At the 14th Advisory Forum on Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe in Türkyie, heritage interpretation was placed as a central pillar and a cross-cutting priority for developing Cultural Routes across Europe and beyond. Drawing on the panel discussion to which IE contributed, this article highlights the Forum’s recommendations and what this means for heritage interpretation. 

Set against the dramatic landscape of Cappadocia, Forum gathered over 350 participants to reflect on how Cultural Routes can strengthen heritage protection, sustainable tourism, and community engagement. Heritage interpretation as a cross-cutting skill can contribute to all these developmental needs of the Routes. Heritage interpretation was referred to in terms that Interpret Europe has been advocating for in recent years. This was due to some influential speakers, among whom were academics such as Mike Robinson and Chris Whitehead from the UK, and Peter Debrine from UNESCO, who represented our profession alongside IE’s director Helena Vičič. 

In the panel on Heritage Interpretation, speakers emphasised that interpretation today is no longer simply about conveying information. It is about shaping relationships between people and place, between past and present, and across cultures. The Forum’s conclusions strongly echoed this shift, calling for innovative, inclusive, and values-based interpretation that emotionally resonates with audiences and brings human values to life through providing holistic interpretive experiences. 

An equally important element of the conclusions paper was the recognition that interpretation must be co-created with communities, ensuring plural perspectives and acknowledging diverse, and at times contested, histories. Community interpretation restores the bond between residents and their heritage, and allows visitors to engage with authentic, lived experiences rather than curated narratives.

Interpreters are positioned not merely as communicators but as facilitators of dialogue, empathy, and intercultural understanding across transnational networks. The Forum’s encouragement to develop shared interpretive frameworks (across routes), collaborate with guide associations, and invest in training, marks a major step toward elevating interpretation as a professional field within the Cultural Routes programme.

The conclusions also carry significant implications for European cultural policy. By linking interpretation to urgent contemporary issues, such as climate change, migration, social inequalities, and environmental degradation, the Forum reframed interpretation as an action-oriented tool capable of inspiring societal change.

This positions interpreters as contributors not only to heritage management, but also to democratic participation and social cohesion, echoing the human-rights-based principles of the Faro Convention.

For the future of cultural routes, the Forum’s outcomes provide a clear blueprint. Interpretation is recognised as a driver of sustainable tourism, capable of deepening visitor engagement while helping to disperse heavy footfall away from overburdened destinations. It supports local economies by empowering residents to become guides and heritage ambassadors. And importantly, it reinforces landscape-based approaches that place communities at the heart of heritage protection.

As experienced during the discussions in Cappadocia, the momentum around heritage interpretation has rarely been stronger. The Forum’s conclusions reaffirm that interpretation is central to building a more inclusive, resilient, and meaningful cultural landscape across Europe. For Interpret Europe, this moment represents both a responsibility and an opportunity: to support Europe’s heritage sector in ways that speak to the challenges and hopes of our time, through training, networking, advocacy and policy work.  

These recommendations signal a paradigm shift in the cultural sector that is underway. This new approach to interpretation is a guiding light of all IE progammes, including training, the Learning Landscapes initiative and the upcoming conference in Faro, Portugal, that will build on the spirit of the Faro Convention. 

The IE News Team is led by Marie Banks, News Coordinator. She can be contacted at: marie.banks@interpret-europe.net.

Why not join the next IE conference in Portugal in April 2026 to discuss more about the Cultural Routes Forum and the wider implications of the recognition of interpretation. www.interpreteuropeconference.net.   

To cite this article: IE News Team (2025) ‘Reflections from the 14th Advisory Forum on Cultural Routes’ in Interpret Europe Newsletter 4‑2025, p. 4-5.
Available online: Newsletter winter 2025

Interpret Europe is launching the first of four annual promotion campaigns on key themes for the interpretive community. The overall campaign concept is “Change perspective”.

This signature reflects IE’s longstanding contribution to personal meaning-making through value-based and people-centred heritage interpretation which thrives on exchange and participation. So, stay updated on the latest news and follow IE official channels over the coming weeks and months as we explore this all-important subject in its different dimensions.

