The Future is Heritage

What is The Future is Heritage?

The Future is Heritage is an international network of young professionals, students, volunteers, and heritage enthusiasts. Through the annual ‘The Future is Heritage-events’, the network strives for creating a more inclusive, sustainable, and more equal European Heritage sector where both new and established individuals collaborate intensively. Goals of The Future is Heritage are:

• Strengthen the work position and positional influence of young professionals, students, and volunteers in both the European and regional heritage sectors.
• Stimulating international and intergenerational cooperation and exchange of knowledge.
• Stimulating sustainable European and regional heritage sectors through multidisciplinary cooperation.
• Working on a more inclusive and diverse European heritage sector.
• Raising awareness for complex societal issues related to heritage and exploring possible solutions to these issues.

Erfgoed Gelderland has been a supporting partner of The Future is Heritage network since its founding in 2017 by Erfgoed Brabant and acts as the main initiator of the project since 2021.

What does The Future is Heritage do?

The Future is Heritage hosts one or several activities every year. Generally, this is a larger event in a European city or region, such as a conference or a field school. Besides these larger events, online activities are hosted occasionally as well, such as webinars or online meetups. All activities are open to both young and established professionals to join. During our activities, an international group comes together to exchange knowledge and experiences, to discuss with one another and to meet new people.

Het project team

The Future is Heritage events are hosted and programmed by a project team. For every year, we form a new team, consisting of employees of the supporting organizations (Erfgoed Gelderland & Erfgoed Brabant), individuals from partner organizations, The Future is Heritage alumni and new individuals.

The Future is Heritage Summit 2022

This year and in light of the European Year of Youth The Future is Heritage Summit 2022 takes place in Prague from the 24th of September to the 27th of September, on the occasion of the European Cultural Heritage Summit 2022. The Future is Heritage Summit is organised in cooperation and with the support of Europa Nostra – the European Voice of Civil Society Committed to Cultural Heritage – and ESACH – the European Students’ Association for Cultural Heritage. During this four-day event, we address important themes relating to the field of heritage in Europe. In a variety of lectures, workshops and indoor or outdoor discussions, we host inspiring intergenerational exchanges. More information about the programme is available on the website www.thefutureisheritage.com.

Annual events

The first Future is Heritage Summit took place in Berlin (Germany) in 2018. Erfgoed Brabant and their partners took it upon themselves to organise a four-day programme for young professionals, students and volunteers in heritage. This programme was put together by an intergenerational team of young and established professionals and carried out likewise, which would become The Future is Heritage-concept. In 2019 the capacity building days took place in Athens (Greece), followed by the Past : Forward Conference in Eindhoven (The Netherlands). Due to the circumstances surrounding the Covid-pandemic The Future is Heritage organised an online programme in 2020. In five online sessions we dived into several case studies relating to the field of European heritage. In October 2021 it was again possible to get together, resulting in the Heritage Field school which took place around the city of Arnhem (The Netherlands).

How do I get involved?

The Future is Heritage does not use a membership procedure. Those who want to join the network and participate in one or multiple of our events can do this freely without any commitments. For more information, visit www.thefutureisheritage.com or follow The Future is Heritage on social media:

Do you have any questions? You can send an e-mail to thefutureisheritage@erfgoedgelderland.nl

These organizations have supported The Future is Heritage: