Sharing Conservation Decisions: Current Issues and Future Strategies Edited by Alison Heritage & Jennifer Copithorne
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SHARING CONSERVATION DECISIONS 3 Sharing Conservation Decisions Current Issues and Future Strategies Edited by Alison Heritage & Jennifer Copithorne Published by the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM), Via di San Michele 13, 00153 Rome, Italy. © 2018 ICCROM ISBN 978-92-9077-271-2 This publication is available in Open Access under the Attribution Share Alike 3.0 IGO (CCBY-SA 3.0 IGO) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/igo/). By using the content of this publication, the users accept to be bound by the terms of use of the future ICCROM Open Access Repository. The designations employed and the presentation of material throughout this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of ICCROM concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The ideas and opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors; they are not necessarily those of ICCROM and do not commit the Organization. Sharing Conservation Decisions: Current Issues and Future Strategies Edited by Alison Heritage & Jennifer Copithorne Cover artwork: Karen Abend Typesetting: Datapage International Limited Coordination: Catherine Antomarchi, Jennifer Copithorne, Isabelle De Brisis, Alison Heritage & Isabelle Verger Table of Contents Foreword vii Preface ix Current Issues and Future Strategies in Sharing Conservation Decisions. Findings of the ICCROM Seminar held in Rome, 4–8 July 2011 1 Alison Heritage 1. Expanding Concepts of Cultural Heritage Conservation and Management of Archaeological Heritage Resources 15 Webber Ndoro Digital Culture: Here to Stay 27 Ann Seibert Asking Specific Questions in order to Share Appropriate Responses for the Conservation of Contemporary Art 35 Arianne Vanrell Vellosillo Living Heritage 43 Gamini Wijesuriya ‘Living Heritage’ as a part of Japanese Painting Conservation: the Role of ‘Selected Traditional Conservation Techniques’ 57 Yasuhiro Oka 2. The Community in the Present and Future: Beneficiaries or artners?P Integrating Community Cultural Values in the Conservation and Management of Archaeological Resources 65 Nonofho Mathibidi Ndobochani iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Strategies for Sustaining Thousand-Year-Old Monuments in India – the Great Living Chola Temples 71 Sathyabhama Badhreenath The Myth of Value: the Preservation of Street Graffiti 83 Evita S. Yeung and Chin-Wing Chan 3. From Multi-Disciplinary Voices to Interdisciplinary Dialogue Changing Decisions 93 Dinah Eastop Conservation of Fourteen Medieval Icons from the Town of Nessebar in Bulgaria 97 Stefan Belishki Stakeholders in Heritage Preservation and Sustainable Strategies of Building Renewal: the Cekovica House Case Study 111 Milijana Okilj Would you Love your Historic House if we Restored it? Restoring the Owner’s Relationship with their Historic House rather than just Restoring the House 121 Elenita Roshi Decision-Making Based on Dialogue: Preservation of Danish Churches under the Consultancy of the National Museum 131 Kirsten Trampedach Linking Emergency Decisions with Long-Term Sustainable Recovery Process: the Case of Post-Earthquake Reconstruction in Marathwada, India 143 Rohit Jigyasu 4. Decision-Making Tools and Approaches: What to Keep, What to Look For? Conservation-Restoration in Europe: Setting in Motion the Concepts and Principles developed in the Twentieth Century 161 Marie Berducou iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Korea’s Challenges in Shaping Government-Private Partnerships in order to Establish a Code of Ethics for Cultural Heritage Conservation 167 Sujeong Lee Cultural Interest and Globalization: the Legal Tensions of a Close Relationship 175 Vincent Négri Sharing Conservation Decisions: Tools, Tactics, and Ideas 183 Stefan Michalski The QALY in Collection Care – a Cost-Effectiveness Approach to Collection Management 205 Anna E. Bülow and Agnes W. Brokerhof An Indicator of the State of Conservation of Urban World Heritage Sites 211 Sílvio Mendes Zancheti and Lúcia Tone Hidaka 5. Sharing Conservation Decisions: How to Teach it? Sharing Conservation Decisions – UK 225 Helen Hughes Introducing Sharing Conservation Decisions Concepts into Training Programmes in Serbia 233 Aleksandra Nikolic The Meaning of Further Sharing: from Learning to Teaching Sharing Conservation Decisions within an Active Educational Environment 241 E. Isabel Medina-Gonzalez Emergence and Evolution of the ICCROM Sharing Conservation Decisions Course 253 Catherine Antomarchi and Karen Abend v Foreword The success or failure of our actions is largely determined by the deci- sions we take. While history tends to judge these in terms of their