overview
The Best in Heritage is an annual programme in which award-winning museum, heritage and conservation projects are featured. Representatives of over forty laureates elaborate on their achievements, which have been recognised by professional juries over the past year for their outstanding quality. Aim of the Best in Heritage is to promote these exceptional projects which demonstrate innovation and excellence concerning the care and communication of heritage.
a unique programme
We collect information on all awarded projects from the past year and make it available on this website. From the list The Best in Heritage Advisory board makes a selection of projects to be invited to take part in the event. The aim is to have a diverse and interesting programme offering an insight into innovative practices, successful management approaches, extraordinary professionalism and into present day trends and tendencies.
The conference was started in 2002 by European Heritage Association from Zagreb, which still supports the event. From 2020 the editions are held online.
-
We are the rare platform where all sides of the heritage community, be them official, civil society or private, - meet.
-
We have THE archive when it comes to best practices
-
We offer accumulation of referential and teaching material
-
For all those who like to advance or check their achievements, our conference is a great bench-marking tool.
Why?
The widening profession needs quality information and benchmarking occasions; there are, annually more than three hundred awarded, new or renewed institutions world-wide and a great number of exceptional projects, some hardly known to the international professional public. All of them deserve further professional and public attention. Besides, we live in an increasingly competitive world where standards of excellence, i.e. expectations, be it from public or other stakeholders, are rising steadily.
We urge presenters to make the best use of the technique and the place to convey their achievements. To stimulate them, the professional audience votes to choose the Project of Influence of the year, by its presentation, innovative achievements and its capacity of inspiration. There are two winners - one from the IMAGINES event, and one from the core programme.
testimonials
Michael Cirigliano II
"The Best in Heritage conference is three days of non-stop inspiration. From a binaural audio experience in central London to a community-building, anti-gentrification campaign in Hong Kong, each project showed a consummate dedication to preserving our cultural heritage. The fact that it also takes place within the walled city of Dubrovnik, with its Renaissance architecture and Adriatic breezes, makes this not just a conference, but an experience."
Kate Harland
"It was wonderful for Lion Salt Works to be part of the international stage of Best in Heritage and to share its experiences of the restoration and how the public now engage with their own heritage: museums staff are the facilitators! It is so reassuring to hear of projects, large and small, which have such an impact on communities. Personally, I found it a 'breath of fresh air' to meet the other participants from across the world who speak the same heritage language."
Corey Timpson
"I've had the privilege of being at Best in Heritage for the past 2 years and it has quickly come to feel like a solid tradition that I end the summer immersed in a rich 3 days of global culture and heritage, setting me up inspired and aware for the coming months. I'm often telling people in my network how rich a conference it is. I like the single-track, intimate nature, and practically informed (all award winners vs theoretical papers) aspects of the conference. "
Emmajane Avery
“The Best in Heritage conference is a great opportunity to meet other like-minded people and to see an important snapshot of museum practice in the world today. It was both an education and extremely enjoyable to be part of the conference in 2015.”
Christian G. Carron
"I presented from one particular perspective on arts and education in museums. But through the course of the conference I was able to expand my horizons, learning from colleagues and comparing my approach with so many others from the very best museums, libraries, and historical sites across the globe. The Best in Heritage is a cross-cultural celebration of the preservation and presentation goals we all share."
Andrew Ellis
"The idea of bringing together such a large number of award-winning projects to present at one conference is great. I was impressed by the quality of the presentations and the variety of projects, and particularly liked the fact that they hailed from all over the world."
Hélene Bernier
"Culture is about special people, special moments, and special places. The Best in Heritage conference in Dubrovnik has them all. The city itself is truly a parenthesis out of time. The 19th-century ambiance of the Marin Drćić Theater is a surreal treasure box for the most modern and innovative ideas presented by speakers from all over the world. An outstanding organization, a must-see, must-hear, and must-live experience."
Vinod Kumar
"This fantastic event is organised and managed in the most efficient and professional manner. In addition to enabling me to share our UNESCO award-winning temple restoration project experience from India, it gave me plenty opportunities to learn, interact with others and to see how the best practices work in other parts of the world. The beautiful heritage town of Dubrovnik is a perfect setting for this conference. "
Trevor White
"The Best in Heritage is a fantastic initiative, bringing together some of the most exciting museum and heritage projects in the world today. Well-organised, good fun and full of important learning for professionals in the field, it's a conference that deserves the excellent reputation that it enjoys."
Dr. Michael A. Mares
"It was a special honor to be selected for, and participate in, the Best in Heritage conference in Dubrovnik. To be included with such outstanding museums from throughout the world and to be able to interact with leading museum professionals who had been responsible for their museum’s remarkable success story was exhilirating. Kudos to the organizers of this marvelous conference."
conference exhibition
We used to announce the conference with a poster exhibition of projects to be presented. It has been a way to share professional information with culturally motivated visitors of Dubrovnik. The exhibition was occasionally taken over by other interested parties. All posters have had QR codes leading to the conference web-page with articles and images of featured laureates. Those web pages contain contact information, website and social media hyperlinks. While still only digital, we intend to keep the exhibition as additional content for the participating institutions,- available at request in a printable version.
conference publications
For best reading experience please download the PDF file(s) and open in your local device reader app.