Press release
A project with the primary objective of protecting and enhancing cultural heritage
The primary objective of SOS Heritage is to create a set of best practices for the enhancement and promotion of cultural heritage, as well as creating an innovative and supporting way of protecting and assessing the risks caused by climate change and global warming on historic buildings.
SOS Heritage is a European co-funded project within the Creative Europe program led by Mazzini Lab Srl Benefit. The consortium of 5 partners from 4 European countries kicked off project activities on July 1st, 2022.
The team includes: the University of Donau Krems (Austria), a leading institution in the teaching of risk management for cultural heritage; Associazione Dimore Storiche Italiane (Italy), which has 4500 associated Italian historic residences; Transylvania Trust Foundation (Romania), whose aim is to protect the castles of the Romanian region, and the National Museum of Kruševac (Serbia), which collects, preserves, protects, and exposes movable cultural goods and remains of the material culture of the homeland.
The project foresees three main activities:
- the implementation of small pilot projects aimed at the digitization and promotion of cultural heritage in Italy, Serbia and Romania and the subsequent delivery of a handbook for the best practices for the enhancement of historic assets;
- the design of an innovative web application that will support museum and archive operators in assessing and managing the risks that occur on their collections;
- the delivery of an advanced training course, both in-presence and online, targeted to cultural professionals on the risk management for cultural heritage.
Massimo Cruciotti, head of Mazzini Lab Srl Benefit, says:
“The cultural sector must act immediately to adapt to the current global situation and to develop solutions aimed at managing the risks deriving from climate change and global warming. Not only in our daily life, but also in our professional activities, we should be able to activate a new approach that allows us to take into consideration the transformations of our planet resulting from climate change, and to act to achieve an ecological lifestyle. Through the SOS Heritage project, we try to do our part, and to work for a more sustainable world by protecting our history and our collective identity”.
Innovation can be achieved only through the collaboration between different realities and institutions, and through the merging of different cultures and ideals. International cooperation is the only possible way to achieve the primary objective of stopping climate change and protecting our cultural heritage.
SOS Heritage project will last 24 months and is co-financed by the European Union through the Creative Europe program under the Grant Agreement n. 101055573.