The UWI/ OAS
Caribbean Heritage Network (CHN) will host its inaugural conference
“Caribbean Conversations in Conservation” Conference at the
Sagicor Cave Hill School of Business and Management at The University
of the West Indies (UWI) in Barbados next month, March 16-19, 2020.
The hands-on workshop-oriented conference for heritage professionals
including archaeologists, architects, engineers, archivists, and
museum professionals is a milestone capacity building exercise for
the region’s professionals to gain knowledge and experience in the
area of conservation. Workshops, sessions and field-based study will
be integrated into this 4-day conference.

This
conference will allow heritage practitioners to share their expertise
while enhancing policymakers’ understanding of the unique threats,
challenges and opportunities for heritage conservation in the region.
Another expected outcome of the conference is to help protect,
conserve, and interpret the region’s outstanding heritage from the
built environment to endangered collections and documents, and to
work towards the establishment of viable multidisciplinary
initiatives and regional partnerships to provide mutual support.

A
special focus of the conference will be on Climate Change, disaster
risk preparedness and first aid to cultural heritage in emergencies.
Conference organizers welcome the collaboration of a number of
practitioners from leading preservation organizations in North
America, the United Kingdom and Europe as well as from the Caribbean.
The opening workshops on March 16 will be “Keeping History Above
Water: Caribbean Workshop” hosted by the University of Florida
College of Design, Construction and Planning and the Newport
Restoration Foundation in collaboration with the Barbados Institute
of Architects (BIA). It will explore how Climate Change and sea level
rise affects vulnerable coastal urban landscapes and what built
environment practitioners can do to plan and adapt. The other opening
workshop will focus on “Disaster Preparedness for Heritage
Institutions” including museums, libraries and archives.

CHN
Director, Dr. Tara Inniss, remarks “This conference is potentially
a game-changing approach to heritage conservation in the Caribbean.
We need to change our thinking that someone from outside of the
region is going to value our heritage more than ourselves. We have a
latent heritage industry waiting for innovative and strategic
investment that can stimulate the creative industries we all talk
about, but need to do more to promote regionally as part of our
economic development. Conservation is at the heart of this
conversation. We have to protect and maintain what we have now before
we lose it forever.”

The CHN is a network
of heritage professionals (individuals and organizations) from around
the region and further afield who are committed to the promotion and
protection of the Caribbean’s heritage resources. For more
information about the conference visit
https://www.caribheritage.org/CCC2020.

____________________________________________________________________________________

Dr. Tara Inniss,
Director, UWI/OAS Caribbean Heritage Network

(246) 417-4403

E-mail:
info@caribheritage.org
Website: www.caribheritage.org