First Aid to Cultural Heritage in Times of Crisis – a double ICCROM publication
On October 2018 ICCROM (the intergovernamental organization on International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property) has published a couple of documents about “First Aid to Cultural Heritage in times of crisis”: a 176 pages pdf handbook and a 104 pages pdf toolkit.
Both the publications, authored by ICCROM’s Aparna Tandon and created in the framework of the ICCROM – Prince Claus Fund – Smithsonian Institution collaboration, are aimed at developing capacity in emergency preparedness and response for cultural heritage, can be downloaded from the ICCROM website
The handbook is focused on simple instructions and case studies which explain what has to be done to and how to do it.
According to the Authors of the forewords, the toolkit is “intended to codify the First Aid processes and further stimulate research, activity and awareness”.
The ICCROM website specifies that the emergency strategy of cultural heritage First Aid is based on three phases – (1) situation analysis; (2) post event, on-site damage and risk assessment; (3) security and stabilisation, which collectively lead to early recovery. Accordingly, the handbook shows possible workflows and procedures, which are explained with a simple and easy language with the help of a very clear graphics.
The two documents are part of the ICCROM effort to spread knowledge about the protection of Cultural Heritage in any part of the world, focused mostly on training of local resources.
