The School of Crafts ÚĽUV is part of prestigious UNESCO list
Asunción, Paraguay, December 5, 2024
The School of Crafts ÚĽUV has been listed on the Register of Good Safeguarding Practices to the UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage List.
The nineteenth session of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, meeting in in Asunción, Paraguay from December 2 to 7, 2024, brought a historical success for Slovakia. UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Intangible Heritage Committee has listed The School of Crafts ÚĽUV activities on the Register of Good Safeguarding Practices, approved December 5, 2024.
Since its establishment in 1999, the School of Crafts ÚĽUV has been a place for passing on craft knowledge and skills. The main aim of this project is to preserve and develop traditional crafts as a part of cultural heritage. This is achieved through three regional craft centers (RCR) – in Bratislava since 1999, in Banská Bystrica since 2005, and in Košice since 2013 – which serve as contact points providing advisory and educational activities, specializing mainly in regional and disappearing craft techniques.
The Slovak Republic submitted a proposal for selection into the Register of Good Practices for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage for the first time. The Register includes programs, projects, and activities that best reflect the Convention’s principles and objective. For the selection in 2024 on the Register of Good Safeguarding Practices three proposals were submitted. Besides Slovakia, it was Ukraine with Safeguarding program of kobza and wheel lyre tradition and Oman with Oman Youth Sail Training Ship (Safinat Shabab Oman) program for peace and sustainable cultural dialogue. Further on, there were 53 nominations submitted for inscription on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. One of these proposals is a nomination of the Republic of Serbia titled “Naive Art in Kovačica”. Naive art represents a significant expression of the cultural heritage of the Slovak national minority in Serbia.
The Slovak delegation at the Intergovernmental Committee meetings for the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage includes: Anna Plassat Muríňová – Ambassador to the Permanent Delegation of UNESCO in Paris, Mário Maruška – State Secretary of the Ministry of Culture of the Slovak Republic, Barbora Morongová – Director of the Department of Living Heritage and Culture of Disadvantaged Groups of the Ministry of Culture of the Slovak Republic, Ľubica Voľanská from the Institute of Ethnology and Social Anthropology of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, an external collaborator of the Center for Traditional Folk Culture at SĽUK, and Jana Ambrózová, representing the Ethnographic Society of Slovakia within the ICH NGO Forum
In 2022, Slovakia was elected to the 24-member Intergovernmental Committee, through which, among other agendas, is actively participating in the decision-making process for inscriptions in the lists of the intangible cultural heritage of humanity. Slovakia’s mandate in the committee lasts 4 years.
Further information and resources:
Elements that the Slovak Republic has inscribed in the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity UNESCO:
- Fujara – musical instrument and its music (2005)
- Terchovská muzika (2013)
- Bagpipe culture (2015)
- Puppetry in Slovakia and the Czech Republic (2016)
- Horehronie multi-voice singing (2017)
- Blueprint (2018)
- Wire craft – craft and art (2019)
- Falconry – living heritage of humanity (2021)
- Traditions associated with the breeding of Lipizzaner horses (2022)
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