Networking Events and Cultural Visits
Hundreds of heritage stakeholders from all over Europe – professionals and volunteers, members of Europa Nostra and the European Heritage Alliance 3.3, partners from the wider fields of culture and economy, and representatives from various EU institutions and governmental networks – will gather in Oslo from 10-14 June for the European Heritage Congress 2015. This major event will provide a unique platform for international networking, capacity building and peer learning, transnational cooperation and exchanges of views on the latest EU policy developments related to heritage.
Congress participants will be engaged in a series of meetings, networking events and cultural visits.
The meetings of Europa Nostra’s governing bodies will focus on peer learning, project management and policy discussions. On 10 June, the Scientific Council will meet at the Akershus Fortress and hold three public sessions on ‘The architecture and the reuse of the coastal defenses from the end of the Middle Age to early Modern Time’. On 12 June, the Council will convene at the Norske Selskab. Finally, on 13 June, the General Assembly of Europa Nostra will take place at the Oslo Military Society.
On the evening of 10 June, a welcome reception honouring the winners of the EU Prize for Cultural Heritage / Europa Nostra Awards 2015 will be held at the plateau in front of the Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art. On this occasion, Europa Nostra will present the newest edition of its Heritage in Motion magazine: Norway Special – featuring exemplary heritage initiatives in this country, a special dossier on youth and heritage, and interviews with EU key policy-makers. On the afternoon of 11 June, short lectures on ‘Wood, building material of the past and for the future’ will be given at the Domus Academica of Oslo University.
The cultural programme features visits to some of the main attractions in and outside Oslo, namely the industrial site of Kistefos Pulp Mill in Jevnaker on the afternoon of 10 June; the Ski Museum and Ski Jump at Holmenkollen, the Vigeland Sculpture Park, the Royal Palace, and the National Gallery on the afternoon of 12 June; and the Folks Museum and the Viking Ship Museum on the afternoon of 13 June. The programme will conclude with a reception at the Fram Museum that evening. The delegates will also be offered an interesting post-Congress excursion to heritage sites and cultural landscapes in the surroundings of Oslo on 14 June, including to the Manor House in Eidsvoll – the place where the independent Norway was reborn and its constitution drawn up in 1814 -, which has received a EU Prize for Cultural Heritage / Europa Nostra Award 2015 in for its outstanding conservation.
The Congress is supported by the European Union’s Creative Europe programme, Riksantikvaren – the Directorate for Cultural Heritage and the Arts Council of Norway, and the City of Oslo, among many other public and private bodies from Norway.