We are honored to have received a Media Production grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities for our project, ARCHES (At Risk Cultural Heritage Education Series).
Our cultural heritage defines our humanity. Cultural diversity, like biodiversity, plays a quantifiable and crucial part in the health of the human species….But cultural diversity is under grave threat around the globe….Any loss of cultural heritage is a loss of our common memory. It imperils our ability to learn, to build experiences, and to apply the lessons of the past to the present and the future. —Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations, 12 April 2016
Tangible cultural heritage—the monuments, sites and objects that express and help define our shared humanity—is imperiled more now than at any other time in history. Smarthistory is devoted to making cultural history accessible to millions of people around the world. We believe that an informed public is essential to ongoing efforts to protect cultural heritage.
ARCHES content will be organized around three key themes:
1) The importance of cultural heritage
2) Historical threats to cultural heritage
3) Challenges to preserving cultural heritage today
Within each thematic area, ARCHES will feature videos and essays produced in collaboration with leading scholars in the field and and with a global scope. This new and innovative content will include thematic essays such as ”From ancient writings to modern legal frameworks: the history of cultural heritage protection,” as well as specific case studies about endangered sites and objects, for example, “Colonialism and the erasure of history: The Aztec Templo Mayor.”
We want to thank our project advisors, and especially Dr. Jeffrey Becker and Dr. Senta German and of course, the National Endowment for the Humanities.