Closed AR&PA 2012

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The Regional Government Minister of Culture and Tourism, Alicia García, closed the AR&PA Conference, which had brought together 260 heritage innovation experts from all over the world. She also presented the 2012 AR&PA Awards, which recognise the work carried out by cultural heritage professionals and institutions. The Regional Government Minister for Culture and Tourism also gave an overview of the 2012 AR&PA Biennial.

One of the achievements highlighted by Alicia García was the new membership of the EVoCH Platform, a permanent observatory for researching and promoting the economic value of cultural heritage in Europe, supported by the Junta de Castilla y León, the Autonomous Region of Extremadura and the North Region of Portugal. The Government of the Basque Country, through the ZEIN Foundation, and the Autonomous Region of Valencia have also applied to join. AR&PA became an effective starting point for this initiative, which is of significant strategic value to Castilla y León. Tecnalia, ASSORESTAURO (the Italian Association of Art Restoration), the Culture & Work Association from Germany and the Norwegian Directorate General of Heritage are already part of the EVoCH Platform, along with the Junta de Castilla y León.

AR&PA achieved its objective of promoting culture and heritage and raising awareness about the need for all stakeholders, both public and private, to be involved in managing heritage and cultural assets as a high-quality and immoveable resource that generates economic and social growth in a region.

The AR&PA Biennial has made Castilla y León a national and international reference point in terms of heritage and restoration and in heritage R&D policies. It also highlighted the fact that innovation and new technologies are essential in caring for Cultural Heritage, and are needed to promote the competitiveness of European companies working in the field, especially SMEs. The heritage sector must be included as a natural part of the economic value chain in order to bring about development. This is the reason for the Regional Government Ministry of Culture and Tourism’s explicit support during AR&PA for cultural heritage research to be included within the next Framework Programme for Research and Innovation “Horizon 2020”.

Alicia García pointed out that AR&PA had maintained and consolidated the level of quality seen in previous years and had increased its value as a forum for sharing experiences, as well as being a good venue for the establishing business partnerships.

By the end of the event, more than 1,000 professional visitors will have attended AR&PA Biennial. This figure represents great loyalty to AR&PA among this group of visitors. Some 15 different nationalities were present (Italy, Belgium, France, Austria, Portugal, Greece, Slovenia, Germany, Mexico, Argentina, Cuba, Jordan and Uruguay,) with participants from Jordan, China and Cuba attending for the first time. This enabled AR&PA to successfully unite the representatives and managers of various social and institutional cultural heritage players – restoration companies, universities, suppliers, public authorities, private foundations and a large number of cultural industries.

Around 150 lectures, meetings, technical workshops and presentations were held, making AR&PA Spain’s biggest cultural heritage event, and the largest forum of this kind in European forum along with the one in Ferrara, Italy. This makes Castilla y León a regular point of reference for discussions and innovation around cultural heritage.

Around 250 institutions shared their knowledge, experiences and needs and offered their services over the course of the event. Some 30 heads of European cultural heritage R+D projects also attended, consolidating the AR&PA Innovation programme, which this year was jointly organised by PTEC (Spanish Construction Technology Platform), Tecnalia and CARTIF.

The AR&PA International Conference focused on Innovation in Cultural Heritage, featuring over 20 lectures by national and international experts and papers selected by the Scientific Committee (from among more than 50 received). Some of the most significant presentations were those given by representatives from innovative institutions such as the Prado Museum, the president of the COTEC Foundation, university experts and representatives from other countries as the Republic of China. More than 260 speakers participated in the Conference, from European and American countries and China, demonstrating the clear current interest in this topic today. The leading experts in the field were sought for this event, to explain their cultural projects and architectural, site-specific or regional management programmes through their talks and lectures. The aim was for these models to serve as examples to be kept in mind when carrying out new initiatives to promote heritage in Castilla y León. The Conference’s conclusion can be summarised as: Heritage Innovation as the means to overcome the crisis.

At the end of the various Conference sessions, the outcomes were the following:
 

• The heritage sector is experiencing the changes stemming from the current socioeconomic situation, and is taking the necessary steps to provide society with an innovative and proactive response.
• Heritage conservation, protection and value enhancement represent an innovative challenge, not just from a cultural but also a technological and professional perspective. This means efforts must be made to create and develop suitable next generation protection tools, products and services.
• Strategic planning is an effective management tool for establishing unified action methodologies, planning investments according to conservation needs and coordinating the participation of the different institutions, organisations and companies involved in the whole heritage life cycle.
• Innovation is seen as an essential tool by the sector, and an aspect of renovation and reinvention processes using knowledge as an engine for change to add the value needed to guarantee heritage sustainability.
• Public-private collaboration, joint ventures between companies and organisations through clusters offering appropriate approaches, management excellence at all levels, and the creation of new tools to guarantee the consolidation of a sector that, although still undergoing a period of resource prioritisation, must now abandon outdated models to tackle the future with enthusiasm.
• The sector believes that innovation is not an option. Today we all agree that innovation is a necessity.

