Voluntary Organisations and Cultural Heritage Conservation

Over the last 30 years, the concept of integrated cultural heritage conservation has been developed in Europe; this superseded the idea that protection activities were solely the remit of ministries of culture and cultural heritage protection services.

Owners of heritage and other interested parties (voluntary organisations, societies and associations) are important and equal participants at all levels of decision-making. Protection must work for people since long-term success depends entirely on their cooperation. To the individual, heritage should mean a value, a symbol of affiliation, respect for others or a source of income.

Why such an introduction? By widening the concept and meaning of heritage, one also widens the range of conservation-related activities. Increasing the scope of participants (individuals as well as the interested public) shows the important role played by voluntary organisations.

A Council of Europe declaration was adopted in 2001 on the role of voluntary organisations in cultural heritage. Among other things, the declaration requires national authorities to promote voluntary organisations, which in turn should monitor the policies of government and administrative authorities with a critical eye. These organisations should also supplement government and other public work, as well as assume responsibilities that normally, by their nature, do not form part of the responsibilities of professional services. The declaration draws attention to the importance of cooperation between these organisations and those involved in heritage protection in order to formulate multidisciplinary and harmonious protection policies and adopt professional decisions.

It emphasises the awareness-raising (‘popularising’) role of voluntary organisations and attaches importance to their training, which would enable them to develop a more active and professionally appropriate role within the context of their mission.

Voluntary organisations’ projects must involve cooperation and links with local protection services (museums, the Institute’s regional offices); this does not happen with sufficient regularity. For example, such cooperation is crucial in projects that deal with immovable and movable cultural heritage, and with declared cultural monuments (buildings or areas).

Those responsible for the projects most likely do not realise that work that goes beyond regular maintenance and the replacement parts that have fallen into disrepair or been destroyed using the principles of identical form, identical materials and handcrafting can damage a renovation project. Inappropriate and inauthentic reconstruction work can arise when there is an absence of conservation professionals; on the other hand, a surfeit of professionals can lead to folklorism and the invention of a heritage that does not exist in order to satisfy mass taste.

Museums are one area in which voluntary organisations have worked well, with a number of ‘amateur’ projects developing into professional institutions (Kobarid Museum, Museum of Christianity in Stična, Rogatec Open-Air Museum, etc.). In the area of intangible heritage as well, individual and societies have cooperated in an exemplary fashion with museums, the Institute of Slovenian Ethnology and the Institute of Ethnomusicology at the Scientific Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts. The events organised for the ‘Days of European Cultural Heritage’ in 2004 and 2005 are further excellent examples of cooperation between voluntary organisations, local communities and individuals with the Institute.

The content of the Aarhus Declaration of 1998 addresses the importance and role of voluntary organisations in the area of heritage protection. It deals with access to information, public participation in decision-making and access to legal protection in environmental matters, which logically encompasses cultural heritage and especially cultural heritage areas.