{"id":1948,"date":"2026-01-10T12:17:36","date_gmt":"2026-01-10T12:17:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ruralmuseums.org.uk\/?p=1948"},"modified":"2026-01-10T12:44:18","modified_gmt":"2026-01-10T12:44:18","slug":"intangible-cultural-heritage-and-what-it-means-for-museums","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ruralmuseums.org.uk\/?p=1948","title":{"rendered":"Intangible Cultural Heritage and What it Means for Museums"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Image credit: Straw craftsmen Fred Mizen, copyright Museum of English Rural Life (MERL)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) is a tradition, practice, or living expression of a group or community, inherited from our ancestors and passed on to our descendants. This can include oral traditions, performing arts, social practices, rituals, festive events, and traditional crafts. Museums and galleries hold collections that relate to ICH practices. Caring for historical objects, archives, oral histories and, and as places to raise awareness and exhibit local ICH.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2024 The UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage <\/strong>was ratified by the UK Government. The convention was introduced by UNESCO in 2003 as a way \u201cto incite countries to care about and look after the ICH present on their territories\u201d.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

During a seminar in April 2025, we explored this topic, concentrating on Intangible Cultural Heritage, the ratification of the Convention by the UK and discovering how museums can help support safeguarding intangible culture. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This session was hosted by Madeleine Ding, Collections Officer for The Museum of English Rural Life and Reading Museum. <\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

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Phil Foxwood<\/strong> works on Living Heritage and World Heritage at Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and has been in the department for seven years, previously working on fiscal events.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prior to joining the civil service, Phil worked at the British Film Institute and in film exhibition.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Jacob O\u2019Sullivan<\/strong> is Museum Development Manager for Museums Galleries Scotland: the national development body for museums and galleries in Scotland. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

MGS is an accredited NGO advisor to UNESCO on Intangible Cultural Heritage, and as such, Jacob has been closely involved in supporting the delivery, development, and safeguarding of ICH in Scotland. Jacob\u2019s background is in rural museums, having previously been a member of the Rural Museums Network while Curator of the Highland Folk Museum.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n

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Madeleine Ding<\/strong> works as the Collections Officer for both The Museum of English Rural Life and Reading Museum. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her role involves hands on work with the collections, accessioning objects, facilitating research access, creating temporary exhibitions and responding to queries.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Image credit: Straw craftsmen Fred Mizen, copyright Museum of English Rural Life (MERL) Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) is a tradition, practice, or living expression of a group or community, inherited from our ancestors and passed on to our descendants. This can … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ruralmuseums.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1948"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ruralmuseums.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ruralmuseums.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ruralmuseums.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ruralmuseums.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1948"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.ruralmuseums.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1948\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1963,"href":"https:\/\/www.ruralmuseums.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1948\/revisions\/1963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ruralmuseums.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ruralmuseums.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ruralmuseums.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}