ERIH PT 2023 Conference: Challenges of Industrial Heritage in Portugal
On 30 and 31 January ERIH Portugal hosts a conference that highlights innovative approaches to the protection and promotion of Portuguese industrial monuments. Participants include delegates from the country's three ERIH Anchor Points and other significant ERIH sites, as well as representatives from regional and national tourism organisations. As member of the ERIH Board, Javier Puertas Juez will travel to the former Oliva sewing machine plant at Anchor Point and conference host S. João da Madeira.
Underlying the symposium is the partly still popular assumption that the evidence of the industrial age in Portugal is a forgotten heritage or a curiosity of a bygone era. To challenge this image, the conference will explore the manifold ideas and practices adopted by heritage sites to preserve industrial monuments and memories and to bring them to life. Their means of achieving this range from heritage conservation to digitisation, interactive exhibitions, video productions and schemes for local participation.
The two-day conference has four sections, the first of which exclusively showcases examples of best practice. Seeking closer ties between industrial museums, city councils and companies, the conference will furthermore include the signing of several agreements on cooperation in the field of industrial tourism. Networking among the conference participants will also be a major focus. The morning of the second day will be dedicated to a rich sightseeing programme in and around S. João da Madeira with stops at the only Portuguese pencil factory Viarco, the Museum of the Papermaking Region of Santa Maria and a hat res. shoe museum.
Information about the conference and further news related to industrial heritage will be shared by ERIH Portugal on its newly created social media profiles on Facebook and Instagram.
ERIH Portugal on Facebook
ERIH Portugal on Instagram