Working Group Meeting on the Development of a Joint Exhibition on the Common Heritage along the Silk Roads

On 03 December 2019, the second meeting of the working group on the development of the joint exhibition dedicated to the common cultural heritage along the Silk Roads will take place in Dushanbe.

This is the second meeting of the working group, which consists of the representatives of the national museums of the participating countries, experts from the International Committee for Exhibition Exchange - ICOM, Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies (ToRS) of the University of Copenhagen and UNESCO.

The joint exhibition on Common Heritage along the Silk Roads will be organized as part of the 3-year EU/UNESCO project “Silk Roads Heritage Corridors in Afghanistan, Central Asia and Iran – International Dimension of the European Year of Cultural Heritage”. Participating countries: Afghanistan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan. The exhibition on the Common Cultural Heritage aims at raising awareness about the project, highlighting the rich heritage of the participating countries, promoting the exchanges of good practices along the Silk Roads and promoting common understanding about the Silk Roads heritage as a bridge between the East and the West. The exhibit will be displayed at the closure of the project in the fall of 2021 at a museum of a participating country or Europe and made available for display in each of the participating countries.

The main purpose of the meeting is the presentation and discussion of the possible objects that will be displayed at the exhibition and defining the concrete steps on its development. UNESCO will hold the meeting of the working group at the National Museum of Tajikistan organized with the support from the Tajikistan National Commission for UNESCO.

The first meeting of the working group was held in June 2019 in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan, to select the theme/s for the exhibit; discuss its scope and nature, as well as the possible objects to be displayed at the exhibit.

The joint EU/UNESCO “Silk Roads Heritage Corridors in Afghanistan, Central Asia and Iran – International Dimension of the European Year of Cultural Heritage” project aimed at improving the livelihoods of the communities in the region, including youth and women through capacity building and creating new income-generating opportunities.