With this first campaign on ‘participation‘, IE invites heritage professionals, partner organisations and members to join and strengthen a community where interpretation is shaped together through dialogue, shared understanding, co-creation, and respect for multiple perspectives.

Policy and decision-making bodies are acknowledging the vital role that heritage and heritage professionals play in relation to wider societal, economic and environmental issues such as active citizenship, sustainability and social cohesion, but we still need to draw greater attention to our contribution.

Participation is more than a technique. It is part of the people-centred approach that we want to foster within the interpretive community and indeed with communities to create meaning with others in the field. It’s the path we walk, together.

19 May, 18:00 CEST 

The Global Alliance for Heritage Interpretation is inviting all interpreters around the world to a series of webinars in 2022.

Join us for the next one: Whose Story is it Anyway: Interpreting the Cultural Mosaic of Canada

Interpretation is often used as a way of encouraging our audiences to walk in someone else’s shoes.  But… don’t you need someone’s permission to borrow their shoes before you go walking around in them?

In Canada, interpreting within a cultural mosaic compels us to grapple with how to present multiple perspectives. We may not have permission to tell stories from cultures that aren’t our own. At the same time, we must acknowledge that every story can be seen from multiple perspectives, and presenting these perspectives is often the reason our sites exist in the first place. When interpretation seeks to help people understand and connect with viewpoints other than their own, what does that mean for us as interpreters?

Join Global Alliance for Heritage Interpretation for a discussion about the intersection of story, culture, empathy, and interpretation.

UNESCO is working in partnership with PRAXIS at the University of Leeds, UK and with support from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) to deliver a series of brief reports honing in on key themes within the cultural heritage for sustainable development sphere.

Agreed in 2015 by the United Nations General Assembly, the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) unite 193 Governments with the shared aim of leaving both our planet and societies on a sustainable footing for future generations.

The Heritage and Our Sustainable Future conference was held online in March 2021 and we have previously reported on how relevant it was to our interpretive work and IE’s current Tourism initative.

One of the latest reports in the series to come out of the conference follow-up work, released on 18 November 2021, was the Creative Industries and Tourism: Beyond Economic Development Brief Report. The conference session explored the role of heritage-based tourism, intangible heritage and creativity in promoting more inclusive, people-centred and sustainable approaches to socio-economic development. Contributors discussed how it is possible to unlock the potential of heritage to rethink and reframe our (unsustainable) models of development, which have often focused solely on economic growth and its immediate benefits. The session took into consideration a wider range of quality-of-life elements, and a variety of global challenges, including gender equality and climate change.

One of the key insights was:

“Heritage can be a driver for promoting sustainable tourism and generating new economic activities – from arts, crafts and creative industries to sustainable fishing, organic farming and agriculture – while also stimulating solidarity and empowering marginalised and disenfranchised groups.”

Recommendations from the report include:

• Create linkages between traditional heritage practices, contemporary arts and design, and modern techniques
• Increase heritage awareness and stimulate creativity
• Harness the potential of museums and heritage institutions as unique environments for community engagement, co-creation, networking with stakeholders and long-term heritage management

Of course, we can see how heritage interpretation could help to meet these goals.

The report can be found here:
https://unesco.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Creative-Industries-and-Tourism-Report.pdf

Why not look through the full series of thematically arranged reports:
https://unesco.org.uk/conference/heritage-and-our-sustainable-future/research-practice-policy-and-impact/

• Biocultural Heritage and Landscapes: Linking Nature and Culture
• Bridging the Gaps: Cultural Heritage for Climate Action
• Re-thinking Capacity Strengthening for Sustainable Development
• Reducing Inequalities and Decolonising Heritage Practices: People Centred Approaches
• Using Digital Technology to Innovate in Heritage Research, Policy and Practice
• Heritage, Mental Health and Well-Being
• Creative Industries and Tourism: Beyond Economic Development
• Heritage, Disaster Response and Resilience
• Inclusive Development for Sustainable Cities
• Evaluating the Impact of Cultural Heritage for Sustainable Development

To cite this article: IE News Team (2021) ‘UNESCO: Heritage and Our Sustainable Future series’ in Interpret Europe Newsletter 4-2021, pg.33

Available online: https://interpret-europe.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Newsletter-Winter-2021.pdf

Museum professionals will conduct research analysis of museum spaces in Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. The results will be available on the project’s website.

