u  Public exposure: for better and for worse - Racheli Merhav and Ann Killebrew

u  The museum as mediator  - Milagro Gómez de Blavia

u  Professionals and visitors: closing the gap - Frans Schouten

u  Site management: the response to tourism - Zahi Hawass

u  The Tshwane Declaration: setting standards for heritage tourism in South Africa - Amareswar Galla

Event

u  Symbolic and functional: the Museum of Corsica - Jacqueline H. Poirier

Site

u  Close to the wind: archaeology and landscape interpretation in Scotland - Chris Hudson

Outreach

u  An outpost for art in Patagonia - Lucia Torres

Summary of Articles

u Tourism and conservation: striking a balance
C. Périer-D’Ieteren

Safeguarding the cultural and natural heritage in the face of ever-growing consumer demand involves a new vision of conservation and carefully thought out policies that are put into place before damage is done. In C. Périer-D’Ieteren’s words ‘It is better to carry out preventive conservation than active conservation, and to conserve rather than to restore or renovate.’ The author is Professor of the History of Art at the Free University of Brussels and was Chairperson of the Conservation Committee of the International Council of Museums (ICOM-CC) from 1993 to 1996. She is a member of the Royal Academy of Archaeology of Belgium and the author of numerous lectures, papers and publications on the pictorial technique of fifteenth and sixteenth-century Flemish painters, Brabant reredos of the same period, the application of scientific investigation methods to the study of works of art and the problems of conservation and restoration.

u  Public exposure: for better and for worse
Racheli Merhav and Ann E. Killebrew

What is the concrete, visible day-to-day impact on sites and artefacts of the increasing influx of cultural tourists? Can a proper equilibrium be found that limits damage while at the same time preserving the integrity of the heritage? Two experienced professionals share their views on the ups and downs of public exposure: Racheli Merhav is the Chief Landscape Architect at the Israel National Parks Authority since 1990. Prior to that she was Director of the Central Region in Landscape Architecture for the Jewish National Fund in Israel until 1983 when she left to complete a Masters Degree in Public Administration at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Ann E. Killebrew completed her doctoral degree in archaeology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and is presently lecturer in archaeology at the University of Haifa. She has been involved in numerous excavations and projects throughout Israel, including the reconstruction and interpretation of the ancient Qasrin village. She is currently the project director for the public presentation of the biblical site of Megiddo.

u The museum as mediator
Milagro Gomez de Blavia

The new partnership that must be established between heritage and tourism depends in large measure on enlightened mediators who can reconcile a host of divergent viewpoints and approaches. And, according to Milagro Gomez de Blavia, who better to play this role than the museum professional, who is both heritage custodian and communicator? The author, a Venezuelan solicitor, is the founder and Director of the Museum of Barquisimeto since 1982. A former President of ICOM-Venezuela, she is a specialist in tourism and administrative law and acts as adviser and lecturer on international courses in museum management and harmonious relations between tourism and heritage. She is also president of a city-funded public company in Barquisimeto, Estado Lara, Venezuela, one of whose main programmes involves recognizing the worth of the architectural heritage.

u Professionals and visitors: closing the gap
Frans Schouten

If cultural tourism is to become a genuine learning experience for an ever broader public, museums and heritage sites must become more user-friendly and communicate ‘stories’ rather than ‘messages’, says Frans Schouten. The author is lecturer on the management of cultural heritage at the Netherlands Institute of Tourism and Transport Studies (NHTV) in Breda, and a partner in Synthesis International, a consultancy for museum and heritage management, in The Hague.

u Site management: the response to tourism
Zahi Hawass

Only careful planning and rigorous implementation can preserve those unique sites which every tourist hopes some day to visit. Chief among these are the monuments of Ancient Egypt, indisputably part of humanity’s most spectacular heritage. Zahi Hawass is Director General of the Giza Plateau and Saqqara, where he pioneered the concept of site management. He is the author of many books and articles on pyramids, Pharaonic Egypt and the problems of Egyptian monuments, and has lectured throughout the world. He also teaches archaeology at UCLA in Los Angeles, at the American University in Cairo and at Cairo University.

u The Tshwane Declaration: setting standards for heritage tourism in South Africa
Amareswar Galla

With more and more tourists eager to visit the new South Africa, a responsible and responsive heritage policy was seen as an urgent national priority. Amareswar Galla, Director of the Australian Centre for Cultural Diversity Research and Development at the University of Canberra, was invited to serve as Visiting Professor during 1997 at the University of South Africa and to work as a specialist advisor, researcher and facilitator for the drafting of the Tshwane Declaration. His efforts earned him the inaugural presidential award for outstanding service for transformation planning and training granted by the South African Museums Association. He is the founder of a national programme for interdisciplinary and holistic studies in heritage management in Australia and a Director of the country’s Board of Special Broadcasting Service, as well as General Secretary of the Asia Pacific Organisation of ICOM and Chairperson of the Cross Cultural Taskforce of ICOM.

u Symbolic and functional: the Museum of Corsica
Jacqueline H. Poirier

A people profoundly attached to its ancient cultural heritage, a site of exceptional force and beauty, an approach to ethnology that sheds light on both the past and the present -- the new Museum of Corsica is already playing a major role in the life of the island. Jacqueline H. Poirier, a freelance journalist based in Paris, tells the story.

u Close to the wind: archaeology and landscape interpretation in Scotland
Chris Hudson

More than 5,000 years of human history are traced across the Kilmartin Valley in western Scotland. At least 150 prehistoric sites lie within six miles of the quiet village of Kilmartin. There are enigmatic carved rocks, mysterious standing stones, impressive burial cairns and the fortress of the earliest Scottish Kings. But who were the early hunters, farmers and warriors and why did they leave behind such rich remains? Kilmartin House museum, which opened in May 1997, helps to answer these questions. The story of its creation is told by its designer, Chris Hudson.

u An outpost for art in Patagonia
Lucia Torres

In a remote, windswept corner of Argentina’s fabled Patagonia, scant distance from the Tierra del Fuego, a new museum is creating a generation of art lovers among a sparse, mostly rural population. How this came about is recounted by Lucia Torres, one of the founders and now co-ordinator of the Eduardo Minicelli Art Museum.