outcomes, a close examination of the reasoning and processes that lead to those decisions can be salutary. In my experience as an archae- ologist, I was constantly faced with conservation decisions. For exam- ple, during a stratigraphic excavation: which levels to remove in order to explore the underlying layers; which area to sample and which to leave unsurveyed? Likewise post-excavation, decisions need to be made regarding which phases to present in order to construct a nar- rative that is not only historically reliable but also of interest to the public. This is important, since getting the story right is paramount to the success of the site, and in turn, to its long-term sustainability. Those who, like me, have been involved in rescue archaeology prior to public works also know how challenging these decisions become in an emergency when time is tight, resources are insufficient, and public pressure is high, owing to the inconvenience caused by the excavation. All of this increases the risk of making wrong decisions. Conservation principles adopted since the early twentieth century acknowledge the need for decisions to be informed by the best avail- able scientific evidence, and accordingly, substantial efforts have been expended in building up a significant body of knowledge to support conservation decisions. However, an approach founded solely on technical or historical considerations neglects the importance of human factors in determining decisions and their outcomes. A symp- tom of our time and its changing social values is a certain loss of confidence in authority figures, such that acceptance of expert opin- ion has become eroded. This is exemplified by the debates surround- ing climate change, the connection of which to anthropogenic activities would appear scientifically irrefutable, but is nevertheless disputed by some. Indeed, while it is difficult to unpick knowledge from belief, on all sides, trust plays an integral role. The conservation field has been diligent in examining the quality of its knowledge base for decision-making, but it is important to also examine the processes by which conservation decisions are made. The importance of stake- holder participation and the ways in which different interest groups impact conservation decisions and vice versa have long been recog- nized. However, the manner in which this relationship is affected by decision-making processes – and the systematic study of these – is a topic of relatively recent interest. vii FOREWORD In 2011, ICCROM held a workshop on shared decision-making pro- cesses in conservation, the outcome of which is this book. While sev- eral years have passed since that event, the papers collected here in this volume examine a topic that is vitally relevant today. In our pres- ent times, characterized as they are by rapidly changing demographics and social values, there is a great need for inclusivity and consensus building. This demands attention to both process and outcome – focusing on the path taken as much as the end result – to arrive at a common understanding of shared goals, and agreement on how best to achieve them. It is therefore my very great pleasure to announce the publication of this book, which concerns a topic both timeless and timely. Stefano De Caro Former Director-General ICCROM viii Preface For more than 50 years, the challenges of communication have been discussed within heritage conservation – primarily in terms of inter- disciplinary dialogue, and the tensions that exist between the classic triangle of professional conservation domains comprising humanities, science and practice. Communication is fundamental to human inter- action and lies at the heart of everything that we do collectively. It is about sharing – deriving from the Latin ‘communicare’ meaning to share – through which we build a collective understanding of concepts, knowledge and values. Any conservation action starts with a decision. Given the natural lim- its of our individual knowledge, informed decision-making means accepting that the knowledge of others is valid and needed. Hence, sharing enhances awareness of other knowledge – and the limits of our own. It is fundamental to gaining trust and acceptance through shared ownership of decisions. The practice of shared decision-making is well established in other fields, and is becoming more common in cultural heritage conserva- tion. However, as little as fifteen years ago the thinking on this subject was distinctly different. At the time of our first ICCROM think tank on decision-making in 2000, our discourse was still very much focused on improving communication between professions, as if this was the key to good decisions. During the first Sharing Conservation Decisions course, however, participants asked “Where is the community?”