Inga Karaia, Director of the Georgian Museum Association (GMA), underlines the importance of the project, which is the first precedent of establishment of a long-term international training programme for museumers in the South Caucasus region. She hopes that, ‘BE MUSEUMER will become an interesting and useful platform for young museum professionals from all three countries and that it will strengthen the idea of founding the International Museum Study Centre at Tbilisi State Academy of Art.’

Julia Pagel, NEMO’s Secretary General, hopes that BE MUSEUMER will help in creating ‘advanced, inclusive, and diverse museum work environment in the whole South Caucasus region as well as a stronger connection between museums in Europe and Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan.’

For further information on the project can be found here: www.georgianmuseums.ge

Upcoming calls for the training and webinars will be announced on:
www.georgianmuseums.ge
www.ne-mo.org
www.academievoorcultuurmanagement.nl

This article was produced by Marie Banks, IE News Coordinator, from a NEMO Press Release.
NEMO (www.ne-mo.org) can be contacted: office@ne-mo.org

To cite this article:
NEMO – Network of European Museum Organisations (2019) ‘BE MUSEUMER’. In Interpret Europe Newsletter 1-2019, 25.
Available online:
www.interpret-europe.net/fileadmin/Documents/publications/Newsletters/ie-newsletter_2019-1_spring.pdf

The workshop’s programme consisted of several lectures and interactive workshops led by four different, very inspiring individuals: 

• Valya Stergioti, IE’s Training Coordinator and a freelance interpretation trainer and planner, introduced the attendees to the world of heritage interpretation, vividly describing her main principles with the help of many examples from her experience. She emphasised the idea of ‘provocation instead of instruction’ wherein heritage is brought closer to the user via universal human themes and experiences. 
• Daniela Angelina Jelinčić, a scientific adviser at the Institute for Development and International Relations in Zagreb, dealt with the senses and she practically illustrated the possibility of provoking emotions with the help of sensory stimuli. 
• Dragana Lucija Ratković Aydemir, Director of Muses Ltd consulting and management in culture and tourism, co-founder and vice-president of Interpret Croatia and IE’s Country Coordinator for Croatia, illustrated the art of interpretation planning with the example of her award-winning project, the ‘Kuća o batani’ eco-museum. She pointed out the power of heritage interpretation for the preservation of local identity and the vital role which the support of the local community has in it. 
• Lana Domšić, lecturer and coordinator of international cooperation on the course of cultural management at the accredited ‘Baltazar Zaprešić’ University lead the participants into the world of participatory approach in heritage interpretation, which was also her research subject in her PhD thesis, ‘The participatory interpretation of heritage and the social effects on the young’. 

We asked Lana Domšić to comment and expand on her workshop, which she called ‘Interpretation of heritage and tourism and the sustainable development of local communities’, and to speak about the impressions that she gained from the course:

‘The changes in the methods of communication and cultural spending which have come about in contemporary society, notably following the development of Internet technology, have also led to the changes in the understanding of the role of heritage interpretation,’ she says.

Lana’s workshop concluded that traditional tours are no longer enough to attract and hold the attention of visitors. The task for heritage institutions and experts is to abandon their role as expert and turn into facilitators who will enable interaction with heritage and encourage users into the communication, creation and the sharing of content. Museums and places of heritage must transform from static monuments into valuable resources for the sustainable development of a community and its learning.

During the highly interactive session, Lana and the participants discussed possible methods to personalise heritage and to encourage active inclusion through offering alternative viewpoints, user-created content, digital technology and participatory design. The participants contributed significantly with ideas and examples from their own practice or from heritage institutions that they had visited. The group also practised encouraging users into the active involvement by asking relevant and provocative questions.

Lana concluded:

‘It was a special honour for me, and I am pleased that I gave my presentation at this gathering in the company of three top experts in the field of heritage interpretation and cultural tourism.’

One of the participants, Vida Ungar, described the workshop as a great success: 

‘The excellent themes and even better leaders delighted our interpretation clan who were just waiting for the chance to learn from and enjoy the inspirational company. The workshop gave us an excellent introduction into the noble skill of heritage interpretation as well as a powerful incentive for the creative involvement of the connections of heritage in the life of the community’.

