On the 60th anniversary of the devastating flood in Venice, UNESCO and Fondazione Giorgio Cini are launching a project to digitise and promote the UNESCO archives on the safeguarding of Venice, a testament to decades of international cooperation for the protection and revitalisation of the city’s cultural and natural heritage.
The devastating flood of 4 November 1966 marked a turning point in Venice’s history, triggering an extraordinary international mobilisation. The project, ‘Preserving documentary heritage, sharing history: universal access to digitised UNESCO archives on the safeguarding of Venice’, aims to highlight the connection between the preservation of cultural heritage and residents’ everyday lives, the revitalisation of the city’s historic centre, and the development of Venice as an international cultural hub.
Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Fototeca dell’Istituto di Storia dell’Arte
Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Fototeca dell’Istituto di Storia dell’Arte
Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Fototeca dell’Istituto di Storia dell’Arte
Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Fototeca dell’Istituto di Storia dell’Arte
The digitisation of the archival collection – comprising projects, documents, and photographs – will take 2 years and it will be carried out at the Foundation’s Digital Centre. The collection consists of approximately 110,000 documents relating to the International Campaign for Venice promoted by UNESCO following the catastrophic flood, as well as documents related to UNESCO’s work on the safeguarding of Venice. The archives also include a photographic collection covering the 1970-2017 period, with approximately 6,000 photographs and audiovisual materials in various formats.
The digitised documentation will be progressively incorporated into AtoM (Access to Memory), the archival description system used to manage, describe, and consult archival rend made available through the UNESCO Archives platform, promoting their use and ensuring wider access
Digitisation will broaden access to thesehe history of crucial events for the city of Venice, and of UNESCO’s efforts to safeguard it. Additionally, the project will support youth development by providing scholarships to train new professionals in the field of archive digitisation
This process will also showcase the archival documentation relating to major restoration projects carried out in Venice, through the creative reuse of digital re
UNESCO/Fondazione Giorgio Cini
The UNESCO archives not only document the work carried out, they also enable us to piece together the roles played by the women and men involved, as well as the decisions, knowledge, and institutional relationships that made it possible. Preserving this documentary heritage over the long term and making it accessible contributes to historical understanding, but also to the transparency of institutional action.
Magdalena Landry, Director, UNESCO Venice
Through its Digital Centre, the Foundation is bringing its expertise and laboratories – now internationally recognised – to this newly launched project. This is work directed towards the future, an ongoing process that opens up opportunities for new generations of scholars, new research, and new narratives. The project serves both the local and international community, and demonstrates that archives are living entities and essential tools for understanding the present.
Gianfelice Rocca, President, Fondazione Giorgio Cini
Links
- Preserving Documentary Heritage, Sharing History: Universal Access to Digitised UNESCO Archives on the Safeguarding of Venice
- UNESCO Archives AtoM Catalogue | Series – Programme files on restoration and preservation projects of Venetian monuments and works of art
- Digital Centre – ARCHiVe
Press Release – UNESCO and Fondazione Giorgio Cini digitalise the Archives on the safeguarding of Venice
Comunicato Stampa – UNESCO e Fondazione Giorgio Cini digitalizzano l’Archivio sulla salvaguardia di Venezia
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This article is related to the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals.
SDG 11 – Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable
