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PITCHER: A Legacy of Protecting Cultural Heritage Through Education and Collaboration Across Europe



Our PITCHER project is going to its end, and it will complete all its planned activities by 31st October, however its legacy is expected to stay far beyond the conclusion of the Erasmus+ programme’s grant.


This positive feeling comes from the high quality of the learning scheme set up in its 3-years duration, witnessed by the 17 open educational resources tested in four European countries, as well as by the success of the seven dissemination events organized by its partners, aiming to present the project results to external educational and cultural stakeholders interested in increasing their knowledge and empower their young audience in the fight against the looting and illicit trafficking of cultural goods.


The INS La Bisbal was the first partner to organize a dissemination event in Spain, in two separate parts, respectively organized within the school and at the archaeological site of Island of Reixac at Ullastret, in cooperation with the Museum of Archaeology of Catalonia.

The site at Ullastreet is indeed the place where “Protect the Sites!” -  the open educational resource developed by INS La Bisbal - is located. This training material has been tested by 168 students, and the feedback received was so positive that the teaching staff at INS La Bisbal has been encouraged to include this didactic resource in the annual program for 1st year students. The two events were attended by 83 people, receiving a very high assessment and fully achieving the goal not only to make the PITCHER project visible, but also to amplify the discussion about the fight against the looting and illicit trafficking of cultural heritage among the educational and cultural communities. 




The second event in Spain was organized on September 20th at the University Campus of the Faculty of Teacher Training of the University of Extremadura. IES Albalat, the partner school involved in PITCHER, has indeed decided to organize its multiplier event in a university academic context, with the final goal to ensure that the results of the project reach – among others - the students of History and Pedagogy – the future teachers on a new generation of informed citizens - as well as the university professors specialising in the use of new educational technologies.

 All the PITCHER results have been presented, with a special focus on showing the process of creating the open educational resource named “The Taking Clay”, developed by the teachers of IES Albalat, to explain the participants the context of the resource, its objectives, and the methodology that has been used. Thanks to this presentation, the audience could understand the importance of open educational resources to deal with cross-cutting issues that concern all the European citizens. This is indeed what happens with archaeological heritage, one of the key elements to protect and exploit the richness of our culture and history.

The piloting of the PITCHER resource involved 120 students from the IES Albalat,  who have tested, during the latter academic year the training materials, increasing their awareness about the importance of the professions that care for our heritage - such as archaeologists, curators, police - and the leading role that the general public can play when archaeological pieces are found.




The event organised by the Greek School, the Lycée Franco-Hellénique Eugène Delacroix,  took place online, with the objective to involve the network of the French schools abroad, that includes about 370.000 students, distributed over 540 institutes in 139 countries all over the world. The full set of results developed by the PITCHER project have been presented, with a special focus on the four open educational resources created by the teachers of the LFHED, i.e. “Crossed Interviews”, “Journey of a Stele”, “Traffic'Art”, and “Voiceless”. These materials have been indeed already thought for a very large geographical dimension, and are available in five different languages (French, Greek, English, Italian and Spanish). The experience developed by the Greek school can indeed be transferred quite easily to the whole network, with a special attention to those countries who are in areas very sensitive to the problem of international trafficking of looted objects.




The event, co-organised by Bibracte and Michael Culture with the collaboration of INHA and the participation of the project partners, took place last 2nd October in Paris. More than 150 people registered to the event, also streamed online, following the general presentation of the objectives and results of the project, as well as the afternoon discussions involving both the professionals and the policy makers active in this field. The crucial challenge of raising awareness among young generations and training education professionals was introduced by Morgan Belzic, researcher at the École du Louvre, who paved the way to the presentation of the Open Educational Resources developed by the project partners, and the presentation of the guide on how to use the materials, addressing teachers and educators, and the set of recommendations for political policy-makers from local to European level, that were presented by Marine Chanteperdrix, representative of the French National School of Police.


The project's results and its recommendations were then discussed during two roundtable sessions. The first discussion highlighted how PITCHER models respond to the different pedagogical approaches based on Arts and Cultural Education and STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Mathematics), and emphasized the importance of embedding these topics in school curricula.


The second round table, moderated by Corinne Szteinsznaider, coordinator of the Michael Culture Association, put the recommendations made by PITCHER to policy-makers at national level into perspective with existing policies and initiatives, while exploring relevant synergies and collaborations. The discussion was enriched by the contribution of key European actors, namely Céline Chazelas-Baur, coordinator of the European Union's Action Plan to combat trafficking in cultural goods, Jacqueline Pacaud, Head of the Erasmus+ sector at the European Commission's Directorate-General for Education and Culture, Sunna Altnoder, Head of the Movable Heritage and Museums Unit at UNESCO,  Yann Brun, security expert from the French Ministry of Culture, and Véronique Chankowski, Director of the French School of Athens and coordinator of the Anchise projects. They all emphasized the importance of holistic and cross-sectoral approaches to the issue of combating trafficking in cultural goods, given the complexity of the issues involved, as well as the importance of research and training for professionals.




The French multiplier event took place in Lyon, at the Musée de Lugdunum, thanks to the organisation of the École Nationale Supérieure de Police. The morning session was indeed focused on the presentation of the general framework of the matter, with interventions from the educational, cultural, research and security point of view, to share the contributions that the different professions can provide to the fight against looting and illicit trafficking of cultural goods. In the afternoon, the educational resources, the guidelines and recommendations issued by PITCHER were presented and commented by the project partners and the schools involved in the piloting phase. Finally the 53 participants were invited to a “hands-on” session, where they had the opportunity to test the resources made available in different corners of the museum, under the guidance of the partners. 



The final event was organised in Rome by the “I.C. Visconti” school, in their building located at the very centre of the city, in front of the Pantheon. In front of more than 80 people, the overall results of the project were presented, together with the specific activities carried out by the teachers and students of the school during the three-year duration of PITCHER. 

Two represen-tatives of the Division for the Protection of Cultural Heritage of Carabinieri, the Italian law enforcement agency known all over the world for their success in the search and restitution of stollen artworks, namely Captain Lorenzo Galizia and Marshall Major Monica Satta, described their activities and latest inquiries. The event was concluded with the presentation of a series of short movies developed by the students of the school, that are now used to call themselves as the “PITCHER girls” and the “PITCHER boys”. 




 


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