Europe is well known worldwide for its diverse cultural values including intangible cultural heritage (ICH) - the knowledge, practices and traditions of European citizens. The importance of ICH was legally recognized with the Convention for the Safeguarding of the ICH adopted by UNESCO General Conference in 2003 (entered into force in 2006). The safeguarding of the ICH contributes to different aspects of sustainable development of rural regions in Europe. Cultural heritage, creative industries, sustainable cultural tourism and cultural infrastructure contribute to improved income and job opportunities. The promotion of the ICH directly benefits communities and helps in strengthening identity as well as cultural diversity, skill development and developing creative enterprises. The organisations of four European countries - Latvia, Estonia, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Georgia - representing different cultural values (but all related to musical traditions), included in UNESCO list of ICH - has created a partnership to join forces and share experience from several countries in order to provide better understanding of what are the best ways and methods to channel the knowledge to those who need it - people practising UNESCO included traditions. Project partners are of different size and scope, yet they share similar aims and target groups. Bearers of the ICH elements are direct project target group. All organisations have long-term experience of working with them in each country. The education of bearers of ICH will be improved directly through such project activities as created educational materials and seminars, but also indirectly - through capacity building of the partner organisations - adult educators. The main project objective will be achieved by different activities. Ethnic Culture Centre Suiti Foundation (ECC Suiti) will oversee the overall management and implementation of project activities by all project partner organisations. It is also envisaged that each partner organisation will set up a local project management team. Issues pertaining to project implementation and achievement of expected project results are planned to be discussed with partners during transnational project meetings. In order to exchange methods and best practices among participating organizations and countries, four Short-term joint staff training events are envisaged to take place in all partner countries. During the course of the project, it is expected to develop several outputs: 1. Online booklet (one joint material)- the summary of best practise examples from all partner countries (for distribution among bearers of the ICH) - translated in English and all partner languages; prepared together by all project partners; 2. The summary (four materials in total) of each partner country's national support system for ICH and each partner organisation's methodology for the preservation and promotion of ICH - in each country's national language and translated in English; prepared by each project partner; 3. Proposals (one joint material) for the implementation of new innovative methods and approaches - translated in English and all partner languages. The developed materials will be made printable and available online for public at the project partners’ web sites free of charge. Various dissemination activities are also envisaged, including local seminars in all partner countries where project results will be presented to a broader audience. In addition, it is also planned to make use of social media (Facebook) and partners’ web sites to inform about achievements in the project and to promote the developed materials.
Europe is well known worldwide for its diverse cultural values including intangible cultural heritage (ICH) - the knowledge, practices and traditions of European citizens. The importance of ICH was legally recognized with the Convention for the Safeguarding of the ICH adopted by UNESCO General Conference in 2003 (entered into force in 2006). The safeguarding of the ICH contributes to different aspects of sustainable development of rural regions in Europe. Cultural heritage, creative industries, sustainable cultural tourism and cultural infrastructure contribute to improved income and job opportunities. The promotion of the ICH directly benefits communities and helps in strengthening identity as well as cultural diversity, skill development and developing creative enterprises. The organisations of four European countries - Latvia, Estonia, North Macedonia and Georgia - representing different cultural values (but all related to musical traditions), included in UNESCO list of ICH - created a partnership to join forces and share experience from several countries in order to provide better understanding of what are the best ways and methods to channel the knowledge to those who need it - people practising UNESCO included traditions. Project partners althought different size and scope, yet they shared similar aims and target groups. Bearers of the ICH elements were direct project target group. All organisations have had long-term experience of working with them in each country. The education of bearers of ICH have been improved directly through such project activities as created educational materials and seminars, but also indirectly - through capacity building of the partner organisations - adult educators. The main project objective were achieved by different activities. Ethnic Culture Centre Suiti Foundation oversaw the overall management and implementation of project activities by all project partner organisations. Each partner organisation set up a local project management team. Issues pertaining to project implementation and achievement of expected project results were discussed with partners during transnational project meetings. In order to exchange methods and best practices among participating organizations and countries, four Short-term joint staff training events took place in all partner countries. During the course of the project, several outputs were developed: 1. Online booklet (one joint material)- the summary of best practise examples from all partner countries (for distribution among bearers of the ICH) - prepared together by all project partners; 2. The summary (four materials in total) of each partner country's national support system for ICH - prepared by each project partner; 3. Proposals (one joint material) for the implementation of new innovative methods and approaches. The developed materials are printable and available online for public at the project partners’ web sites free of charge. Various dissemination activities also were organised, including local seminars in all partner countries where project results were presented to a broader audience. In addition, social media (Facebook) and partners’ web sites were used to inform about achievements in the project and to promote the developed materials.