9 Projects in Heritage-led Innovation and International Relations Shortlisted for The Second Edition of The Ilucidare Special Prizes
The ILUCIDARE Consortium including Europa Nostra and the European Commission are delighted to present the shortlisted projects for the 2021 edition of the ILUCIDARE Special Prizes, awarded within the European Heritage Awards / Europa Nostra Awards! These projects are compelling demonstrations of heritage-led innovation and international relations. The European Heritage Awards / Europa Nostra Awards are run by Europa Nostra in partnership with the European Commission since 2002 and are widely recognised as Europe’s top honour in the field of cultural heritage.
The ILUCIDARE Special Prizes, awarded within the European Heritage Awards / Europa Nostra Awards, aim to demonstrate that cultural heritage is a powerful resource for strengthening international exchange and collaboration and driving innovation-led sustainable development.
The Barbados Museum and Historical Society is honoured to be a partner, under the auspices of the University of the West Indies on the EU-LAC Museums project (consortium) which has been shortlisted for the second edition of the ILUCIDARE Special Prizes. EU-LAC Museums is an international team of 35 museum professionals, researchers and policy makers across the European Union (EU) and Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC).
This year, nine shortlisted projects were undertaken by heritage practitioners from eight countries in Europe and beyond. Although the areas and range of their activities are diverse, they all show how heritage has the potential to create meaningful links across countries and communities and to develop exciting new solutions and spur social change.
The 9 shortlisted projects for the ILUCIDARE Special Prizes 2021 are:
Heritage-led innovation
- 3D Reconstruction of Maison du Peuple − Horta Museum, Brussels, Belgium
- Basilica of Santa Croce, Lecce, Italy
- HAP4MARBLE - Marble Conservation by Hydroxyapatite, Italy
- AP Valletta, Malta
Heritage-led international relations
- Northern Lebanon Project, Italy/Lebanon
- Friends of Bryggen and the Bryggen Foundation, Bergen, Norway
- Preservation of the Wine Cellars of Negotinska Krajina, Serbia
- Leather Painting Restoration in the Hall of the Kings of the Alhambra, Spain
- EU-LAC Museums − Museums, Community & Sustainability in Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, United Kingdom
“The 9 shortlisted projects for the ILUCIDARE Special Prizes attest the ingenuity, dynamism and sense of purpose of the heritage world. From using state-of-the-art technical solutions for heritage preservation to cultivating relations through cultural heritage between communities and countries, both in Europe and across the world. These outstanding projects show the benefits of working across disciplines and borders to ensure the transmission of our shared heritage to present and future generations. On behalf of the ILUCIDARE Consortium, I wish to congratulate these exemplary achievements for embodying what ILUCIDARE proudly stands for, and I warmly welcome you to the vibrant, international ILUCIDARE community. This pre-selection is already an important milestone and we look forward to supporting you in making the most of it. The ILUCIDARE partners stand ready to give you the visibility and the backing you very much deserve”, stated Koen Van Balen, coordinator of the ILUCIDARE project (KU Leuven, Belgium).
“The shortlisted projects for the ILUCIDARE Special Prizes 2021 showcase the huge potential of our cultural heritage to act as a catalyst for creativity and innovation, and to foster human solidarity and cross-country cooperation. At a moment when the European Union and its citizens are engaged in shaping a shared vision for the future, each one of the 9 shortlisted projects demonstrate the capability of the heritage world to produce innovative, effective and creative solutions to larger societal issues. I applaud the efforts of the people and communities behind them, and hope many more will be inspired through the power of their example. I also wish to thank them sincerely for their important contribution to a more sustainable and resilient Europe, in spite of the current challenges we face together”, said Mariya Gabriel, European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth.
EU-LAC Museums Project: Museums, Community & Sustainability in Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean
Since 2014, EU-LAC Museums international collaboration has jointly developed new wisdom about museum community development, youth work, and digital curation, to examine and promote a vision of museums focused on community needs. To date, this project has successfully set-up exchanges and improved relations between 154 countries with 108,365 people engaging in person or online with the project activities and its web portal.
The impressive scale of the initiative is ensured by funding of the Horizon 2020 EU Research and Innovation programme, under Grant Agreement number 693669. Project partners include the University of St Andrews in Scotland (Coordinator), ICOM, the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru, National Museum of Costa Rica, Austral University in Chile, University of the West Indies, University of Valencia in Spain, and National Archaeology Museum in Lisbon, Portugal.
The Jury praises the value of the intercultural, intercontinental and international relations created and sustained by EU-LAC Museums: “EU-LAC is a well-established international network that shares cultural values through the management and care for cultural buildings and monuments. Not only do they represent an international collaboration between expert organisations, the network gradually built a community with many smaller organisations in several cultural sectors in different parts of the world, creating a common language through the identification of a common goal.”
The final recipients of the ILUCIDARE Special Prizes, selected by the ILUCIDARE Jury – one winner for excellence in heritage-led innovation and one for excellence in heritage-led international relations – will be announced in the autumn of 2021 at the European Heritage Awards Ceremony in Venice.
The two winners will have the unique opportunity of joining the ILUCIDARE Champions programme, a tailor-made support scheme to upscale their success and further develop their strategies together with European and international experts as well as the ILUCIDARE Consortium partners.
The ILUCIDARE Special Prizes are supported by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation programme, in addition to the European Union’s Creative Europe Programme for culture and the audio-visual sectors, which supports the European Heritage Awards / Europa Nostra Awards.
Both the European Heritage Awards / Europa Nostra Awards and the ILUCIDARE project are actions included in the European Framework for Action on Cultural Heritage released by the European Commission to sustain and upscale the legacy of the European Year of Cultural Heritage 2018. The two actions contribute to the vital objectives of increasing heritage participation and access, mobilising knowledge and research, and reinforcing international cooperation and global partnerships through cultural heritage.
Being co-funded by the Creative Europe and the Horizon 2020 programmes, the ILUCIDARE Special Prizes are a concrete example of how synergies can be built among EU programmes to enhance their impact.
