Extra funding for the LIVIND project – more support for piloting practices for sustainable living heritage in partner countries
The international LIVIND project led by the Finnish Museum Agency will continue for an extra year. Begun in September 2021, the additional funding extends the project until summer 2024. With the additional funding, the project will, among other things, support the implementation of practical pilot experiments in the nine partner countries. The LIVIND project focuses on living cultural heritage and sustainable development and consists of online events, workshops, pilot experiments and a research section.
The online events held during the first year of the project LIVIND – Creative and living cultural heritage as a resource for the Northern Dimension region have already reached hundreds of participants from more than 30 countries. The goal of the project is to strengthen the participants' understanding and know-how of how living heritage can support sustainable development and how living heritage could be developed and used in sustainable ways. The project collects experiences and identifies how these goals can be achieved locally with practical operations. With the additional funding, the project will be able to support the implementation of several practical pilot experiments in partner countries. Experiments can concern different dimensions of sustainability, for example improving the ecological sustainability of living heritage events or creating a culturally sustainable marketing plan to support tourism products that draw on tradition.
The implementation of the LIVIND project utilizes online events and shared virtual workspaces. The project also includes a research section, the result of which is to summarize the current situation and development needs of living heritage and sustainability in Northern Europe. The results obtained during the project will be published as a data bank that can be used by everyone online.
The project brings together living heritage experts and activists from nine Northern European countries to discuss together how living cultural heritage and sustainable development are connected in different ways. The project partners also include the Northern Dimension Cultural Partnership (NDCP), the Sámi Council and the Nordic-Baltic ICH Network of non-governmental organizations. The main financier of the project is the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland, which through the project supports cultural work in the Northern Dimension area.
The LIVIND project is the first project in the field of intangible cultural heritage in this scale in Northern Europe. The project is based on UNESCO's Convention on Intangible Cultural Heritage, the Council of Europe's Faro Agreement and the goals of the UN's Sustainable Development Programme, Agenda 2030. At the same time, the project meets the goal of the NDPC to strengthen the networking of experts in the creative field and intangible cultural heritage in the Northern Dimension region.
LIVIND in short
Participating countries and areas: Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Åland, Greenland, Faroe Islands, the Sami area, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland. The total budget of the project is 463,000 euros, of which the Ministry for Foreign Affairs covers for approx. 84 % from the Baltic Sea, Barents and Arctic cooperation allocation. Other financiers are the Finnish Heritage Agency and the Northern Dimension Partnership on Culture (NDPC).