Give importance to intangible heritage

In order to raise the interest of a wider public to cultural heritage, priority should be given to the projects on intangible heritage. Intangible heritage touches the life of public much more than tangible heritage. Tangible heritage becomes more meaningful with intangible heritage so this area should be improved. Intangible heritage has been in Turkey's agenda -in terms of folklore- for many years but after the UNESCO's convention on intangible heritage in 2003, it became more popular and interest and research regarding many other aspects of intangible heritage started to occur in Turkey. The first projects on oral history were made at the end of 1990's by History Foundation. Since 10 years many other institutions executed projects on oral history. Intangible heritage issue is a topic which is still increasing in importance within the heritage field. An interesting aspect of this development is that not only architects, archaeologists or restorers are involved in the intangible heritage matters, but that also sociologist and cultural anthropologists are working on the field. Many debates on this issue may be organized parallel and connected to exhibitions that are planned by Amsterdam Historical Museum, University of Amsterdam, Press Museum or Museum Boijmans van Beuningen on intangible heritage. Anadolu Kültür suggested Erfgoed Nederland to organize an oral history project on storytelling between Dutch and Turkish heritage professionals, what could be expanded to other countries like Greece or Germany. Other people of organizations dealing with minorities I spoke to also favor see oral history.