Rodney Harrison and team on research trip to China

Henry McGhie was invited by UNESCO Beijing Office to speak on culture and Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) at the 2024 Integrated Research on Disaster Risk (IRDR) International Conference, considering the roles of museums and other collections based organisations in DRR.

He was also invited to participate in a UNESCO Capacity Building Workship Capacity Building Workshop on Integrating Heritage and Disaster Risk Reduction which was held in Inner Mongolia in late October.

Rodney Harrison delivered a keynote lecture at the Second Tianfu Forum on Chinese Culture in Chengdu, Sichuan, and a series of lectures at Capital Normal University, Guangxi Minzu University, Guangxi Normal University, and at the Fang Lili academy in Jingdezhen.

Rodney was also consulted by authorities and organisations involved in UNESCO World Heritage Site nominations at Jingdezhen, where he met and discussed the importance of world heritage with the mayor of the city and contributed to a four part documentary being made by Chinese Central Television on the city’s heritage, and in Chengdu, where he met with and advised a number of staff from museums involved in the world heritage site nominations associated with the Sanxingdui and Jinsha archaeological sites.

Rodney, Henry, and Linjie Wang (UCL/Guangxi Minzu University) also co-organised the first of a series of workshops exploring the role of museums and other collections-based organisations in Action for Climate Empowerment (ACE), linked to their work on Reimagining Museums for Climate Action and Our Collections Matter. This workshop was hosted by Guangxi Provincial Museum and included staff from museums and other organisations from across the province.

This is one of a series of workshops organised in collaboration with ICCROM as part of the AHRC/DCMS funded project Empowering Action for Climate through collections-based institutions in Low and Middle Income Countries (LMICS). Linjie has recently completed the Chinese language translation of Mobilising Museums for Climate Action: Tools, frameworks and opportunities to accelerate climate action in and with museums, which is one of the activities she is leading as part of the project.

Images

• Top: Professor Rodney Harrison with Professor Fang Lili, Professor Zhu Legeng, and members of Fang Lili’s research team at Zhu Legeng’s porcelain studio in Jingdezhen
• Middle: Professor Rodney Harrison and the Mayor of Jingdezhen, Hu Xuemei
• Bottom: Participants in the heritage and climate action workshop held at Guangxi Regional Museum