evaluating the state of conservation: public …

If museum professionals are convinced that they need the help of the public to protect and preserve their heritage, what do museum and site visitors really know about the role they are expected to play in this heritage preservation? To involve visitors in protecting their heritage is not a simple task: this paper will examine various museums, sites and international programs to throw light on how museums and sites achieve this goal and which tools they use.If museums and sites want their visitors to respect the heritage they should start by first respecting their audiences: how many museums welcome their visitors with prohibition signs? These have appeared increasingly lately showing how varied museum audiences are and sometimes how little familiar these new visitors are with museums and their contents. The way museums address them is crucial if they want them to understand what is at stake and engage them in protecting our heritage. Please do not touch, even clean hands may damage the works (London, Tate Modern) is far more welcoming than just Do not touch. Not every visitor has the level of knowledge they should ideally have when entering a museum. They need messages with careful wording as well as thorough translation. They might also need extra explanations given their different background and culture. Reaching all visitors may also require other tools than texts. As the web is changing the nature of museum and site work, how can museums interact with their visitors to make them more responsible towards heritage issues? Finally, this paper will analyze and comment on when and where museums deal with heritage issues eventually showing not only why some tools have failed and why others have proven successful, but also how to measure their impact. How useful have European programmes like Let us protect our heritage together and All Roads Lead to Rome (respectively lead by the Université libre de Bruxelles and the Committee for Education and Cultural Action of the International Council of Museums) been? Why are some of the tools created on these occasions still in use ten years later? Will they still be in ten years time or must they be up-dated? Only convincing tools will involve visitors to become active heritage supporters and protectors. Let us list and share them for the benefit of all.

THE MUSEUM SIDE

If museum professionals are nowadays convinced that they need the help of the public to protect and preserve the heritage they are in charge of, this has not always been the case.Museums were thought as deposits for study and enjoyment for a certain ‘elite’. Nevertheless, they had already to struggle with visitors not necessarily familiar with the notion of museums as one can see in various etching by Daumier. Comparing Daumier’s etching with the Mona Lisa room in the Louvre, one may wonder if things have really changed!How did the museum communicate with its visitors? Display, texts and labels were usually under the sole responsibility of the curator who acted considering that by just entering the museum, the visitor was certainly educated. To deal with the visitors was the museum educator’s task who had then to find ways to pass on sometimes - difficult - messages. Curators and educators had little contact although the idea of the educational and

>> NICOLE GESCHÉ-KONING Université libre de Bruxelles

ItalianoSe da una parte i professionisti dei musei si sono

convinti della necessità dell’aiuto del pubblico per

proteggere e preservare il loro patrimonio, cosa

sanno veramente i visitatori dei siti e dei musei

sul ruolo che ci si aspetta che abbiano in questa

conservazione del patrimonio?

Coinvolgere i visitatori nella protezione del loro

patrimonio non è un compito facile: questo intervento

esaminerà diversi programmi internazionali di

musei e siti per fare luce su come i musei ed i siti

raggiungono questo scopo e quali strumenti usano.

Español Dado que los profesionales de Museos llegaron a la

convicción que necesitan la ayuda del público para

proteger y preservar el Patrimonio en su custodia,

qué saben en realidad los visitantes de museos y

sitos acerca del papel que son llamados a jugar en la

preservación de este Patrimonio?

No es una tarea fácil comprometer a los visitantes

en la preservación de su propio Patrimonio: el

presente artículo examinará diversos museos, sitos

y programas internacionales para ilustrar el modo

cómo museos y sitos alcanzan este objetivo y los

instrumentos que utilizan para ello.

EVALUATING THE STATE OF CONSERVATION: PUBLIC AWARENESSValutare lo Stato di Conservazione: Coinvolgere il Pubblico

107

< >THE RIGHT MESSAGE IN THE RIGHT PLACE AT THE RIGHT TIME

ONLY ADEQUATE TOOLS CAN INVOLVE VISITORS IN

PROTECTING THEIR HERITAGE

Quality in Cultural Heritage ManagementDossier n°3 2010



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THE RIGHT MESSAGE IN THE RIGHT PLACE AT THE RIGHT TIME



>> NICOLE GESCHÉ-KONING

PortuguêsSe os profissionais dos museus são convictos da

necessidade da ajuda do público para proteger e

preservar o seu património, o que realmente os

visitantes dos sítios e dos museus sabem acerca do

papel que é esperado deles nesta conservação do

património?

