Many expressions of the intangible cultural heritage stretch accross borders and contribute to the idenitity of two or more states. The UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage encourages proposals for heritage listings joint-drafted by several States Parties. However, these nominations to the two lists of the Convention often turn out to be the most difficult proposals to prepare.

Transnational proposals not only require adequate expertise, terminological and formal knowledge as well as writing skills, but also demand the same level of enthusiasm and motivation to be present in all national agencies and all practitioner communities involved. Often the coordinating agency or community spends a considerable amount of time aiming to collect information from other partners or experiences delays waiting to receive responses and consents in other participating states. Here we can help!

think heritage! offers to coordinate and manage your transnational nomination, bring all the partners together and follow-up with information provision and community consultation in each State Party partnering in the joint proposal. During this process think heritage! gathers the information required to compile a complete set of information, and links the contributions in consistent language and policy approaches. think heritage! aims to be a facilitator among the partners concerned, and allows each individual State Party involved to save time and efforts through combining their individual strengths during the preparation of the Intangible Cultural Heritage listing proposal and development of a join safeguarding plan.

For further information and quotations, please contact:
ich[at]thinkheritage.com