{"id":15573,"date":"2015-11-25T13:14:12","date_gmt":"2015-11-25T18:14:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/news\/article.php?ArticleID=15573"},"modified":"2018-11-01T14:03:57","modified_gmt":"2018-11-01T18:03:57","slug":"15573_-italy-s-unesco-world-heritage-sites-challenges-and-opportunities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/inserra-chair\/2015\/11\/25\/15573_-italy-s-unesco-world-heritage-sites-challenges-and-opportunities\/","title":{"rendered":"Italy\u2019s UNESCO World Heritage Sites: Challenges and Opportunities"},"content":{"rendered":"

Italy, a country universally celebrated for its artistic and cultural riches, has more historic, archaeological, natural and artistic UNESCO world heritage sites than any other country. As pointed out by UNESCO liaison officer to the U.N. Ricardo De Guimar\u00e3es de Pinto, a featured presenter in a program at Montclair State, Italy\u2019s 51 sites<\/a> include 47 cultural sites, ranging from Pompeii to the Venice lagoon and four natural sites such as Mount Etna and the Dolomites. Intangible heritage elements such as the Mediterranean diet and the Sicilian puppet theater also fall under the UNESCO umbrella.<\/p>\n

De Guimar\u00e3es de Pinto joined Dr. Deborah Chatr Aryamontri, a professor in Montclair State\u2019s Classics and General Humanities Department on Thursday, November 12, 2015 in \u201cUNESCO Heritage Sites in Italy: World Records and Local Challenges<\/a>,\u201d a program presented by The Theresa and Lawrence R. Inserra Chair in Italian and Italian American Studies<\/a> in collaboration with the Center for Heritage and Archaeological Studies<\/a>, the Global Education Center<\/a>, and AMICI Italian Club at Montclair State University on the occasion of the 70th<\/sup> Anniversary of the founding of UNESCO. Program highlights can be viewed on the video<\/a> above.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn many ways, Italy\u2019s economy and cultural role in the world revolve around its heritage, although protecting and promoting this vast and frail patrimony in order to share it with visitors is not without challenges,\u201d notes Inserra Chair in Italian and American Studies Dr. Teresa Fiore, who introduced the event.<\/p>\n

The evening focused on celebrating Italy\u2019s rich cultural patrimony, while exploring the challenges associated with preserving it in terms of resources, roles and responsibilities.<\/p>\n

Program presentations and discussion also linked the appeal of a trip to Italy — a powerful legacy of the classic Grand European Tour — with the World Heritage sites. Italy remains a popular tourist destination for Americans, ranked fifth according to The New York Times<\/em>. \u201cThe fact that American students continue to choose Italy as their first choice destination for study abroad in a foreign language country is certainly related to its invaluable heritage,\u201d explains Fiore.<\/p>\n

UNESCO and Italy: A Productive Partnership<\/strong><\/p>\n

In his work with UNESCO, Ricardo De Guimar\u00e3es Pinto brings the issue of protection of cultural heritage to the attention of member states and the international community. For him, each of the world\u2019s 1,031 World Heritage properties \u201care of value to all of humanity\u201d and worthy of protection. <\/p>\n

De Guimar\u00e3es Pinto explained to students, faculty and guests gathered in the University Hall Conference Center that constant monitoring and assessment is needed to preserve fragile sites like Venice that are at risk of flooding and other damage. As a UNESCO partner, Italy is committed to the \u201c5 C\u2019s\u201d\u00a0 — credibility, conservation, capacity building, communication and communities –that are critical to successful protection and preservation of such sites.<\/p>\n

Italy works vigilantly to combat illicit trafficking in cultural properties. \u201cThe Carabinieri Department of Protection of Cultural Heritage is the most advanced such force in the world,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n

De Guimar\u00e3es Pinto noted that UNESCO works to safeguard the world\u2019s cultural heritage on all fronts. Because protection of art and history is the foundation for a more peaceful world, Italy has recently introduced the \u201cblue helmets for culture,\u201d that would be active in post-conflict zones and natural disaster situations. \u201cOur organization is fortunate to be able to count on such a close partner as Italy about all these different aspects,\u201d he concluded.<\/p>\n

A Lasting Legacy<\/strong><\/p>\n

Faculty member Chatr Aryamontri, an expert in ancient Roman landscape archaeology who directs the University\u2019s Center for Heritage and Archaeological Studies\u2019 Villa of the Antonines archaeological excavation project in Genzano di Roma, Italy, spoke on \u201cUNESCO and Cultural Heritage Law In Italy: The Complex Case of Archaeological Sites.\u201d <\/p>\n

She used four UNESCO sites as case studies \u2013 Pompeii, Herculaneum and the Area of Torre Annunziata; the Valley of the Temples in Agrigento; the Villa del Casale at Piazza Armerina; and the Villa Adriana at Tivoli \u2013 to highlight the issues and challenges facing these sites in terms of conservation and the ways in which UNESCO involvement helps to protect them.<\/p>\n

\u201cCultural property and cultural heritage, as stated by UNESCO, are a legacy for \u2018all the nations of the world,\u2019 \u2013 and all human beings,\u201d said Chatr Aryamontri. \u201cTherefore, everybody should take care of them. Despite the legal, cultural, and political challenges, we should not give up in trying to pass our legacy from the past onto future generations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Celebrated Italian architect and designer Gaetano Pesce approved the use of one of his art projects for the Dec. 11 program: the redesign of Italian passport covers featuring well-known sites in a country that he considers \u201cextraordinary because of the vast number of the artistic assets of the world\u201d it hosts. His idea was adapted to the evening\u2019s theme and four UNESCO sites were printed on covers of notebooks that were given to those who attended the event. \u201cDistributing these \u2018passports\u2019 to the evening\u2019s attendees meant making them honorary Italian \u201ccitizens\u201d who appreciate creativity, beauty and elegance. Italy awaits them,\u201d says Fiore.<\/p>\n

An Informative Evening<\/strong><\/p>\n

Student Alyssa Tenore hopes to study in Florence this summer and visit some of the sites first hand. \u201cThe event was educational and informational,\u201d she says. \u201cThe most important thing I learned was about the preservation of the sites.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Classics and General Humanities professor Dr. Timothy Renner, the evening exemplified the University\u2019s commitment to trans-disciplinary cooperation. \u201cIt was the perfect example of how different departments and centers can collaborate to promote further understand of Italian cultural heritage \u2013 and cultural heritage in general \u2013 among students and the wider community,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe evening\u2019s presentations also shed light on concepts not immediately associated with artistic and cultural heritage,\u201d recalls Fiore. \u201cWe were reminded of the need to preserve cultural specificity against globalization and homogenization and to use this heritage to construct and maintain peace. Protecting monuments and nature means valuing life and developing respect based on a sense of historical belonging and aesthetic appreciation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Celebrating Italy\u2019s World Heritage Sites<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Inserra Chair invites students Montclair State University students and New Jersey high school students to explore a World Heritage site by entering a video contest. Student entrants will learn about one Italian UNESCO site, object, or tradition of choice and illustrate it through an original audiovisual work. Entries, for a chance to win prizes, must be received by the end of the Spring 2016 semester (see webpage<\/a> for more information).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Program highlights preservation of Italy\u2019s rich cultural heritage<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":115573,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-230_inserra","category-88_italian-news-and-events"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/inserra-chair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/inserra-chair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/inserra-chair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/inserra-chair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/inserra-chair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15573"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/inserra-chair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15573\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":209436,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/inserra-chair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15573\/revisions\/209436"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/inserra-chair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/115573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/inserra-chair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/inserra-chair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/inserra-chair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}