Envolver os visitantes na ação de proteção do seu

património não é tarefa simples: este trabalho

examinará vários programas internacionais de

museus e sítios, para compreender de que forma os

museus e os sítios alcançam este escopo, e quais são

os instrumentos utilizados.

FrançaisSi les professionnels des musées sont convaincus

de la nécessité de l’aide du public pour protéger

et préserver leur patrimoine, que savent vraiment

les visiteurs des sites et des musées sur le rôle que

devraient avoir dans la préservation du Patrimoine?

Impliquer les visiteurs dans la protection de leur

patrimoine n’est pas une tache facile: cet article veut

analyser les différents programmes internationaux

des musées et sites pour éclaircir la façon dont

musées et sites atteignent cet objectif et quels sont

les outils qu’ils utilisent.

social role of the museum goes back to the end of the 19th C1. Speaking from the educator’s side, I must confess I feel privileged to have worked for some 25 years at the education department of the Royal Art and History Museums in Brussels located not far from the Royal Heritage Institute, IRPA (Institut royal du Patrimoine artistique), which lately helped our department at the University with a panel on Cesare Brandi’s role in Belgium.How important education is had already been stressed by the museum director Jean Capart who in 1922 returning from museum visits in the United States created one of the first museum education departments in Europe acknowledging that a museum had a double role to play: turned inwards towards its collections, their preservation and study but also outwards towards its visitors2. He is supposed to have served as model for Jacob’s comic, The Mystery of the Great Pyramid. Many means were

Museum kit to be used in the section of altarpieces at the Royal Museums for Art and History in Brussels - Conception: Stichting restauratie atelmier Limburg and Université libre de Bruxelles - copyright ULB - (Jencks, 1990)

1. FORBES E., (1853), The Educational Uses of Museums, quoted in Greenwood, (1893) T.,

The Place of Museums in Education, in: Science, XXII, 1893, p. 246.

2. CAPART J., (1936), Le rôle social des musées, in: Le temple des muses, Bruxelles, Musées

royaux d$Art et d’Histoire, 1936, p. 121.



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then used to be the right “public’s advocate” to quote former chair of the ICOM committee for education and cultural action Cornelia Brüninghaus Knubel in Museum international3. Ways of addressing the public consisted mainly in: - Guided tours- Museum lectures- A slide library

Let me emphasize the role played by this slide library, which unfortunately due to critical copyright issues has not turned quickly enough towards modern technologies and has now become obsolete. Its purpose was to enable ANY museum visitor to borrow on an individual basis and for one-week slides related to art history and archaeology. If the main borrowers were teachers and university professors, countless other people discovered the richness of this collection of some 80.000 slides gathered throughout the years to respond to an increasing demand. This idea of sharing a useful tool with museum visitors must be kept in mind when dealing with heritage preservation and Museum 2.0 or any other social network may be taken into consideration.Although since the foundation of ICOM, two international committees dealt with museum education, it is only in the 1970’s that a real dialogue started between curators and educators leading eventually to the creation of a didactic room on wooden carved altarpieces. The partners involved consisted in the curator, a restorer, the educator, and an artist photographer. 20 years later this room achieved in real teamwork still served its purpose and did not really need to be refurbished, be it for the sake of modernisation. Its originality lay, next to the partners involved, in the messages conveyed by the display, which emphasized the role the public could play in preserving these altarpieces for the future. The quantity of altars on display in the museum served the purpose, as one could easily discover how in the course of time many pieces had been dismantled, taken apart or even damaged by unscrupulous hands. On the occasion of Brussels European capital in the year 2000, the Université libre de Bruxelles, guaranteeing for scientific accuracy together with appropriate wording for the non-expert has published two maps of all wooden altarpieces kept in Brussels and Belgium as well as a short guide and separate leaflets. If their texts seem at first sight traditional descriptions, each of them aims at familiarizing its reader with conservation and restoration issues. The result was almost immediate: increased awareness has led to the anonymous return to the museum of a little woodenhead from the Saint-Georges altar, which had been missing for years: “Alexandra’s head finally recovered… Altarpieces have often been vandalised and many sculptures have disappeared. This little head has been missing for years and has been miraculously abandoned in a little box in front of the museum carefully rapped up. It has now been reset at its original place”.

