FRH Conference 2024 “Religious Heritage in Transition: Challenges and Solutions”
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FRH Conference 2024 “Religious Heritage in Transition: Challenges and Solutions”
The 2024 FRH Conference, “Religious Heritage in Transition: Challenges and Solutions” will take place from 22-24 September in Krakow, Poland.
Religious heritage must respond to the changes brought about by the emergence of new digital technologies, the effects of climate change and the way we understand, relate to and value our historic buildings and intangible heritage in 21st-century Europe. Our conference will explore existing initiatives and possible future solutions so that the various actors involved in religious heritage, including heritage professionals, academics, policy makers at all levels, religious bodies and European citizens, do not fall behind in this triple transition (green, digital and social).
The conference will address this overarching topic through four sub-themes:
- Resilient Heritage: climate change, armed conflicts, migration, secularisation and demographic changes are current challenges that can lead to the deterioration, abandonment or even loss of religious heritage. This sub-theme will explore current efforts to address these urgent threats.
- Sustainable Solutions: this sub-theme will address the long-term sustainability of religious buildings, looking at trends in adaptive reuse, protection of heritage crafts linked to built religious heritage and ecological sustainability in a context where more and more religious buildings are being closed, neglected or underused every year.
- Digital Futures: the digital transition has brought with it a wealth of new possibilities for the study, management, protection and promotion of religious heritage, but it has also raised many questions about the long-term impact of these technologies on the sector, especially on traditional crafts.
- Quality of Life: religious heritage is often associated with various social, cultural and spiritual values, which are closely related to mental health and emotional well-being. This sub-theme will explore how sacred places positively influence people’s health, especially cultural tourism, pilgrimage routes and the protection of biodiversity and green spaces.
The venue will be the Galicia Jewish Museum, an active institution in the preservation and promotion of Jewish culture in Poland with two permanent exhibitions dedicated to past and contemporary Jewish culture and life in the historic region of Galicia. Find out more about the venue here.