About

Exploring cultural heritage

Our cultural heritage is the essential record of human existence. It is preserved in museums and collections, libraries and archives, places of worship, architectural and archaeological sites, monuments, entire cities and landscapes, and in all of us. It is woven into the fabric of our day-to-day lives, manifested in our diversity, language, performance, traditions, and other, often intangible, representations of our existence.

This spring the eighth United Nations Global Colloquium of University Presidents will be hosted by Yale University. The colloquium is convened by the presidents of its six sponsoring institutions—Brown University, Columbia University, New York University, Princeton University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Yale University—on behalf of and with the support and participation of United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. From April 9-15, Yale will mark this year’s Colloquium theme, the “Preservation of Cultural Heritage”, with open events, workshops and tours across campus and in the New Haven community.

The field of cultural heritage is a vast and multifaceted one, and topics will include (among others) response and prevention to natural or man-made disasters, sustainable conservation in the time of climate change and green museum debate, conservation education and training, cultural heritage computing and access, illicit traffic, forgeries, and the legal and economic sides of preservation with respect to diverse global perspectives. Events aim to engage the broadest community by providing an opportunity for unity and celebration of “the future of our past”, such as a workshop at the Institute for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage on “Culture in Crisis”, Institute of Sacred Music guest artist Suman Bhattacharya, open houses at the West Campus Collections Study Center, and a public address by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

Please explore this website for more information and join us in discussion and celebration of our cultural heritage.