BBC: Borsch soup in Ukraine added to Unesco endangered heritage list. “The UN’s cultural agency has added the cooking of borsch – a soup usually made with beetroot and potatoes – in Ukraine to its list of endangered intangible cultural heritage. Unesco said the war in Ukraine had ‘threatened’ the cooking of borsch.”
Museums+Heritage: 12 museums among cultural sites damaged or destroyed in Ukraine confirms UNESCO . “According to a new count, 152 cultural sites in Ukraine have been partially or totally destroyed since the beginning of the war. Last week UNESCO published an updated assessment of the damage caused to cultural sites in Ukraine since 24 February 2022, when the Russian offensive began. According to the checks carried out by its experts, 152 cultural sites have been partially or totally destroyed as a result of the fighting, including 30 historical buildings, 18 cultural centres, 15 monuments, 12 museums, seven libraries and 70 religious buildings.”
UNESCO: Ukraine: UNESCO launches programme to support Ukrainian artists. “UNESCO will provide financial support to Ukrainian artists to support the continuation of artistic creation and access to cultural life, under a pilot programme launched by the Organization in partnership with the Ukrainian NGO Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA).”
Archinect: UNESCO releases a new list of damaged cultural sites across Ukraine. “The organization has verified that 139 sites have suffered damage since that time, a combined total of 62 religious sites, 12 museums, 26 historic buildings, 17 cultural buildings, 15 monuments, and 7 libraries, including the Babyn Yar Holocaust remembrance site in Kyiv, which have come under Russian bombs and artillery shells as the conflict shifts from a three-pronged invasion to a more targeted offensive focused in the eastern Donbas region.”
Baltic Times: Lithuanian minister in Kyiv: ‘absurd’ that Russia chairs UNESCO heritage committee. “Lithuanian Culture Minister Simonas Kairys, who is visiting Kyiv on Friday, described as absurd the situation where Russia, which waging war in Ukraine and destroying the country, is chairing UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee.”
AFP: UNESCO meeting in Russia on world heritage postponed indefinitely. “A meeting of the U.N. cultural agency’s World Heritage Committee scheduled to have been hosted by Russia in June has been postponed indefinitely, a source said Thursday, after weeks of intense diplomatic wrangling prompted by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.”
IFL Science: Project Aims To Digitally Preserve Ukraine’s Landmarks And Artifacts Threatened By War. “Called ‘Backup Ukraine,’ the non-profit project is in partnership with the Danish National Committee of the UN’s Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Blue Shield Denmark, Polycam, and a VICE media group Using the Polycam app, people can capture data of cultural heritage relics and sites using their camera, then use the app to create three-dimensional renderings of the works, digitally preserving them away from the bombs and missiles.”
The Art Newspaper: Unesco under pressure to pull world heritage meeting from Russia. “Unesco is facing growing calls to relocate its next World Heritage Committee session from Kazan, Russia, following the invasion of Ukraine. Organisations such as the European heritage advocacy group Europa Nostra and the UK culture minister, Nadine Dorries, say that Russia should be blocked from hosting the annual meeting at which the list of World Heritage sites is approved. This year’s event is scheduled from 19 to 30 June under the chairmanship of the Russian Federation.”
Reuters: World heritage at risk amid Ukraine war, UNESCO says. “Dozens of valuable churches, historical sites and museums have been damaged by the war in Ukraine, the United Nations’ cultural agency said on Friday, adding that it was particularly worried about the northern city of Chernihiv…. UNESCO’s first, preliminary list of totally or partially damaged sites featured 29 religious sites, 16 historical buildings, four museums and four monuments, it said.”
New York Times: UNESCO will send body armor to Ukrainian journalists.. “The United Nations’ cultural agency said on Thursday that it was sending body armor and helmets to Ukraine to help protect Ukrainian journalists, many of whom have gone from covering local news to suddenly becoming war correspondents. At least four journalists, including a Ukrainian, have been killed covering the fighting since Russia began its invasion last month.”
United Nations News: Social media poses ‘existential threat’ to traditional, trustworthy news: UNESCO . “The business model of the news media is ‘broken’ and with it, our fundamental right to information is at risk, a new UNESCO report examining global trends in freedom of expression warns.”
The Art Newspaper: Unesco ‘gravely concerned’ about damage to Ukrainian cultural heritage. “The UN cultural organisation said it is working to ‘mark as quickly as possible key historic monuments and sites across Ukraine with the distinctive emblem of the 1954 Hague Convention, an internationally recognised signal for the protection of cultural heritage in the event of armed conflict.’ Unesco said it is also seeking to organise a meeting with museum directors across the country to coordinate the safeguarding of museum collections and cultural property.”
Google Blog: Discover the Memory of the World with UNESCO. “On the occasion of International Day of Education, the UNESCO Memory of the World Programme is pleased to join forces with Google Arts & Culture to present Memory of the World, the records that hold the memory of our shared past. The digital collection brings together 66 inscriptions held by institutions across over 30 countries, all listed on the Memory of the World International Register, to tell their stories and highlight key moments in history that have left the world changed forever.”
UNESCO: UNESCO launches the World Atlas of Languages to celebrate and protect linguistic diversity. “The World Atlas of Languages presents basic data on the existing 8,324 languages spoken or signed in the world, in use and not in use, as well as more detailed data documenting how 1,863 languages are used in various domains at the national level, enabling the construction of linguistic country profiles for over 80 countries. The platform featuring this rich dataset will open to the general public in February 2022.”
United Nations: 193 countries adopt first-ever global agreement on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence. “All the Member states of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) adopted on Thursday a historic agreement that defines the common values and principles needed to ensure the healthy development of AI.”
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