On 7 December, the European Year of Cultural Heritage (EYCH) was launched in Milan. As a member of the EYCH Stakeholder Committee, Interpret Europe is authorised to give the official EYCH label to initiatives of its members.
800 EU representatives of the cultural sector and civil society celebrated the opening of the European Year of Cultural Heritage at this year’s European Culture Forum by EU Commissioner for Education, Culture, Youth, and Sport, Tibor Navracsics and by the President of the European Parliament, Antonio Tajani. Besides panel discussions, workshops and many cultural side-events, inspiring contributions came especially from young people describing on stage what cultural heritage means to them. You can watch parts of the opening ceremony at www.facebook.com/CreativeEuropeEU/videos/1585916918113477/.
The motto of the Year is ‘Our heritage: where the past meets the future’. Experiencing heritage first hand in order to give it a deeper meaning is at the very heart of the Year. This is where you can contribute.
If you plan an international initiative in Europe for 2018, Interpret Europe can award you with the EYCH label if this initiative meets one of the following aims:
- People-centred, inclusive, forward-looking, more integrated, sustainable and cross-sectoral approaches to cultural heritage
- Innovative models of participatory governance and management
- Debate and research on the quality of conservation, safeguarding, innovative reuse and enhancement of cultural heritage
- Cultural heritage accessible to all
- Research and innovation for cultural heritage, statistics
- Synergy between cultural heritage and environment policies
- Regional and local development strategies and sustainable tourism
- Skills and knowledge management and transfer in the cultural heritage sector
- Cultural heritage as a source of inspiration for contemporary creation and innovation
- Education and lifelong learning
- Intercultural dialogue, post-conflict reconciliation and conflict prevention
- Research and innovation in relation to cultural heritage
- Focus on events that have a symbolic importance for Europe’s history and cultural heritage
You can find the complete guidelines including all requirements for the acknowledgement of a EYCH initiative at www.interpret-europe.net/material.
So, if you run an international initiative in Europe, if you think this meets at least one of the aims mentioned above, and if you like to get the EYCH label for this initiative, please get in touch with our Cultural Heritage Coordinator (patrick.lehnes@interpret-europe.net).
You can also apply for international initiatives in Europe directly at the Commission. For a project or event on local, regional or national level you can apply at your EYCH country coordinator to receive the label. We published the list of all EYCH country coordinators in the newsletter 2017-3.
More detailed information can be found on the EYCH website: https://europa.eu/cultural-heritage/european-year-cultural-heritage_en where you can also register for the EYCH newsletter to keep you updated.
To cite this article:
IE Managment (2017) ‘Go for the EYCH label’. In Interpret Europe Newsletter 4-2017, 9-10.
