Building Capacity Without Borders

Abstract

Heritage Without Borders (HWB) is a UK charity that works internationally to build capacity in museum skills. We aim to develop the capacity of heritage industry professionals in regions where specific skills such as object conservation, interpretation and community engagement are in short supply. We are a volunteer organisation, so the UK professionals with whom we work give their time for free. We also cover the costs of our international participants who cannot afford to pay.

The present article will describe two projects we have worked on since 2012 in partnership with the British Council and University College London. The aim of both projects was to build capacity through international exchanges between museum professionals. The first project focused on the Middle East and North Africa, and the second project on South East Europe. Overall, we have found that our model of international knowledge exchange changes lives and builds skills in two directions insofar as international colleagues learn best practices from museum professionals in the UK, while UK professionals improve communication skills through collaboration in an international context. This article provides a critique of the model we have developed through case studies and a discussion.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge the diligent work of the project coordinators who contributed enormously to the Cultural Heritage Fellowship and the South East Europe Cultural Heritage Exchange. Their organisational, communication and administrative skills made both projects and this article possible. Thank you, Edmund Connolly, Shezza Edris and Zora Kostadinova. Dominica D'Arcangelo would also like to thank Sally MacDonald and Melina Smirniou for their support.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Dominica D'arcangelo

Dominica D'Arcangelo directed Heritage Without Borders from 2009–2016. She manages international projects and is an object conservator. She studied archaeological conservation at UCL's Institute of Archaeology and has worked on heritage sites and projects in Turkey, Jordan, Greece, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Albania and Turkmenistan. Dominica D'Arcangelo is passionate about peer‐to‐peer knowledge exchange and international capacity building.

Jane Weeks

Jane Weeks is Museums and Heritage Adviser at the British Council and has run museum projects in Iran, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Oman, Bahrain, Kenya and China. She is a committee member of ICOM UK.

Tonya Nelson

Tonya Nelson is Head of Museums and Collections at University College London (UCL). She is a former British Council Cultural Leadership International Fellow and frequently writes on the topic of cultural diplomacy.