Ivana Jagić is a museologist and heritage manager from Zagreb, Croatia. Since 2013 she has been working in Muses Ltd consulting and management in culture and tourism, as a museologist and interpretation planner. She is the Association Secretary for Interpret Croatia and has been a member of Interpret Europe since 2016. She can be contacted at: ivana.jagic@muze.hr.

To cite this article:
Jagić Boljat, Ivana (2018) ‘Learning about interpretation in Å ibenik, Croatia’. In Interpret Europe Newsletter 4-2018, 24.
Available online:
www.interpret-europe.net/fileadmin/Documents/publications/Newsletters/ie-newsletter_2018-4_winter.pdf

ACE organised a panel discussion in order to take stock of the lessons learned over the EYCH on the ‘adaptive re-use’ theme. On this occasion, a declaration entitled Preserving and Enhancing the Values of our Built Heritage for Future Generations was presented. It recalls the multiple benefits of re-using the built heritage and highlights some good practices in terms of processes and design approach.

The showcased re-use projects went from singular buildings (e.g. churches) and small-scale compounds (e.g. farmsteads) to large-scale office buildings and entire housing quarters. The necessity of re-use and the types of presented projects revealed that both professional organisations and the architecture curricula have to deal with and improve the image of the ‘architecture of the ordinary’.

The presentations also addressed theoretical concepts and specific issues which define the frame of the paradigm shift in values and policies towards the adaptive re-use. Although the concept of conservation and adaptation of existing structures is as old as building in less perishable materials, the Zeitgeist of modernism lead to the vision of the city of the future as an opposite urban landscape to historical urban areas. Among others, due to social and economic reasons, the results of such concepts turn up to be unsustainable while reality doesn’t live up to the visions. In this context the presentations made clear that adaptive re-use has to be taken into consideration on an urban level in order to achieve social and economic viability. The involvement of the local community, e.g. through participatory design, is of imperative importance in order to find a suitable and accepted use for existing structures.

Conservation is commonly acknowledged as a task that can be addressed only by involving different disciplines. Adaptive re-use goes beneath conservation and links historical buildings to the needs of contemporary users. Since adaptive re-use can and should lead to social cohesion and engagement of the local community with their built heritage, it is worth further discussion how heritage interpretation can become part of the process.

The videos of the presentations are available on the conference website:
https://www.ace-cae.eu/activities/events/2018/built-heritage-conference/  

Claudiu Silvestru is IE’s Architects Coordinator. He can be contacted at: claudiu.silvestru@interpret-europe.net. 

To cite this article:
Silvestru, Claudiu (2018) ‘Adaptive re-use and transition of built heritage’. In Interpret Europe Newsletter 4-2018, 32.
Available online:
www.interpret-europe.net/fileadmin/Documents/publications/Newsletters/ie-newsletter_2018-4_winter.pdf

Three meridians east from London, on the same parallel with Vienna, bordered with mountain formations and stretched on a hill, the economic-craft centre of Kosovo grew in the 19th century. Just the same as the other two cities’ roles for the economies of their countries in the time of industrial revolution, with an impact on the overall economy of the region; a similar movement with smaller proportions was taking place in the central part of Kosovo. This economic movement had an extended impact across the Balkan Peninsula. Behind it all were the traders of Croatian nationality keeping this economic branch alive.

Regardless of demographic, social and political changes, a deep connection to their roots and nationalist bigotry affected the survival of these settlements. Letnica is the best example of how a place survives against modern ‘threats’ such as technology and cruel human hand. It is an example of the preservation of purity. When inside Letnica’s territory, we can feel a connection to inside the basic nature of being human. Letnica connects you with your natural instincts springing from land and nature, it reminds you that simplicity is the highest virtue and shows you that what makes you unforgettable is the unifying image of human and inhuman qualities.

‘Only a few people know me, but those that do, can never forget me’ is what the small village of Letnica conveys to us.

