Ãrpád Boczen of the Hungarian Association of Cultural Heritage Managers (KÃME) will be our conference manager for 2018 when we meet in Hungary in March.
As an architect and cultural heritage manager, I was always very much interested in the human – and especially the socio-cultural – aspects of my professional work. Encouraging people and communities to take part actively in shaping their environment and living spaces whilst creating existing heritage based on value has played a significant role in my practice. Building spaces and constructions is equally important for me as building communities. I started dealing with interpretation because I felt that this field can have a similar, or even stronger, impact on how people act and behave in spaces they use. The language of a place to interpret is very similar to the genius loci architects always try to catch. After years of learning in practice how to achieve both, I feel that I need more of my own experience but also thoughts shared by others. However, the opportunities for professional discussions, debates and exchanges in heritage interpretation are very limited in Hungary. Therefore, as the president of the Hungarian Association of Cultural Heritage Managers (KÃME), I am very pleased to organise the prestigious annual conference of Interpret Europe in 2018.
The Budapest based Hungarian Association of Cultural Heritage Managers (KÃME) has been engaged in heritage interpretation since its foundation and became an active member of Interpret Europe in 2013. It was established by young heritage managers from different parts of Hungary who graduated in the same master’s programme in cultural heritage management and sustainable development at the Institute of Advanced Studies KÅszeg (iASK). We consider heritage interpretation a very important part of heritage management, if not its main purpose.
KÃME believes that the values identified as heritage can’t persist without a community committed to them. Therefore, we consider it crucial to organise programmes and to create communication channels that help discover, understand and give value to our common heritage.
Besides this, our aim is to create and maintain domestic and international platforms which help experts of various domains – engaged in the research, preservation, social utilisation, protection and distribution of the broadly defined cultural heritage – to meet each other, to learn, find partners, share ideas and realise their own projects in accordance with the association’s objectives.
As interpretation is a field that concerns most of the heritage related professions, the association intends to play an important role in representing and promoting this approach in Hungary. KÃME also aims to foster the establishment of a regional group within the Interpret Europe network, strengthen collaborations and develop specific agendas relevant in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE).
Ãrpád can be contacted at: arpilada@gmail.com
To cite this article:
Boczen, Ãrpád (2017) ‘IE’s Conference Manager for 2018’. In Interpret Europe Newsletter 3-2017, 24-25.