3. BRUNINGHAUS-KNUBEL C., (1993), L$éducateur de musée avocat du public, in: Museum

International, XLV, 4, 1993, pp.13-17.




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Various tools have been imagined in order to prevent more altarpieces to be dismantled or damaged. As partners of the European programs Training of museum and site guides and Let us protect our heritage together led by the Université libre de Bruxelles, the Royal Art and History Museums were able to train their guides in heritage conservation issues. The Stichting restauratie atelier Limburg (SRAL) in Maastricht created a museum kit, which the educators could take along in the exhibition rooms to show the action of time and inappropriate handling on the works together with technical issues. In collaboration with an outside publisher an interactive CD-Rom has been produced to allow the visitor to deepen the knowledge gained in the museum. Different enquiries led on the occasion of this European program prove that the public is interested in conservation issues but not always aware of what is really at stake4. The guides needed to learn how to speak about conservation, tackling issues like material history and analysis of alterations due to time, to man or the environment and their influence on the visual and aesthetic perception.

THE VISITORS’ SIDE

The role museums ought to play in society is nothing new5: from the origin they aimed at enlightening or improving the population they were serving, “the true work of the museum as a service institution being that of enriching the quality of peoples lives”6. The increasing social role of museums has been lately often analyzed what means for museums dealing with increasing number of visitors, which is a real threat for the heritage. Moreover these visitors are far from being a homogenous group:- They have different backgrounds, - Different social origin,- Different nationality,- Different culture,- Different religion and/or philosophy regarding life and material culture.

What these visitors really know about the role they are expected to play in the museum hence how to help museums in preserving the heritage is often a crucial question museums have to deal with. Many new visitors need first to become acquainted simply with the words museums, collections, value, preservation and respect. This last notion appears in Judy Rand’s Visitors’ Bill of Rights7 where one can see that

4. Perier-D’Ieteren, C. (éd.)(1999), Public et sauvegarde du patrimoine. Cahier de sensibilisation

à l’intention des guides, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Cahier d’Etudes, VII,1999, 158 p. (for

the presentation of the museum kit, see pp.58-62).

5. See HEIN George E., The Role of Museums in Society : Education and Social Action, Seminar

for Museum Educators at Jyväskylä, Finland 9 November 2005:

http://www.museoliitto.fi/seminaarit/museolehtoripaivat05/esitelmat/Finland-lec.1PC.pdf

6. Weil S., (199), Introduction to Peniston W., (ed.), The New Museum: Selected Writings of

John Cotton Dana, Washington, American Association of Museums, 1999.

7. Rand J., (2000), The 227-Mile Museum, or a Visitors’ Bill of Rights, in: Curator: The Museum

Journal, 44, n°1, January 2000, pp.7-14.



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before being able to ‘educate’ their visitors, museums must find answers to their needs. Visitors need to feel “accepted for what they are and what they know. They do not want to feel excluded, patronized or treated as if they were stupid by exhibits, labels or even staff. If museums and sites want their visitors to respect the heritage they should start by first respecting their audiences: how many museums welcome their visitors with prohibition signs? These seem to increase lately and shed light on these new audiences’ behaviour. Having started to collect some signs, I quickly realised that they tell us a lot about our audiences. Multiplying them is nevertheless not very welcoming and will certainly not engage visitors to help museums in preserving their collections.

