ACTIVITIES 2003
I. Professional training
Test workshop on the Management of museum collections in storage
Date: From February 17 to 28, 2003
Place: EPA, Porto-Novo
Number of participants: 15 (museum professionals, librarians, archivists from Benin, Burkina Faso, Niger and Togo)
Objectives:
Results:
Use of new pedagogical material on collections storage in real life situation;
Adaptation of the new pedagogical material on collections storage to the needs and realities of African heritage institutions;
Place: Nubia Museum, Aswan, Egypt
Organisers: EPA
Number of participants: 4 (Nubia Museum staff members).
Objectives:
Learn and practice all the aspects of the building of a web page: HTML, HTML editors, image retouching software, so that trainees are able to take in charge the management of their museum's web site (developed by EPA).
Date: From November 11 to December 5, 2003
Place: EPA, Porto-Novo
Number of participants: two senior executives from the Historical Museum of Abomey, and one senior executive of the Cultural Heritage Directorate who will be in charge of the restored palace.
Objectives:
Improve the programming capacities of the team in charge of conservation and animation of King Béhanzin's palace after its restoration.
Results:
Date: from July 22 to 24, 2003
Place: EPA, Porto-Novo
Organiser: EPA
Number of participants: 17 teachers form primary schools of Porto-Novo participating in the Académie des Fées project, and about thirty children.
Objectives:
Learn to write, tell and mime fairy tales.
Date: from October 13 to 17, 2003
Place: Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso
Participants: cultural heritage directors or heads of sites and monuments within the directorates; legal specialists in the field of cultural heritage; technical institutions partner to the Africa 2009 programme
Objectives:
Take stock of the current legal context concerning the conservation of immovable cultural heritage in French-speaking Africa
Identification of the main problems linked to the legislation on cultural heritage and of the strategies to solve them.
Date: October 24 and 25, 2003
Place: Porto-Novo
Organisers: Festival Racines / EPA
Participants: Mayors of Benin
Objectives:
Take into account culture in towns' development schemes
Date: from September 10, 2001 to August 31, 2003
Objectives: start a dynamic for the rehabilitation of the historical heritage of Porto-Novo, through the recommendation of strategies, management policies, incentive mechanisms and pilot operations. To reinforce and promote the authenticity of the town of Porto-Novo characterised by a mixture of ancient and modern cultures, to make a database in the field of safeguarding, rehabilitation and classification of sites and monuments which could be used by researchers, architects, development organisations and politicians.
Results:
Date: from January to December 2003
Place: Accron-Gbécon district, Porto-Novo, Benin
Objectives:
Pilot project to set up for the benefit of the poorer population, a fund for the rehabilitation and the enhancement of housing with a strong cultural identity.
Date: from September 10, 2001 to March 31, 2004
Places: Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Congo, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Mali, Chad, Togo, Benin and Central African Republic
Objectives:
study the enhancement conditions of these sites for cultural tourism by trying to consolidate national, regional or sub-regional policies relative to the project.
suggest a programme for professional training for actors of cultural tourism.
Activities:
Mock up of a guide on sites linked to the Slave trade.
Date: from February 24 to March 14, 2003
Objectives: evaluate the inventory work carried out on the collections of the Cabinda and Huila museums. These two museums are pilot museums for the Angolan national heritage inventory programme.
Date: from March 3 to 24, 2003
Place: University of Turin, Italy
Objectives: study and evaluate the African collections of Italian museums.
Date: launched on February 12, 2001
Place: Porto-Novo
Number of participants: 4 primary schools of Porto-Novo
Objectives: to improve the quality of African children's lives (aged 6 to 14) by suggesting activities which develop their cultural and artistic sensitivity. This is essential for the preservation of the positive values of creativity and innovation.
The theme for the year 2003 was African traditional tales.
Ford Foundation
ICCROM
Africa 2009
Creation and maintenance of web sites
Date: from October 11 to 21, 2003
Scientific and cultural project of Behanzin's palace (Abomey, Benin)
ACTIVITIES 2003
II. Seminars and workshops
Initiation workshop on how to tell and mime fairy tales
Africa 2009 workshop on the legal aspects of cultural heritage in Africa
Town planning and cultural heritage
ACTIVITIES 2003
III. Providing of services
Study on the rehabilitation of the historical heritage of Porto-Novo
Main entrance to the Gbècon palace Study on poverty and cultural heritage in Porto-Novo
Inventory and cultural tourism on the Slave route
Angola: National collections safeguarding programme
Research programme on the African collections of the University of Turin
ACTIVITIES 2003
IV. Publishing
ACTIVITIES 2003
V. Other activities
Académie des Fées (Academy of Fairies)
International meetings
Participation in the Africités meeting in Yaoundé, Cameroon, December 2 - 6, 2003. EPA gave a talk in the special session organised by UNESCO's World Heritage Center "African towns: a treasure to promote".
Participation in the 11th Möbius International Multimedia Competition, Athens, Greece, November 5 - 8, 2003, for which the Numibia.net web site, developed by EPA, had been selected.
Participation in AFRICOM General Conference, "Museums in Africa, a challenge for the 21st century", Nairobi, Kenya, September 29 - October 1st, 2003.
Participation in the conference organised by the University of Reggio Calabria, Italy, "Towards a pluralist philosophy of conservation for the 21st century". EPA's paper: "How to tackle heritage conservation in Africa? The case of the old town of Porto-Novo", July 10 - 12, 2003.
Participation in the workshop "What future for archives in Africa?" organised by ICCROM, Rome, Italy, June 20 - 23, 2003.
Participation in the international evaluation meeting of the activities and projects of ICCROM's Collections Department, Rome, Italy, June 11 - 13, 2003.
Participation as cultural heritage expert in the "Regional Cultural Forum" organised by Proculture, the regional cultural programme of the European Development Fund, Libreville, Gabon, June 10 - 12, 2003.
Participation in the STIA 2003 - Stage technique international d'archives (International archives technical internship), organised by the French National Archives, Paris, France, May 19 - 21, 2003.
Participation in a regional conference on UNESCO's new convention on underwater archaeology, Maputo, Mozambique, May 6 - 9, 2003.
Participation in a workshop with ECOWAS authorities in the framework of activities carried out by CCAWA (Concertation of Cultural Actors of West Africa), Abuja, Nigeria, April 28, 2003.
Participation in a colloquium "Protection of African Cultural Goods" organised by the Parliamentary Assembly of the European Council and the French delegation to the Assembly, Paris, France, March 28, 2003.
All our thanks to our funding, institutional and technical partners for supporting our activities in 2003:
Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs
World Bank
UNESCO
University of Abomey-Calavi
Architecture et développement
Centre national d'enseignement à distance (CNED)
Ecole africaine des métiers de l'architecture et de l'urbanisme (EAMAU)
Société d'Etudes Régionales d'Habitat et d'Aménagement Urbain-Société Anonyme (SERHAU-SA)