UN peacekeepers from Japan assisting in a salvage operation at Le Centre d’Art in Port-au-Prince, 2010; Photo: Aparna Tandon © ICCROM

Hear from the soldiers, firefighters and conservators preserving culture during war and disaster...

Dear All,

Our next Point of the Matter Dialogue 'Culture Cannot Wait: Integrating Cultural Heritage First Aid with Humanitarian Assistance in Crises' takes place on Wednesday September 12, 2018 in Turin as part of our 27th Biennial Congress.

The Dialogue features some extraordinary speakers including soldiers, firefighters and rescue mission leaders who will speak alongside conservators and risk managers for cultural heritage.

Together, they will discuss how cultural heritage recovery can be incorporated into emergency management plans. The two-hour Dialogue is in partnership with the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM), which provides First Aid in Cultural Heritage training to many heritage professionals.

Speakers include:

Lt Col Thierry Burger, an officer of the Paris Fire Brigade, now attached to the Department of Heritage Management.
Veronica Piacentini, who headed the cultural heritage cell at the Civil Protection Command and Control Centre following earthquakes in Italy in 2016 and 17.
Lt Col Tim Purbrick, who recently established a unit of military cultural property protection specialists in the British Army.
Dr. Zeynep Gül Una, a Professor in the Restoration Department at the Yildiz Technical University who has participated in search and rescue missions from Haiti to Turkey.
Layla Salih, who has been a curator at Mosul museum for a decade.
Rebecca Kennedy, Preservation Specialist at the Smithsonian's National Postal Museum and trained in First Aid for Cultural Heritage.

The panellists including Aparna Tandon, ICCROM's Project Manager for First Aid to Cultural Heritage in Times of Crises and Chair for this Dialogue, will consider the priorities of the agencies coordinating the response and the role of salvage of cultural heritage in the psycho-social recovery of the societies after the trauma of disaster or war.

Book as part of our 27th Turin Congress

This event is part of the five day programme of our 27th Biennial Congress 'Preventive Conservation: The State of the Art'. We hope you will join us for this remarkable Dialogue and a wealth of other educational, networking and tour opportunities.

If you haven't already secured your place at Congress, book here!