Heritage and cultural activities must be carefully prepared: acting with plastic swords and shields on the porch of the church of Aulnay (France) covered with droppings!(Jencks, 1990)




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Let us just start by greeting them like in the provincial museum of Kaifeng where a simple panel tells the visitor Please come in. Another sign at the Square in Brussels lets the visitor know how many things he may do. Isn’t Please do not touch, even clean hands may damage the works like one can see in London at the Tate Modern far more welcoming than just Do not touch? Or at the MUDAM opening exhibition in Luxemburg: “The silverpoint drawing by Marc Couturier is very fragile and we insistently ask you not to touch the work in order not to alter it. Thank you”.The same can be found at the Royal Art and History Museums in Brussels adding even a humoristic touch: “You touch me, I crack up!” followed by the explanation: “As time goes by, the sculptures become more fragile: the wood expands or shrinks, colours flake off, parts may fall apart” and finally the address to the visitor: “Please help us preserve these masterpieces. Please do not touch them, do not get too close”. The explanation for the tapestries is slightly different: “as time passes, the threads used in the tapestry become so fragile that by just passing too close you may tear them apart”. The message at the Biodôme in Montreal on butterflies has the same impact: it addresses the visitor in a direct way understanding how tempting it is to touch the butterflies as there are hundreds of them flying around. Then comes the explanation: “stroking or handling them causes their wings to lose their scales or even brake. What’s worse, the repeated contact stresses them - they stop eating, weaken and die sooner”. Now, aware of the dangers which may occur from his behaviour, the visitor will accept to help the museum to be a ‘protector’ and not a $predator$ to quote Gaël de Guichen8: “please, help us protect the butterflies… don’t touch”. At the Botanical Gardens also in Montreal the explanation is also clear even if maybe slightly too long: “Why shouldn’t you feed the animals at the Botanical Garden?” Here the decision of how to behave is the visitor’s decision: “If you really enjoy seeing wild animals at the garden, please don’t feed them”.At Tofino island, the visitor’s attitude towards nature is left to his/her sole appreciation. The message is clear: “we don’t inherit the earth from our grandparents, we borrow it from our children” which is slightly different from the idea in the French text which I would translate : “we are in charge of passing the earth over to our children” (elle nous est confiée pour que nous la transmettions à nos enfants). Let me here share with you a study conducted in Japan which was presented two weeks ago at the CECA conference in Shanghai: translations are not only a matter of language. They also involve understanding and what may be clear in one language and in the context it was written for, may seem quite obscure for someone from another language and country. I am mostly indebted to Ayumu Ota from the Museum of Japanese History for being able to show at the HERITY conference some students’ works from the university and what they wrote to explain to their pairs the messages delivered in the audio guides.At Le Havre hanging gardens, the public is directly addressed: “Be active

Please come in! Provincial museum of Kaifeng – China. 8. De GUICHEN G., (1999), in: Perier-D’Ieteren, C. (ed.)(1999), op. cit., p.22.



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in preserving this site. You are entering a remarkable and fragile site. It is the responsibility of all of us to preserve it. Thank you for accepting these principles, which might appear restricting. Respecting them will help preserving this place for future generations… Thank you for your understanding and enjoy your visit”. Back to the Royal Art and History Museums in Brussels with a short and clear text before entering the exhibition on Isabelle de Borgrave’s paper Medici costumes: “The works on display are entirely made of paper. As they are very fragile, may we ask you not to touch? Too curious hands may touch the materials in this basket. But they must remain in this basket. We thank you for your understanding”. The same idea applies to the Great bed of Ware at the Victoria & Albert Museum: near the 16th C. bed, which has been completely restored, the visitor can find modern samples of the different materials used, which he is allowed and invited to touch.At the Mannheim Art Museum, young visitors are familiarized with the museum environment and how to behave in order to enjoy the visit and to protect the works of art: Benjamin is wearing comfortable shoes, which will allow him not to get too tired if some works need long observation, and in order not to touch he puts his arms behind his back! Being very curious his eyes are wide open and he has a very long nose. “Bring as many people with you because many eyes see better than two! Have a nice visit”. After discovering how sculptures are made, the book answers the question “Why is it not allowed to touch in museums?” Benjamin is rather unsatisfied by his parents’ answer - “not to be taught off by the custodians or to set off the alarm system” – and did not see why he could not touch the sculpture, with the result that he came too close. Fortunately the custodian arrived just in time to prevent the sculpture from falling. “If some sculptures feel like being touched, the marks left by the sweat of your fingers can damage the surface. Some surfaces are so fragile that even the museum director wears gloves to touch them. But if you want to have an idea of what the different materials are come and have a look at the education department”. An easy tool which can be adapted to any type of museum.Videos displayed near the objects explaining the time needed to restore them will help the visitor understand why not to touch.These different signs and texts collected in different museums and sites around the world show that the way museums address their audiences is crucial if they want them to understand the dangers which threaten our common heritage and engage them in protecting it together.

