How the Europeana-ESACH partnership supports the participation of new professionals in cultural heritage events

Having little experience in organising large events and few contacts with other organisations and institutions are some of the challenges that new professionals and students in the cultural heritage sector can face. The Europeana Initiative aims to help them address these challenges through coordinating and facilitating the participation of new professionals and students at events. They also offer bursaries to their own annual conference to give these groups an opportunity to acquire new knowledge, make themselves known, gain self-confidence in international contexts and make new contacts. Read on to discover more about this work.

The III ESACH Meeting: roundtable and workshop

From 7 - 9 June 2021, the Madrid-based ESACH group, ESACH Madrid (now Asociación de Jóvenes Profesionales por el Patrimonio Cultural - AJPC), organised the III ESACH Meeting `Our Common past, our future’. It took place at the Facultad de Geografia e Historia, the Complutense University of Madrid and Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Madrid (ETSAM), Polytechnic University of Madrid.

More than 100 new and students registered for the event, which saw participants from across Europe participate in a blended format as speakers, audience or participants. There were the several paper and poster presentations, panel sessions, workshops, roundtables and outdoor activities developed together with different European organisations including Europa Nostra, Europeana, ICOMOS, Hispania Nostra, Fundación Santa María La Real and Madrid Ciuadania y Patrimonio.

The organising committee invited members from the Europeana Foundation and Europeana Network Association (ENA) to participate in three sessions: a panel session coordinated by Europa Nostra on the New European Bauhaus initiative; a roundtable with new professionals and students about the digital transformation of the cultural heritage sector, co-organised between Europeana and ESACH; and a workshop with a conversational format, focused around the challenges faced by new professionals and students in areas such as internships, training and skills development, following the results from the Europeana Network Association’s New Professionals Task Force.

As a result of the conference, a book of proceedings was published in June 2022 and presented in an international framework at the Europeana Conference 2022 in The Hague, the Netherlands. It includes institutional presentations from the institutions, the papers and posters presented during the conference, a summary of results from the roundtables, panel sessions and workshops and a review of the outdoor activities. Read the full publication.

The Europeana 2022 Conference workshop

Continuing the strong partnership between ESACH and the Europeana Initiative, on 29 September 2022, the Asociación de Jóvenes Profesionales por el Patrimonio Cultural (AJPC - previously ESACH-Madrid), held a workshop titled New professionals and how to build opportunities for them: the example of the ESACH 2021 Madrid meeting at the Europeana Conference 2022.

The workshop aimed to share the lessons learned from the experience of organising the III ESACH Meeting in Madrid in 2021 and inspire other new professionals and students at the beginning of their careers. It explored aspects such as an intergenerational dialogue between heritage actors, the creation of partnerships, challenges and opportunities for new professionals and students and ways to raise young voices in formal academic events.

The workshop incorporated different activities including a presentation from two ESACH members who organised the Madrid meeting in 2021. They explained the actions that were carried out at the congress as well as the difficulties encountered during the process. In addition, the proceedings of this meeting were presented for the first time in an international environment.

Later, participants were divided into two groups to debate the involvement of the new professionals and students in the organisation of academic and professional events and the challenge of developing strong partnerships as new professionals and students . The workshop was very fruitful and many ideas came out for working together in the future.

Bursaries for participation

The participation of new professionals and students at Europeana 2022 was facilitated by the Europeana-ESACH bursary, which supported five ESACH members to attend in person with a free onsite conference ticket, travel and accommodation for three days. The bursary is being repeated at this year’s EuropeanaTech 2023 conference, and hopes to support more new professionals and students to experience conferences in person and gain new skills.

Get involved

While the deadline for the bursary applications has passed, and we are looking forward to seeing the five recipients in person in the Hague, it is still possible to buy a ticket to attend the EuropeanaTech 2023 conference onsite in the Hague or register to attend online for free. Secure your place!

If you are a young professional or student attending EuropeanaTech and would like to take part in an informal meeting at the conference, please email [email protected] .

We also encourage new professionals and students to join ESACH and the Europeana Network Association to be the first to hear about exciting events, networking and the opportunities to develop new skills.