VIRTUAL: Prague Heritages

Abstract

Increasingly adhering to a global perspective, cultural heritage management and valorisation activities are expanding in multiple directions: not only outwards, across state borders, and inwards, with greater participation of private actors, but also transversally, reaching ever new forms of cultural heritage and new instruments for their administration. In such a multidirectional context, where distinct domains, different interests, multiple legal systems, and global standards come into play, the strategic allocation of resources is of utmost importance for the optimal satisfaction of all these emerging issues. The safeguarding plans for UNESCO intangible cultural heritage some countries are putting in place fit perfectly into this expanding picture. Deriving from the better-known and more structured management plans for UNESCO sites, they represent an intriguing tool that puts cultural heritage bearers in the spotlight and revolves around the (relatively) newer concept of intangibility. This contribution will present the work carried out with Fondazione Santagata for the Economics of Culture to draft a Safeguarding Plan for the UNESCO element “Musical Art of Horn Players”, in an attempt to shed light on the mechanisms and strategies implemented for one of the first safeguarding plans in Italy (and Europe). The ultimate goal will be threefold: to reflect on the relationship between civil society, experts, and institutions; to analyse the impact of these strategies in an integrated territorial context; and to delve into some of the legal aspects related to the nature of such plans.