HOW EDUCATE THE PUBLIC?

In the examples shown above, curators and educators work hand in hand. Both need to be educated: the curators in ways of communicating with their audiences and learning more about different learning theories which apply to museum and sites visits; the educators in getting more familiar with technical issues related to conservation and restoration. During our mutual chairmanship of ICOM international committees on conservation - ICOM-CC- and education and cultural action - CECA -, both Catheline Périer-D$Ieteren and myself have managed to increase joint programs and




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establish closer collaboration between the two committees: in 1995 at the ICOM general conference in Stavanger, in 1998, in Melbourne. In 2004, CECA invited Gaël de Guichen to address the issue of conservation at the CECA conference and in 2007 I was asked to talk in the name of CECA at the ICOM-CC meeting.

FIVE MINUTES FOR ETERNITY

“Five minutes for eternity” was the title of my presentation: a very easy tool, which can be copied and used everywhere. Its purpose could not be more simple: training museum educators to dedicate five minutes of the

Heritage awareness text adapted from the adult version written by the partners of the European project conducted by the Université libre de Bruxelles Let us protect our heritage together.



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time allocated during their visits and activities to talk about conservation and restoration issues, leading thus the visitor to reflect on his/her behaviour in museums and sites.

RETHINKING MUSEUM EDUCATION

The role of museum educators is here crucialThey should therefore:- Rethink the way they work- Clarify which messages to convey- Decide how to convey their messages (guided tour, open forum, workshop)- Find the appropriate wording- Get information from conservators & restorers- Include conservation issues in their messages & activities- Understand that heritage education is a combination of 3 key issues analyzed and developed by the association Patrimoine à roulettes

1. Meeting human beings through their heritage (éducation par le patrimoine)2. Learning more about this heritage (éducation au patrimoine)3. Developing among the visitor a responsible and careful attitude (éducation pour le patrimoine).As the following will show, too many educational activities lack one or more of the above.

Learning by doing is a motto found in many education departments. It surely helps to understand how time consuming it is to carve and paint an altarpiece, hence what skills are necessary. Trained people must nevertheless conduct such activities to serve the heritage. The following examples will clearly show what I mean with properly serving the heritage.The royal abbey of Saint-Jean d$Angély founded in the 11th C., rebuilt in the 14th, 17th and 18th C. and now listed among the Historic monuments hosts since 1990 the Centre for European Culture. Here, young Europeans are given during two weeks international sessions the opportunity to experiment not only Europe but also its heritage. The first sessions dealt mainly with the restoration of the abbey with the perspective of bringing young Europeans to reflect on Europe, its past, present and future9. The authenticity of these classes owe much to the enthusiasm of its director and founder Alain Ohnenwald. Interpreting the heritage is dealt with by specialists who care and know how to teach heritage topics to A-level pupils and involve them to become active protectors of this fabulous medieval ensemble as one can see from the posters created by heritage caretakers.Unfortunately the heritage is too often used as a means for educational activities with no reflexion whatsoever on the heritage as such. After having lectured at this centre on medieval craftsmanship and its preservation, I eventually participated in a six day training session for teachers and museum educators on the same spot. Called Heritage learning through art based methodologies and sponsored by European funding, the whole

9. http://www.cceangely.org/




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week was for me a total failure. None of the workshops we took part in led to a reflexion on the heritage. Asked to take a picture from out the window of our room - I looked carefully for signs of deterioration we could discuss - the activity consisted only in printing each participant’s picture and making the others guess which picture had been taken by whom! For the organisers, having looked at the heritage was the main purpose of this activity. A second activity was to lead to the making of a poster in which we would express the results of our discoveries regarding space, colour, and wording throughout one hour visit of the abbey. Without wanting to be rude, I just felt like testing our ’trainers’ by asking them what they meant by ‘space’. I must admit I was rather frightened when I heard the answer: “space, well for example, the façade you can see there”! Fortunately the two Dutch colleagues working for Erfgoed Landschap were as puzzled as I was and instead of leaving the training we decided to stay in the hope our first impression would turn out to be more positive. The role-playing session was even worse. After a very interesting guided tour of the Romanesque church of Aulnay by the heritage curator of Saint-Jean d’Angély all participants were then given a plastic shield and sword: they were to express the ideas of good and evil illustrated on the Romanesque capitals in the church. Nobody ever said a word on the droppings in the middle of which we were acting! The key issue was here to act, inspired by what we had just seen! No analysis whatsoever on the state of conservation of this wonderful church nor how to prevent the pigeons to ruin the place. Moreover, the program is still on and the organisers cherished for all what they do for the heritage and the many youngsters they manage to attract in their various activities!