I’m sure none of the 30 participants of the Heritage Lab workshop, organised by CHwB Kosovo, will ever forget Letnica. It was our shelter for 12 days of the workshop, from 10-22 October, giving us an amazing experience in three important fields of built and cultural heritage, with a special focus on the built heritage. These three fields were:
conservation; adaptive reuse; and interpretation of cultural heritage.

In the conservation group, students of architecture, together with their Master supervisors, Besfort Axhanela and Fadil Krasniqi, partook in the remediation of the façade and roof damage of the only mill of Letnica, Frok Dokiči’s Mill.

The adaptive reuse group consisted mainly of architecture students, enthusiasts in redesigning existing spaces for further use. They, together with the workshop coordinator, Faton Hasani, designed furniture that adapted to a building’s new functions.

The ladies of the interpretation group, where I participated, collected oral histories and stories from the locals, so this distant, but oh-so-idyllic village could persist in maintaining its identity. We had to find the best way to present the result of the workshop, Letnica’s story and the key (touristic) points of the village. While in Kosovo there is still no official tourist map, the touristic line inside the Republic’s territory is yet not defined. Our extraordinary tutor, Janja Sivec, and amazing workshop coordinator, Erëmirë Krasniqi, paced our way into the best and most efficient storytelling and signage that gets applied in cases like ours. As a product of our workshop, the main roads of Letnica are left with indicating posters with basic information about the village’s landmarks. And also, since the mill was transformed into a living museum, we produced a booklet for visitors with the tools found in the mill. It must be mentioned that all these tools have a proper exhibition place thanks to the work of the conservation and adaptive reuse groups.

Experiences like these are one in a lifetime, and we will apply the lessons learned here in all the other times of our life.

Melisa Syla is a young architect, graduated in MA. Studies of Technical Sciences of Architecture from the University of Prishtina. She works in an architectural firm in Prishtina, completing the technical documentation of the current state of existing buildings. Since she comes from a young country with a huge cultural background, she’s interested to be the ‘voice’ of those structures that tell us a lot of history but are rarely heard.  You can get in touch with her at: sylamelisa@gmail.com. 

To cite this article:
Syla, Melisa (2018) ‘Heritage Lab in Kosovo: Letnica – an unwritten history’. In Interpret Europe Newsletter 4-2018, 28.
Available online:
www.interpret-europe.net/fileadmin/Documents/publications/Newsletters/ie-newsletter_2018-4_winter.pdf

On the morning of 2 October, 48 heritage interpreters gathered at the Old Castle of Celje on the top of the castle hill. 14 of us were IE members, while the others came from similar organisations, working mainly in heritage promotion and tourism.

After the morning wake-up coffee we split into two groups. The first one was taken on a round tour of the castle by Carmen Klepej, an IE Certified Interpretive Guide. Using only the power of word, through story-telling, comparisons and other rhetorical stepping stones, Carmen managed to move us back through time to the year 1392. She painted for us a vivid picture of the castle kitchen, the family life of the Counts from Celje as well as their subsequent marriage contracts, their dynastic fights and their final tragedy.

Meanwhile, the second group was engaged in Janja’s workshop. Janja introduced two of the IE training courses: Certified Interpretive Guide (CIG) and the Certified Interpretive Host (CIH). She discussed the role of interpretation in conveying messages and the various types of heritage, such as tangible and intangible, mobile versus static, etc.

The two groups then swapped places. The first one attended Helena’s workshop, while the second one followed Carmen on a guided tour. Helena presented the Certified Interpretive Planner (CIP) course, the first of which was soon to take place in Rijeka, Croatia. We were encouraged to consider various aspects which need careful attention when planning any kind of interpretation, be it in the form of an exhibition, a thematic trail etc. We learned that balancing the space, the heritage, the management and the people involved can be quite a tricky process.

In the afternoon, we all moved from the castle hill to the town hall in the city centre. Janja and Helena introduced the Interpret Europe organisation and its activities. They recommended IE’s Altiero Spinelli prize-winning paper, Engaging citizens with Europe’s cultural heritage. The rest of the meeting was dedicated to cases of good practice from Slovenia. Lenka Stermecki from Zavod RS za varstvo narave introduced the geo-identity in the cross-border Karavanke UNESCO Global Geopark. Metka Starič from Zavod Parnas shared with us their latest project on the interpretation of culinary heritage. The architect Milan Kovač critically discussed the protection of the archaeological stone monuments in Celje. And finally, Marko Slapnik from Poseben dan, Zavod za pristna doživetja introduced the interpretation along the thematic route at Logarska dolina.

