The Norwegian Year of Cultural Heritage 2009
The Norwegian government has designated 2009 as being the cultural heritage year in its White Paper entitled “Living with our Cultural Heritage”. The official opening took place at Marienborg in Trondheim on Feb. 3, 2009 by Minister of the Environment, Erik Solheim and Minister of Culture, Trond Giske.
Photo www.Kulturminneaaret2009.no
By organising a cultural heritage year the government and its key joint venture partners are hoping to encourage close, quality cooperation between voluntary, public and private organisations. The aim of having this cultural heritage year is to actualise and highlight the diversity of Norway’s cultural heritage and to place focus on the fact that working with cultural conservation and promotion is an asset in itself.
Cultural Heritage in Everyday Life
The main theme for the Year of Cultural Heritage 2009 is Cultural Heritage in Everyday Life. This theme is all-embracing, both socially and time-wise, and comprises both tangible and intangible cultural heritage. By adopting this theme we are hoping to involve a wide spectrum of the population, including volunteers and professionals at local, regional and national level.
Two approaches to the theme have been planned. The aim of both is to place cultural monuments in a wider perspective. One approach involves highlighting the development of cultural heritage in Norway, i.e. the basic cultural trends and meetings that exist, along with their origins. By implementing projects and activities, the Year of Cultural Heritage 2009 is hoping to achieve an increased insight into, and increased knowledge about, the processes that have served to create the cultural monuments that surround us. The other approach involves the documentation of our cultural heritage. Documentation in this context is used in the broad sense of the term – it can take shape at many different levels and by using different methods, thus paving the way for both small, simple documentation projects and major, comprehensive institutional documentation assignments.
Activities
The Year of Cultural Heritage 2009 will encompass activities such as exhibitions, cultural tours, monument collection, school projects and local historical wikipedia. The website kulturminneaaret2009.no will present a cultural monument of the week and an article of the month.
Organisation
The Norwegian Ministry of the Environment and the Norwegian Ministry of Cultural and Church Affairs are united in this commitment. The Norwegian Cultural Heritage Association has been granted primary responsibility for planning, implementing and evaluating the Year of Cultural Heritage. The Norwegian Cultural Heritage Association is cooperating closely with the Directorate for Cultural Heritage in Norway, the Norwegian Archive, Library and Museum Authority, the Norwegian Museum Association and The Norwegian Association of local and regional authorithies (KS). Together these constitute a national working party that has been tasked with coordinating the public and voluntary contributions.
For further information see: Kulturminneåret 2009.
