First Aid to Documentary Heritage under Threat

The Prince Claus Fund, through its Cultural Emergency Response (CER) programme, and the Whiting Foundation has announced a third round of the Open Call for First Aid to Documentary Heritage under Threat. We invite proposals for projects in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean to safeguard documentary heritage that is acutely threatened by recent conflict or other disaster, whether natural or man-made.

What’s at stake

Manuscripts, rare books, archives, tablets, inscriptions, and other kinds of written records are testimonies of the ideas of bygone eras, sometimes the only form in which the past survives. Whether they are housed in libraries or held by families who have passed them down from generation to generation, they are cherished by the people who watch over them as objects of historical importance and deep local meaning. They are also especially fragile, susceptible to fire, insects, and humidity – and sometimes singled out for deliberate destruction by those afraid of their power to express viewpoints and cultivate nuance. When disaster strikes – an earthquake, a flood, or an armed attack – the threat to these cultural objects is heightened; when that threat is overlooked or local resources for rescue are lacking, the heritage may be lost forever.

Project Eligibility

• The project must aim to safeguard documentary heritage (i.e., cultural heritage designed to carry information in writing, such as manuscripts, books, archives, tablets, and carvings or inscriptions).
• The project must respond to an emergency situation, and must be to preserve or disseminate documentary heritage threatened or recently affected by an acute, current, or impending conflict, natural disaster, or other condition that pose an acute risk. Cases of longterm neglect are not eligible.
• The country where the intervention is to take place must be in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean, and the applying organisation or individual must live and work in one of these regions.
• The heritage involved must be significant for a specific community, whether local, regional, national, or global. 
• Local communities, a local organisation, and/or local authorities must be involved in the emergency response, preferably leading it, and the legal owner must support the proposed measures.
• The intervention must be able to be carried out within a time frame of twelve months, corresponding to the emergency character of the collaboration. 
• No direct or indirect support will be provided to individuals or organisations currently subject to US sanctions. 
• Through its activities, the project must contribute to increasing the accessibility of the affected documentary heritage and the dissemination of the stories it holds. 
• The project could, among other things, fulfil one or several of the following aims:
  
  • Emergency conservation, preservation, and restoration for the urgent safeguarding and stabilization of damaged and/or threatened documentary heritage.
  • Emergency digitization, documentation, or scanning of damaged and/or threatened documentary heritage. o Evacuation and/or relocation of threatened collections.
  • (Re-) organization, cataloguing, inventorying, and documentation to enhance the accessibility of collections for researchers and other users.
  • The restoration and/or improvement of storage facilities, and the enhancement of safety and security conditions for the sustainable preservation of collections.
  • Capacity building and training activities to enhance the abilities of the caretakers of the collection and other stakeholders, for example in restoration and conservation skills, inventory methodologies, and digitization.
  • Dissemination and awareness-raising activities to increase access to the documentary heritage and to bring it to the attention of the larger public, for example through educational programmes, exhibitions, or workshops for the surrounding communities. (Note: these activities can only be part of a larger project aiming at safeguarding and improving access to documentary heritage).