Scaling Up: AC Hosts Digitization and Preservation Training for Museums
May 22, 2023
Unprecedented registration as over 1100 sign on
Over 1100 individuals registered for the Antiquities Coalition’s most recent Arabic-language training on digitization, documentation, and preservation strategies for museums—an unprecedented number and a robust indication of the global need for cultural heritage preservation instruction.
The AC worked with longtime partners at the Egyptian Heritage Rescue Foundation (EHRF), whose Chairman, Abdelhamid Salah, designed and led three days of instruction with the EHRF team. The project was conceived by the AC and EHRF to appeal to a broad audience.
“We set out thinking about training at scale, and how we could reach a significantly larger audience,” explained Peter Herdrich, the AC’s Co-founder and the project’s executive director. “We made the training free, online, and in Arabic, all to reach an underserved audience. And we worked with some of the best and most well-known trainers in the Arabic-speaking world. I think those approaches drove registration.”
“We take the time to train in a number of skills,” explained Mr. Salah. “It is a three-day training, and we discuss digitization, documentation, collections stabilization, and data and museum management. Our goal is to provide value by teaching the important concepts and practical applications of heritage preservation for museums and to open more approaches for collaboration.”
The training regime is part of a project organized by the AC, EHRF, and the Algerian Ministry of Culture and the Arts, generously sponsored by the US Embassy in Algiers and the US State Department’s Cultural Property Agreement Implementation Grant (CPAIG) program. This online instruction is the first step in a more in-depth training program with Algerian museum partners, including the upcoming installation of a digitization laboratory at the Bardo Museum in Algiers and two weeks of in-person advanced training with EHRF and AC instructors in Algeria.
“Our cultural heritage preservation work shows us that there are a vast number of heritage colleagues longing for skills development. To provide that service in a timely and successful way, we need to scale up all our efforts,” said Herdrich. “Whether it is training, digital infrastructure, or responses to conflict, we need to recognize the risks to culture under threat and go.”
For more information, contact Ms. Abir Chorfa at achorfa@theantiquitescoalition.org.
For more information about collaboration on advanced training projects in museum, library, archive, and manuscript skills and infrastructure and other cultural heritage preservation projects, contact Peter Herdrich at pherdrich@theantiquitiescoalition.org.