UNESCO capacity building workshop for museum professionals at the National Museum of Afghanistan in Kabul, May 2010. Focussing on post-conflict and post-crisis strategies and a sustainable museum management approach. Includes on-site visits to some restored historical urban districts, mausoleums, and archaeological areas in and around Kabul. By Alessandro Califano, Senior Curator at CRDAV (Rome, Italy).

1. PROGRAMME
“SAFEGUARDING CULTURAL HERITAGE:
POST-CONFLICT AND POST-DISASTER
STRATEGIES FOR SUSTAINABLE MUSEUM
MANAGEMENT”
TRAINING
May 8 – 13, 2010
Kabul, Afghanistan

2. BRIEF DESCRIPTION
In the same way as traditions, arts and knowledge have to be carefully fostered,
so that they do not vanish for good in times of crisis – so we have to care about
post-conflict reconstruction and preventive conservation of our movable cultural
heritage.
This needs to be done even much before an optimal condition of peace and
abundance of resources is reached, and we always have to consider the risks
involved in doing so, as well as the new opportunities that assessing these risks
may become ripe for us. We also have to focus on correct planning – defining
general aims, setting milestones, securing the means to reach both, and using
apt strategies to simplify the whole process.
Moreover, we have to consider that this is not done in a void. No institution – and
even less change affecting them! – should be considered without looking at the
context it lives in. Accurately considering specific information regarding the land
lot hosting a museum or a monument, the district it is located in, as well as the
regional diversity and the general situation of a country or a macro region is
always very important, and so is considering human geography, and the degree
of “welcome-ness”, acceptance and (re)use of an institution or a site by the
inhabitants of the surrounding areas.
Thus, evaluating projects or proposals for reconstruction or for reuse of
previously damaged, or even simply neglected, buildings and sites requires that
we also ask questions – questions like: how?, why?, for whom? – related both to
the existing situation and to its possible, or desired, future evolution.
In this workshop, we will be examining three different contexts in the Kabul area
– an ancient archaeological site, a mausoleum with its garden, and a beautiful
building located in a war struck district undergoing radical renovation. We will
also confront ourselves with the issues of promoting a cultural institution, and of
taking into account a multiplicity of views regarding one and the same artefact,
one and the same cultural tradition.
This experiences will help us in looking with new eyes to similar or comparable
contexts we may be familiar with, and in better planning a sustainable, effective
management of many events and actions affecting the cultural institutions we
represent and care for.

3. For security reasons, locations and timing will be posted only after the
workshop is over...
Thank you for your understanding!