THE ROLE OF CECA - COMMITTEE FOR EDUCATION AND CULTURAL ACTION OF

THE INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL OF MUSEUMS (ICOM)

CECA member for more than 30 years, secretary and chairperson of the committee, I started reflecting on ways museum educators could play a more active role in heritage awareness supporting initiatives like those of the Council of Europe, European heritage classes or the School adopts a monument and participating in Belgium in various juries for the King Baudouin Foundation, which developed a series of heritage programs like Les musées prennent un coup de jeunes and Les jeunes prennent un coup de musée, Rêver le musée (Dreaming the museum), Vivre le musée (Living the museum), Passé-composé and more recently Les sens du patrimoine10 which has led to various initiatives among which that of the association Patrimoine à roulettes11 in English ‘Heritage on wheels’: its main aim is to bring young people of various social background and origin to discover the heritage which surrounds them through active pedagogy: this means

10. Les sens du Patrimoine : Le patrimoine culturel, outil de découverte and Passeurs de

patrimoine - Utiliser le patrimoine comme outil de communication, Fondation Roi Baudouin,

2001.

11. Hanosset Y., (2000), Association ‘Patrimoine à roulettes’ in Bondé A.(éd.), in: Youth and

the Safeguard of Heritage, Rome, ICCROM, 2000, pp.99-103.



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hip hop dancing at the entrance of a church, thus first discovering its pavement to progressively dare enter and eventually feel and appreciate the space and atmosphere. Another activity brought young primary school children on a tram journey in Brussels passing through very different boroughs observing the architecture. Both activities were then discussed with heritage specialists from the Royal Commission for Monuments and Sites, teachers and museum educators. Without denying the impact of such initiatives one can only regret they are punctual activities and not part of the general school curriculum like all cultural matters, one of the goals the Belgian association Culture and Democracy founded by former Brussels opera director Bernard Foccroulle is striving for12.

The CECA project All Roads Lead to Rome13, funded by the European Commission and awarded the Audiovisual prize during the European heritage days was meant as a tool to analyze all means used by monuments and sites to enhance public awareness. Inspired by the program Europe seen by its rivers (L’Europe des fleuves)14, it consisted in two parts: one more scientific collecting in the ten partner countries all museum education publications on the Roman world. The idea was to pinpoint one publication, give it a CECA label and have it translated and adapted into various other languages like with the publication Learning with objects published by English Heritage and translated and adapted in Dutch and Spanish15.

Welcoming visitors, The Square, Brussels, 2010.

12. La culture au cœur de l’enseignement - un vrai défi démocratique, Brussels, Culture et

Démocratie, Cahiers d’étude, 2, 2008.

13. Gesché-Koning N., (2001), All Roads Lead to Rome – A European Project of the Committee

for Education and Cultural Action (CECA) of the International Council of Museums (ICOM), in:

Archäologische Museen und Stätten der Römischen Antike - Auf dem Wege vom Schatzhaus

zum Erlebnispark und virtuellen Informationzentrum?, Cologne, 2001, pp. 197-203

14. Rosé S., L’Europe des fleuves, in: Gesché-Koning N., (ed.)(1993), European Museum

Communication, Bruxelles, 1993, pp. 27-29 and 183-186.




