UCL Institute of Archaeology

Intangible Heritage and Museums Fieldschool, Lamphun, Thailand

The ‘Intangible Cultural Heritage and Museums’ Field School is a research and training project in its third year that focuses on the role of the museum in safeguarding, documenting and revitalizing intangible cultural heritage in the Greater Mekong Sub-region.

Run by the Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn Anthropology Centre and UNESCO, Bangkok and in collaboration with a group of international academics, it offers museum and heritage professionals the conceptual and practical tools for engaging with local communities to safeguard their intangible cultural heritage, such as oral history and narratives, craftsmanship, festivals, ritual, performance and other forms of traditional knowledge.

The course combines frameworks from “new museology” and ecomuseums with anthropological approaches for understanding and working with source communities.

The Field School combines theory and practice with a focus on:

• The 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage
• Anthropological approaches and tools for researching, documenting and safeguarding intangible cultural heritage
• Linking the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage to core museum activities
• New museology, community-based museums and participatory heritage management
• Documentation of intangible heritage using digital technology (photography and video) and IP and cultural rights issues

The Field School is an intensive, 2-week course offering a combination of lectures and a hands-on field practicum. Under the guidance of leading experts, participants work in cross-cultural, interdisciplinary teams to apply their newly gained concepts and approaches to safeguarding intangible heritage via the museum. This year's field practicum (Summer 2011) will focus on the documentation of intangible heritage using digital technologies (documentary photography, sound and video recording).

Participants will be expected to work in close collaboration with four participating communities in Lamphun Province to produce a short film featuring one element of intangible cultural heritage as part of their practicum.

Related outputs

• The Sirindhorn Anthropology Centre is considering the publication of an edited volume on training methods for intangible heritage preservation and community museums.

Funding

• Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn Anthropology Centre, Thailand