultural heritage.

International delegates included staff from the National Museum of Brazil, which was largely destroyed by fire in 2018. The event, led by the University of Brighton’s Dr Karina Rodriguez Echavarria, was given added pertinence and poignancy by the recent damage to Notre Dame Cathedral.

The two-day workshop was entitled ‘Community-led digital strategies for safeguarding and (re)building cultural heritage’ and aimed to explore opportunities for supporting communities in the effort to protect cultural heritage sites from decay and destruction due to neglect, looting, trafficking, vandalism, natural or man-made disasters.

Reflecting on the workshop, Dr Rodriguez Echavarria said: “Participants agreed on the need to empower young people to engage with their cultural heritage in order to ensure its preservation for the future, while improving young people’s wellbeing, their opportunities in life and their sense of identity”.

The workshop was funded by the University of Brighton’s Accelerator Scheme for International Networks and Impacts (ASINI).