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This goal was so far never achieved. Interesting though regarding heritage matters, one must confess that only 2% of the publications dealt with heritage and its preservation. Museum education departments have still some work to do in this matter. Heritage organisations like HERITY could continue the task I did not succeed in, i.e. selecting one or more good tools they could translate and recommend throughout Europe and the world.The second part was in the hands of museum and sites education departments. They were to contact young people aged 15 to 1816 asking them reflect on various themes like: ‘Rome: Which future for the past? How to preserve the Roman heritage in times of urban and economic development? What is the impact of tourism on the preservation of Roman heritage? These issues could still be part of national programs, each school curriculum including Roman times. Some activities are worth mentioning even if they took place some ten years ago: the Austrian museums organised awareness activities both in the museum and highway rest areas. To reach the tourists who might invade Rome, they are more likely to be found on high ways than in museums! The parody of the Trajan column was erected in honour of Imperator Barbarus, alias Tourist: it was created by A-level pupils, who during a trip to Rome, had been impressed by the damage caused to the eternal city, by unscrupulous tourists. They created a series of photos with personal comments on the ways these tourists behaved: they acted like the foreign invaders on Trajan’s column. In their column photos have replaced the original reliefs. The pupils’ comments are worth quoting: “the new invaders slowly conquer the city. Some Romans resist, others realize the profit they can make by collaborating with these new imperialists$. Some people in the audience have maybe seen this column at the entrance of ICCROM: it arrived there after heavy negotiations between Gaël de Guichen and the school teacher! For CECA to have an educational and cultural activity worth being exhibited in the hall of such an institution as ICCROM was a big achievement. Moreover CECA felt most indebted to ICCROM, which played a leading role in the organisation of the final event in Rome and the game on the forum in five languages and for 400 young Europeans from ten different countries. Ten years after this event, I wondered what remained of it. I was pleased it is still quoted on ICCROM’s web site as awareness pilot projects. No track however at the European Commission, who had asked for loads of reports! What about the 400 participants? A questionnaire was sent to all museum educators asking to pass it on to their groups. None had kept their names and apart from one or two persons who had occasionally stayed in touch, the only way I had to find out what the impact of such a programme had

15. Facing budget shortening, museum education departments should aim at adapting what

already exists on the market and adpat it to meet their needs. See Durbin G., Morris S., &

Wilkinson S., (1990), A Teacher’s Guide to Learning from Objects, English Heritage, 1990

and the two adaptations, one in Dutch: Van Veldhuizen A., (1996-97), Learning from Objects

modified in Dutch - Werken met voorwerpen , in: Icom Education, 16, 1996-1997, pp.58-60,

and one in Spanish: Garcia Blanco A., (1997), Aprender con los objetos, Madrid, 1997, 32 p.

16. This is an age museums have sometimes difficulties with. Projects with primary school

children are far more numerous.



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been, was to search the web and look for these participants one by one – I had kept a list of all participants - through face-book. A week-end research led me to finding 20% of the participants, all happy of their participation, more open to heritage matters - even if none work in this field - and certainly to European contacts17. My next research will now be to systematically analyze museum education websites searching for heritage awareness activities. Conservation institutes should pay attention to this way of communicating with the public: social networks to preserve the heritage can easily be started everywhere. They would certainly have a stronger impact if they had a special logo, which could be easily identified. Let us work on this.Together with CECA ICRROM has simplified for young visitors the awareness text published by the partners in the European programme Let us protect our heritage together. Since then, the text has been translated into English and German and eventually presented at various conferences on heritage awareness18.

To conclude, I would like to stress the qualities tools for involving visitors in protecting their heritage need to have: - To be visitor friendly- Respectful- Showing understanding - Addressing the visitor at his level- Adapting the message according to language- Showing how valuable his/her help is- Thanking him/her for their help- Inviting him/her to make suggestions.

Only Conservation + Education can help protect the heritage.

“Today nothing is ending, it is all just beginning” said one of the participants in the final event of All Roads lead to Rome. Let us continue on building what already exists, analyzing, criticizing it, copying and multiplying it to increase its impact for the sake of our heritage.

17. Among the answers received, it apperas that the project has first of all given the

participants a strong feeling for discovering the other. All have either returned to Rome since

1998 or have studied abroad. They appreciated the task of conceiving a work at international

level. As to how they handle the heritage?

They felt one had not seen enough of it during the three days of the final event. To have been

in contact with so many people from different countries at the same time has allowed them

to be more tolérant and open towards other cultures even if for some they felt too young to

really grasp all the goals of the project.

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