Concluding the 11th year of Regional Restorations Camps
2018 marked the 11th year of activities in the framework of the Regional Restoration Camps. It was also one of the busiest and most exciting years. Counting on the invaluable support of the Sweden Embassy in Tirana and the Albanian-American Development Foundation, and the cooperation of local and international craftspersons and professors, our teams successfully completed 6 Camps in Albania, Kosovo and Serbia. Representing more than 22 000 hours of training provided (80 hours/participant/camp), the Camps did not limit their impact only to education and awareness-raising, but they have provided real support to local communities through the completion of a dozens of interventions on important monuments in Gjirokastra, Përmet & Berat, the preventive conservation of more than 15 museum artifacts in Prishtina, the creative integration of traditional arts and crafts in 4 business concepts in Kruja, or the innovative interpretation strategies devised for 5 major cultural sites in Shkodra. In Rogljevo we joined forces with Vernadoc to apply a documentation methodology aiming also at an increased knowledge and appreciation for vernacular architecture.
The end of the year marks also the successful completion of the partnership with AADF, the University of Tirana and the Ministry of Culture. This cooperation allowed 178 Albanian students, namely those enrolled in the “Cultural Heritage Management and Archaeology” Program at the Faculty of History and Philology at the University of Tirana, to gather knowledge and practical experience. Through the inclusion of the Camps in the curricula of Master and Bachelor levels, this cooperation was aiming to boost employment opportunities for the qualified candidates who would successfully finalize 4 RRC during their Master studies, namely through the Ministry of Culture and subordinate institutions.
Finally during this year we gathered with our partners to jointly define the RRC model , a supporting tool that can be used to support further program design and planning; stakeholder engagement; documentation and communications; and monitoring, evaluation, and learning.