Regarding the meetings held during AR&PA, Alicia García highlighted the significant meeting held by the Governing Board and assembly of ARESPA (Spanish Association of Historical Heritage Restoration Companies) and that of the Spanish Construction Technology Platform (PTEC) with the European Construction Technology Platform (ECTP) Focus Area of Cultural Heritage.

One of the most important new developments was that the Eighth AR&PA Biennial strengthened its business and economic side, as well as its social aspect, the former two through AR&PA Business and AR&PA Employment. Almost every Spanish restoration company took part in AR&PA Business as well as 16 other service providers and product suppliers, leading to several business and inter-institutional contacts being made. AR&PA Employment, with four training centres, is a strategic future sector for our regions. The current economic and social scenario unquestionably bolstered the successful participation in the workshops and activities at AR&PA Employment. The ones from National Heritage and Cal de Morón workshops were two of the most successful among the 11 held in this section.

This year, the AR&PA venue built a "wall of initiatives", featuring 25 initiatives from small town halls and associations from Burgos, León, Palencia, Salamanca, Segovia and Valladolid, real heritage NGOs, displaying their local heritage projects. In total, the Siega Verde room hosted 29 technical presentations and workshops. Some examples of these were the El Bierzo Institute of Studies, the Association of Friends of Salamanca’s Bridges, Artisans House of Mogarraz and the Association Tierras de Lara Development Association.

In another new development, AR&PA with the Family increased the number of activities and the age of the children participating. There were more than 15 activities points in the Fair, where children could spend “A day in the Abbey”, create clay models, make traditional masks, make whitewash, find out about local castles and forts and many other things… Families were also able to participate once again in the National Heritage workshops and help to make stained glass windows as part of the Cathedral of León’s El Sueño de la Luz (Dream of Light) cultural project. For the second year running, the exhibitors ran activities for AR&PA with the Family, with 200 families and almost 300 children taking part.

Open for AR&PA allows large numbers of people to visit the museums of Valladolid and the whole network of great museums in the Autonomous Region. Other activities were also very well received, such as the Las Piedras Cantan (The Stones Sing) mini-concerts, organised by the FPHCYL and the Speed Drawing contest, with more than 100 sketches and drawings. The best pieces were awarded prizes at the end of the activity.

The Junta de Castilla y León (regional government) presented the new Castilla y León Cultural Heritage website during AR&PA Biennial. This is both an internal management tool and a site to publicly promote the heritage of Castilla y León.

AR&PA 2012 Awards

Following the closing ceremony, the Regional Minister of Culture and Tourism presented the 2012 AR&PA Awards from the contest run by the Junta de Castilla y León to highlight exemplary and groundbreaking actions than lead to innovation in cultural heritage.

• 2012 AR&PA Award for Cultural Heritage Actions in Castilla y León.

To the National Sculpture Museum for its project "Casa del Sol" (Home of Sun), new headquarters for the collection of artistic reproductions, for its innovation in reinventing and expanding the Museum, through the incredibly educational nature of its exhibition programme and the way in which the value of the artistic replicas has been enhanced, as well as for the recovery of the ancient church of San Benito, which is helping to enhance the excellence of a cultural area in the city of Valladolid.

• 2012 AR&PA Award for National or International Cultural Heritage Actions

To the City Council of Ortuella (Vizcaya) and the architect Ramón Garitano for the conversion of a siderite limestone kiln into a multi-purpose building in Ortuella, in a project of excellent architectural quality. This action made it possible to recover an aspect of recent industrial heritage, while also giving it a new public and cultural use for the town. This is a good example of recycling the built, a timely example to be followed today.

• AR&PA 2012 Award for Management of Cultural Heritage Assets

To the Andalusian Historical Heritage Institute, for its excellent work over more than 20 years in researching, managing and promoting cultural heritage assets, making it a leading centre at both national and international level.

• 2012 AR&PA Honarary Award

To the great Portuguese architect Álvaro Siza Vieira, in recognition of his life and professional career. During his academic and professional career, Álvaro Siza has been a constant example of the fruitful dialogue that is possible between the best contemporary architecture and the values of historical cities and heritage. He also represents the character of a whole generation of Portuguese architects whose actions display great sensitivity towards the most commonplace values of architecture and the environment. Siza is also important for the profoundly pedagogical nature of his output, having trained thousands of young architects and artists to respect what went before them. This attitude can be seen to have enormous value in today’s social and urban setting.