ILUCIDARE (International Network for Leveraging Successful Cultural Heritage Led Innovations and Diplomacy Through Capacity Building and Awareness Raising) is an international research project whose main goal is to analyze the relationship between cultural heritage and innovation as well as cultural heritage and diplomacy, and then promote heritage as a resource for both innovation and international cooperation. The project wants to inspire and facilitate the use of heritage in balanced territorial development and international relations. Joint project activities also seek to establish an international network of experts and stakeholders dealing with the issue of heritage and innovation as well as heritage and diplomacy by providing space for learning and exchange of knowledge, and creating a platform for establishing mutual contacts.
Within the ILUCIDARE project, research focused on three categories of heritage-led innovation. We examined heritage-driven innovation, in which individual artefacts or heritage resources serve as a source of inspiration, such as the “Adopt a Monument” (“Adoptoi Monumenti”) initiative in Finland.
The project participants also considered examples of the assimilation of innovation, referring to solutions developed in other sectors that have been successfully applied in the field of heritage management (such as the SiMAX application used in museums to translate spoken and written texts into sign language).
An important area of reflection was also the concept of heritage as a resource, exemplified by the Serbian initiative FOLKK, which connects masters of traditional craftsmanship with emerging fashion designers.
The project’s research consortium also identified two types of heritage-based diplomacy: heritage-driven diplomacy, in which heritage serves as a tool for strengthening international relations (for example, the virtual platform Europeana), and heritage within diplomacy, referring to foreign policy initiatives that use heritage to enhance the position of a given state or organisation (such as the European Neighbourhood Policy).
The project activities included: research work (literature reviews and case studies); participatory and co-creation activities (focus groups, co-creation workshops and coaching sessions); capacity-building workshops (including in Kosovo, Kurdistan, Yemen, Zimbabwe and Ecuador); an academic online course (a MOOC on edX); summer and winter schools (in Poland and Belgium); networking activities and conferences (ILUCIDAYS); as well as competitions (the ILUCIDARE Special Prizes within the European Heritage Awards / Europa Nostra Awards and the ILUCIDARE Challenge).
The project, in which we participated as one of seven partner institutions, created a platform for the exchange of knowledge and experience between theorists and practitioners of heritage management from across Europe and beyond. We hosted one of the consortium meetings, collaborated in the development and delivery of the academic online course and teaching materials, and took part in the jury of the European Heritage Awards.
From 18 to 24 July 2021, we also organised the ILUCIDARE Summer School in Kraków and Krosno. The programme included, among other elements, interactive sessions led by renowned trainers and experts, a study visit to the Glass Heritage Centre in Krosno, and Design Thinking workshops.
The ILUCIDARE project built upon the experiences and findings of the earlier study “Cultural Heritage Counts for Europe”, which provided extensive evidence supporting the intuitive thesis of the positive impact of cultural heritage on the economy, society, culture and the natural environment.
The project was carried out between 2019 and 2021. It was coordinated by KU Leuven (Belgium) and funded under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 framework programme.
ILUCIDARE
ILUCIDARE Summer School in Krakow…PDF (1 KB)
Project Coordinator:
University of Leuven
Partnership:
International Cultural Centre in Kraków; Europa Nostra; KEA European Affairs; World Monuments Fund España; Kosovo Foundation for Cultural Heritage without Borders; University of Cuenca
The project was funded under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, under grant agreement No. 821394.