Among the different assignments that the students had during
the Forum, participation in six creative workshops was
certainly one of the most appealing. There were, however, other
important tasks for them to fulfill, such as sharing their
concern about the protection of World Heritage an expressing
their opinions on how international cooperation between
students and schools can contribute to this goal.
These concerns resulted in writing an appeal to the IV
European Conference of Ministers responsible for cultural
heritage, which took place in Helsinki immediately after the Forum.
The students also took an active part in
discussions about the World Heritage Education Kit.
According to the questionnaires distributed after the
Forum, the workshops were undoubtedly the most exciting
aspect of the Forum in the eyes of students. The students
enjoyed the group work which gave them the opportunity
to demonstrate and practice their skills
and get a firm grip on a part of heritage which, in
the conference rooms, could not stir their imaginaton as
it did when they were actually able to touch it with
their fingers or discuss concrete measures for
its preservation. Students chose among six workshops which
represented different aspects of work initiated by the Dubrovnik
students and teachers within the 'Young People's Participation
in World Heritage Preservation and Promotion' project during
the 1994-95 period:
The aim of this workshop was to cover events in all
other workshops and in the town of Dubrovnik itself, which, graced
by various cultural events, became a big exhibition
ground for the Forum. Participants concentrated on various
ways to introduce and promote World Heritage in the media;
interviews were conducted with city officers and
restoration experts, local citizens, students at the
Gymnasium, as well as with the participants of the conference
on 'Financing cultural and natural heritage and sustainable
development' which brought to Dubrovnik experts
from the World Bank, World Monuments Fund, etc.
"I must say that we had an interesting workshop which made
a difference Instead of staying together, discussing and
learning about journalism, we were divided into groups
and we went into other workshops to write a
report... Of course, these reports also included some
interviews. Some students interviewed people who had nothing
to do with the workshops such as the Deputy Mayor of Dubrovnik."
(Connie Dimech, student from Malta)
"On our way to the hotel, we entered the Gymnasium of Dubrovnik
and were kindly invited by the headmaster of the school to
be present at one of the lessons. Being interested in the way of
thinking of Dubrovnik students, we were pleasently surprised when the
students in the class started to discuss the issue of World
Heritage" (Stepanian Karen, student from Armenia, and Tea Kvarantan,
student from Croatia
The Old City of Dubrovnik one of the three World
Heritage sites in Croatia, was bombed during the war
in 1991/92 and still bears the imprints of the tragic
event. Since then, Dubrovnik has become a big 'workshop'
where all kinds of experts participate in restoration
and reconstruction work. Thanks to the generous assistance of
restoration professionals from 'Gradjevinar - Quelin' (a specialized
French-Croatian firm which participates in the restoration
work), the students in this workshop were able to take part
in some of the on-going work and learn more about the people involved
in the restoration project and what you need to know in order to
become one of the artists who care for our heritage daily.
"It is very interesting to see what's hiding behind and
beyond a painting, a wall, a monument... This day has been
full of necessary and important information for us and
very useful to the students in the group. They enthusiastically
learned about techniques which make it possible to
restore a building." (An anonymous member of the journalist
group, presumed to be Perrine Isola, student from France)
"The door on Stradun has been damaged during the war...
The damaged part of the stone block is removed and replaced with
a new one. For the damaged part of the door frame softer
stones have to be used because of the need for decoration
work and easier shaping. The stone, of course, has
to be original..." (Odile Bouet Haddad, teacher from France)
Young Architects/Art Historians
How do we train our eyes to better understand the
heritage around us? What is the role of architectural studies
and art history in this respect? This workshop proposed a
course in drawing accompanied by theoretical work and analysis
of selected monuments (period, style) with an aim to
compare and find parallels between the examples in Dubrovnik
and those in other countries. participants had the opportunity to spend a
day working in the cloister of the 14th century Franciscan Monastery.
In this perfect setting they were able to feel a piece of World
Heritage employing all their senses.
