World Monuments Fund (WMF) Announces 2010 Cultural Heritage Watch List |
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| Written by Bonnie Burnham |
| Thursday, 08 October 2009 04:21 |
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Ranging from the famous ( Machu Picchu, Peru ) and remote (Phajoding, a monastery high in the mountains of Bhutan ), to the unexpected ( Merritt Parkway, Connecticut, U.S. ) and little-known (desert castles of ancient Khorezm, Uzbekistan ), the 2010 Watch tells compelling stories of human aspiration, imagination, and adaptation. The need for collective action and sustainable stewardship are common themes running through the 2010 list, and the 93 sites vividly illustrate the ever-more pressing need to create a balance between heritage concerns and the social, economic, and environmental interests of communities around the world. “The 2010 Watch makes it clear that cultural heritage efforts in the 21st century must recognize the critical importance of sustainable stewardship, and that we must work closely with local partners to create viable and appropriate opportunities to advance this,” said Ms. Burnham. “The sites on the 2010 Watch list make a dramatic case for the need to bring together a variety of sectors—economic, environmental, heritage preservation, and social—when we are making plans that will affect us all. Greater cooperation among these sectors would benefit humanity today, while ensuring our place as stewards of the Earth for the next generation.” Comprising products of individual imaginations, testaments to faith, and masterpieces of civil engineering, among other types of creations, the sites on the 2010 Watch are irreplaceable monuments to human culture. They are found in every type of environment, from urban centers and small towns to barren plains and riverside caves, and they are threatened by war, natural disasters, urban sprawl, and neglect. They range from the prehistoric to the contemporary, and include schools, libraries, municipal buildings, places of worship, roadways, aqueducts, row houses, bridges, gateways, parks, follies, cultural landscapes, archaeological remains, historic city centers, castles, private houses, forts, tombs, and ancient petroglyphs and cave art. Erica Avrami, WMF’s Research and Education Director, noted, “The World Monuments Watch has evolved since its inception 14 years ago. With a greater number of urban centers and cultural landscapes, this year’s Watch reflects a growing understanding that heritage cannot be preserved in isolation, but rather must be addressed as part of a broad physical and social context. Not all sites on the Watch are in imminent danger. Many face challenges on the horizon, providing the opportunity to engage in dialogue and decision-making now, so as to avoid problems in the future. Heritage conservation can be an effective tool for community development, economic growth, and sustainable land use.”
Ensuring sustainable lifestyles and environments entails simultaneously promoting and managing growth so as to protect community values and quality of life. Tourism, for example, benefits local communities by bringing economic opportunities, and it benefits tourists—and international understanding—by exposing them to new cultures. But unmanaged visitorship can also harm fragile sites and interfere with traditional daily practices. One 2010 Watch site—Taos Pueblo in New Mexico—has been continuously inhabited for 1,000 years, and its residents and governing council are directly engaged in preserving their structures and their way of life. However, increasing numbers of tourists visit the Pueblo every year, curious about its history and customs, endangering the site’s living heritage. Similarly, Phajoding, a monastery in Bhutan , has for centuries been a regional center for a spiritual tradition of solitary meditation. Now, as more trekkers than ever before visit Phajoding to experience its tranquility, they are exerting more pressure on the monks’ meditation and the monastery’s buildings. Even sites long abandoned, such as Chankillo, Peru , which may be the earliest-known astronomical observatory in the Americas , require careful planning to ensure sustainable tourism development. As with past Watch lists, the 2010 Watch highlights the plight of modern architecture. Often overlooked because it isn’t “old,” such architecture faces special problems stemming from experimental materials and innovative designs. Modern buildings on the 2010 Watch include Frank Lloyd Wright’s iconic Taliesin and Taliesin West, in the U.S., and the now-abandoned Sanatorium Joseph Lemaire, in Belgium. The surreal, fantastic landscape of Las Pozas, in Xilitla, Mexico, a series of canals, pools, and architectural follies constructed in the mid-20th century, is crumbling and being engulfed by the dense, humid jungle that surrounds it. Without immediate intervention, the concrete and steel ensemble will soon be overtaken by nature. The 2010 Watch also includes sites affected by conflict and disaster. The entire country of Iraq was placed on the 2006 and 2008 Watch lists; the 2010 list includes the al-Hadba’ Minaret, in Mosul, one of the few original elements in the medieval Nur al-Din complex and a monument of great symbolic importance to the Iraqis. Watch listing should draw much-needed technical assistance to the “hunchback”—so-called for its precarious slant—and reiterate the World Monuments Fund’s support for the conservation of Iraq ’s heritage. Two important sites in New Orleans, St. Louis Cemetery no. 2 and the Phillis Wheatley Elementary School, face continuing challenges from Hurricane Katrina. The Dutch Fort in Batticaloa, Sri Lanka, and the Carlisle Memorial Methodist Church in Belfast, Northern Ireland, illustrate some of the ways in which heritage conservation can bring together fractured communities. World Monuments Watch Launched in 1996 and issued every two years, the World Monuments Watch calls international attention to cultural heritage sites around the world that are threatened by neglect, vandalism, conflict, or disaster. The 2010 Watch continues this tradition of identifying endangered sites, while also encompassing those with compelling issues or progressive approaches that can inform the field at large. Watch listing provides an opportunity for sites and their nominators to raise public awareness, foster local participation, advance innovation and collaboration, and demonstrate effective solutions. The process also serves as a vehicle for requesting WMF assistance for select projects. Since the program’s inception, more than 630 sites in 125 countries and territories have been included on eight Watch lists. Nearly half the sites featured on the Watch lists through 2008, representing 79 countries, have received WMF support totaling $50 million. These WMF funds have in turn leveraged an additional $150 million in assistance from other sources, demonstrating the effectiveness of the Watch program. Success stories from the 2008 World Monuments Watch include Scott’s Hut, Antarctica; Falmouth Historic Town, Jamaica ; Pella Macedonia Tombs, Greece ; Capitanes Generales Palace, Guatemal Mavisbank House, United Kingdom ; and Florida Southern College, U.S.A. All have been protected. Visit : http://www.wmf.org/ Click on logo below to add this article to your favorite Social Website ~ |
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