It was a busy day, packed with interpretation. It was also a day of socialising with our friends from IE and an opportunity to meet other interpreters from similar organisations. We enjoyed a nice atmosphere and gathered a lot of new information. At the end of the day at least three of the non-IE members were convinced by the IE approach and decided to join us and hopefully many more enjoyed their first introduction to IE and we will see them again in a professional capacity. Congratulations to Janja and Helena for a well-prepared event!

Vojka Cestnik is an archaeologist and a certified interpretive guide (CIG). A substantial part of her work has been dedicated to heritage interpretation at Vače, important archaeological site in Slovenia. She develops guided tours as well as live interpretation programmes. You can reach her at: vojkacestnik@yahoo.com.

To cite this article:
Cestnik, Vojka (2018) ‘Mine, yours, ours – the heritage interpretation meeting’. In Interpret Europe Newsletter 4-2018, 22.
Available online:
www.interpret-europe.net/fileadmin/Documents/publications/Newsletters/ie-newsletter_2018-4_winter.pdf

Four steps were announced through the European Year of Cultural Heritage and after events in Siggen in Germany, Kőszeg in Hungary, and Aviemore in Scotland, it was the turn of Brussels in Belgium to host the last event on 28 November. The seminar, Nature and Culture in Dialogue, took place, hosted by the European Commission, DG Education and Culture.

Special guests contributed their unique perspective and ideas, opening a dialogue that must continue to lead to synergies for action.

Anne Grady, DG Education and Culture, talked about The European Year of Cultural Heritage and how 2018 was buzzing from activity, not only in Europe but also around the world. A huge variety of events were held, promoting cultural heritage and ‘celebrating the past to build the future’.

Fotios Papoulias, European Commission Unit D.3 Nature Protection, DG ENVI, shared the results of the European Year of Cultural Heritage in the Environmental Perspective. As he mentioned, almost half of all World Heritage Sites in the EU are close to or overlapping Natura 2000 protected areas, so we can definitely understand that natural and cultural heritage are directly connected, facing similar challenges and opportunities at the same time.

Paolo Fontani, Director of the UNESCO Liaison Office in Brussels, spoke about Linking Natural and Cultural Heritage. He explained that the World Heritage Sites receive an important impact from ongoing economic development and the need of rebuilding some areas should also give them the chance to save heritage. For that, strong synergies and dialogue are needed.

Markus J. Prutsch, Senior researcher and administrator at the European Parliament, responsible for culture and education policies, analysed the relationship of natural heritage and cultural identity in Europe, explaining that we can retain our national or regional identity, but we can have a look with a European lens, and also the same with nature.

Ignace Schops, President of the EUROPARC Federation, talked about natural and cultural heritage in protected areas and how nature tells us a story that we have to take into account and use it as a mechanism to work on a sustainable future, not only in the protected areas but everywhere on this planet.

And one of IE’s Managing Director’s, Thorsten Ludwig, highlighted how natural heritage influences cultural identities, explaining that nature is a stock of metaphors for self-interpretation providing us the inspiration to see ourselves reflected in it, and it offers a vast variety of such metaphors so we construct our values, our moral, our ethics around this variety.

Participants also contributed with their experience, leading to the common conclusion that most culture is rooted in nature. Also, our heritage, whether cultural or natural, where the past meets the future, needs our joint actions through dialogue and synergies to preserve and promote the values that shape our identities.

Athina Tsekoura works in the environmental education field and can most often be found underwater. She is IE’s Natural Heritage Coordinator and can be contacted at: athina.tsekoura@interpret-europe.net.

To cite this article:
Tsekoura, Athina (2018) ‘Nature and culture in dialogue’. In Interpret Europe Newsletter 4-2018, 4.
Available online:
www.interpret-europe.net/fileadmin/Documents/publications/Newsletters/ie-newsletter_2018-4_winter.pdf