1. Background

Asia/Pacific Cultural Centre for UNESCO launched the “2nd Project for Better Practices in Community’s Intangible Cultural Heritage Revitalisation” in 2008, to identify the past and current practices that have proven to be successful in revitalising ICH. This project is carried out in close cooperation with CRESPIAL (Cuzco Centre, Regional Centre for the Safeguarding of the ICH in Latin America) and Maison des Cultures du Monde.

ACCU organised the 1st Contest in 2006 as a part of the first Community Project, with many entries from many countries within and beyond the region. Seven communities including those from South Africa, Thailand and Japan were awarded ACCU Prize and Honorable Mention. As a follow-up to the contest, the representatives of the awarded communities were invited to the workshop held in Japan, to share their safeguarding experiences and to launch the establishment of ACCU’s ICH community network. The participants visited one of the awarded communities to observe their project and had face-to-face communication with the community members.

2. Host and Cooperative Organisations

Organised by:

Asia/Pacific Cultural Centre for UNESCO (ACCU)

In Cooperation with:

Cuzco Centre, Regional Centre for the Safeguarding of the ICH in Latin America (CRESPIAL), Maison des Cultures du Monde

Supported by:

Japanese National Commission for UNESCO

3. Objective of the Project

• To collect better practices on safeguarding of communities’ ICH which once had declined, and successful experiences in revitalising communities’ ICH through younger generation’s participation and render those case studies to UNESCO and its member states;
• To share the innovative problem-solving approaches and knowledge by practitioners of the awarded communities’ traditional performing arts and young successors and analyse these case studies by the experts;
• To provide ideas on revitalising ICH to other communities, whose performing arts are under threat of disappearing, through publication of a case study report, and Website; and
• To encourage communities’ direct participation in ICH safeguarding activities, thereby contributing to promotion of the Convention at grass-roots level.

4. Outline of the Project

This project is to be carried out in 3 stages.

(1^st Stage: Call for entries and International Jury Meeting)

ACCU calls for entries from successful communities for revitalising of their performing arts which were under threat of disappearing, or lacking in successors, in the UNESCO Member States of Asia-Pacific, Arab states, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean. Please refer to the Prospectus for more information on the application for the contest.

This project especially focuses on communities that have proven to be successful in revitalising their endangered local performing arts through participation of younger generations.

In the International Jury Meeting, communities with better practices are awarded ACCU Prize or Honourable Mention. The International Jury consists of experts from inside and outside of Japan.

(2^nd Stage: Workshop)

ACCU invites representatives including young generation and practitioners from each awarded community, to the workshop to present their case studies. It is expected that the participants share their information and experiences with other communities which have suffered from the same kind of problems. A field trip to one of the awarded communities is included.

(3^rd Stage: Publishing of the Case Study Report)

ACCU publishes outcomes of the workshop as a case study report, and distributes it widely to UNESCO and its Member States. The digital contents of awarded communities’ information are also streamed on the Website in both English and Japanese.

(Future Plan)

ACCU plans to continue this project focusing on the following points

• Implementation of the contest for ICH other than cultural performing arts.
• Expansion of community network and diversified of case studies on the Website.