WHIPIC opens the floor for the discussion of inviting wider participants to World Heritage protection and heritage interpretation and presentation

The International Centre for the Interpretation and Presentation of World Heritage Sites under the auspices of UNESCO (hereinafter referred to as the “WHIPIC”), affiliated with the Cultural Heritage Administration (Administrator Choi Eung-cheon) is hosting the 2023 World Heritage Interpretation and Presentation International Forum under the theme of “Inviting Wider Participants to World Heritage Protection” at the Seoul Tourism Plaza on November 15.

As an international academic conference, this event is designed to emphasize the importance of various communities participating in the interpretation and presentation of World Heritage and to explore the role of WHIPIC in enhancing their role and capacity building in heritage interpretation.

* The International Centre for the Interpretation and Presentation of World Heritage Sites is a UNESCO Category 2 Centre. The WHIPIC is established to promote the understanding and protection of heritage through the inclusive interpretation and presentation of heritage around the world.

WHIPIC aims to promote reconciliatory cultural dialogue and contribute to humanity's sustainable development by identifying various values and meanings of World Heritage sites through research, capacity building, informatization, and networking while sharing the results with the general public.

* Heritage Interpretation : Heritage interpretation is a meaning-making process through communication, participation and experience.
* Heritage Presentation : Heritage presentation a communicative process of heritage interpretation to increase understanding, awareness, and better experiences of heritage

The forum will be enlightened by speakers such as Mr Joseph King (Senior Director, ICCROM), Dr Olwen Beazley (Manager Historic & World Heritage, New South Wales, National Parks and Wildlife Service, Australia), Dr Hyun Kyung Lee (Assistant Professor, Critical Global Studies Institute, Sogang University), Dr Erica Meneghin (Director of the Heritage Area, Fondazione Santagata for the Economics of Culture), Dr Joon Kim (Research Professor, Institute of Honam Studies), Mr Munyaradzi Mashamaire (Exhibitions Officer at National Museums and Monuments of Zimbabwe, NMMZ) and Ms Haeree Shim (Head of Education and Networking Office, WHIPIC).

▲ Session 1 discusses the role of the community, ways to establish the concept of participants, and the role of heritage interpretation and presentation to protect World Heritage with the participation of stakeholders. In the following ▲ Session 2, challenges on heritage interpretation and presentation will be presented. This will be introduced with case studies at the local, national and international levels. Lastly, ▲ Session 3 focuses on the barriers regarding heritage interpretation that are being discussed as new priorities. Anticipating that this will assist in improving capacity building, speakers will discuss inclusive interpretive perspectives on cultural and natural heritage, the need for inclusive interpretation and protection of heritage based on the participation of indigenous communities, and ways to ease conflict in and around heritage sites.

Before the event, the World Heritage Interpretation and Presentation Youth Capacity Building Programme will be held two days from Nov 13 to 14th. Inviting around 50 undergraduates and graduate students in the heritage field, the first day will introduce the concepts of heritage interpretation and presentation, followed by a site visit to Jongmyo, where the participants will join a workshop on identifying attributes of the site through heritage interpretation and presentation.

The second day will be comprised of an international workshop on heritage interpretation plans, where five selected teams from Korea, Singapore, India and China(Hong Kong) will present their creative interpretation plans built with the assistance provided by heritage experts. The best plan will be to invite as special speaker for the forum on Nov 15. The forum is open to the public, and registration is available on the official WHIPIC website. A recorded version of the forum will also be available on the official WHIPIC YouTube channel after the event.

* WHIPIC Hompage : kr.unesco-whipic.org
Youtube : youtube.com/channel/UCLOTVrK6OBYhlBMA_0vg2JQ
Facebook : facebook.com/unesco.whipic
Instagram : instagram.com/unesco.whipic

Through this forum, the International Centre for the Interpretation and Presentation of World Heritage Sites, under the auspices of UNESCO, aims to invite various communities to interpret and explain World Heritage, thereby laying the foundation for all participants to protect heritage together and further contribute to the sustainable development of humanity.