"We were feeling its age by touching the wet stone in the rainy
morning... Gregorian chant in the background and the atmosphere
of the cloister inspired us to draw the architectural details
of the monastery. We were happy to keep its spirit
in our work...." (Diana Barzic & Lidia Lucev, students from Croatia)
"I - as a young journalist - visited the young architects workshop...
The main topic was 'Building styles'. Can you imagine, that your
house was designed by the Romans? During the centuries the styles
changed and developed and they are still developing... At the moment
all the students are drawing and I think they enjoy it very
much, because they all are interested in architecture."
(Eszter Palotai, student fom Hungary)
There is more to heritage than just 'monuments'. There
might be a beautiful old boat, a traditional type fishermen have
used in your country and a very particular model at that, typical
for the little seaside town situated along the coast. This is
also heritage. As guests of the Maritime Museum of Dubrovnik
the students in this workshop worked on a model of an authentic
traditional vessel from the Dubrovnik county region (the
Neretvan trupa). They also created their own boat models
from paper and learned about fishing and sailing and
the role these activities still play in the traditional
maritime community.
"In a city entirely made of stone like Dubrovnik one
can easily imagine that there must exist a museum entirely of
stone. And this is true. There is a museum entirely made of
stone. It's the Maritime Museum. It is there that a group
of young boat constructors decided to go. And we, young
journalists, decided to pay them a visit... The young constructors
are all seated around a table. Young people from all over the
world Different nationalities, different interests. Seated
together, they are about to construct small paper boats
typical of the Dubrovnik region." (Julia Alickaj & Eni Peci, students
from Albania)
"The old boats today are replaced with modern ferry boats,
hydrofoils... all these ancient ships today exist on
paintings and photographs or as a maquette in the museum. We
should care about them because they are a kind monument.
We must preserve them for future generations..." (Jacinta
Kusic, student from Croatia)
Surfing Internet for World Heritage
Forum participants talked about heritage and walked in a
town which is heritage itself. Yet, they did not only linger
in the past. The Internet workshop took students on Internet
surfing to explore the possibilities of modern technology. Information
and the need to exchange information are an important way
to talk about and promote our heritage. Messages were sent from
Dubrovnik throughout the world and messages were received from
all cornes of the world; the students in the workshop tried
to contact other ASP schools as well in order to tell them more
about the Youth Forum and the Old City of Dubrovnik itself.
Numerous e-mail messages sent to Dubrovnik proved how
quick far-reaching and efficient computer communication can be.
A message was received from Maja Oelschlaegel, coordinator
of the ASP in Germany:
Dear participants of the UNESCO Forum on World Heritage
Education, the 101 ASP schools in Germany wish you a successful
seminar with a lot of results we all can use to promote World
Heritage Education here in Germany. We are going to prepare
a special work-shop on WHE during our annual meeting in
September 1996. That will be our follow up to your
conference. We would be very happy to receive information about
what you are doing at the moment and a report about the seminar
by e-mail.
e-mail:
"I am interested in computers and I'm finding it more interesting because
I've never seen the Internet before. During the workshop we
found with the help of the Austrian delegation the
Austrian World Heritage Home-page - this contained
information on the heritage of Austria. Similar sites were found
for nearly all the European countries. "(David
Beal, student from the United Kingdom)
"I use the Internet at home and it is really interesting. I want
to see how do they do that in Croatia." (Markus Kern, student from Austria)
Photographers explored the heritage all around them
with cameras in their hands. Under expert guidance, participants
of this workshop undertook to discover Dubrovnik for themselves
and learn about the basic principles of the art of photography. They
could record not only the untouched ancient beauty, but also its
face scarred by the recent war, its inhabitants and their way
of life. A selection of their photographs was displayed in
one of Dubrovnik's art galeries at the end of the Forum.
"We went up on the city wall and took hundreds of great pictures. The Old City the islands, flowers, cats and all the 'classic' views of the monuments. Despite the rain we had a great time!" (a participant from the young photographers' group)