Cultural heritage professionals gathered to share their ideas and learn how to create an interpretation plan for Ulpiana Archaeological Site.
This September, the first Interpret Europe course in Kosovo was held in Gračanica, about 2km from the ancient city. Seventeen of us from all over Kosovo gathered to take part in the IE Certified Interpretive Planner (CIP) course. The first day of the course started by presenting ourselves to the group through a timeline of our lives. It made us reflect on our own lives but at the same time we started to think about the life that flourished in Ulpiana.
The roots of Ulpiana go back to prehistory, with traces of life from the Stone, Bronze and Iron Ages. However, the city’s true transformation came after the Roman conquest at the end of the 1st century AD when the settlement grew into a thriving Roman city. Inspired by this history we began working on the interpretation plan. Our first challenge was to identify the phenomena and create specific themes for them. Each theme needed to combine facts with meaning while still being catchy, and that became our second challenge. We had to think outside of the box and get creative with our stories and what we wanted to achieve.
Divided into three groups, we worked both individually and together. Each day, we learned something new about interpretation, discussing the universal values of each phenomenon and how to turn them into meaningful experiences. At the end of the day, we came back to our groups to share what we had learned and, piece by piece, our interpretation plans began to take shape.
On the last day of the course, each group presented their ideas for an interpretation plan for Ulpiana. We then evaluated each other’s presentation and gave feedback and suggestions. Through theoretical lectures and practical activities this training became a meaningful experience where we gained knowledge and connected with each other.
Gresa Kelmendi is an architect working at CHwB Kosova (https://chwbkosova.org/) . In her free time she likes to crochet, drink tea and watch anime. You can contact her at: gresakelmendi38@gmail.com.
