Shared Cultural Heritage 2017-2020: looking back to look forward

Our language, our culinary traditions, the buildings that surround us, archives we have collected and the stories we pass on bear many traces of histories that connect the Netherlands with other countries.

Through infographics and stories, we give an impression of the diversity and scope of our work and the many projects and activities that took place from 2017-2020. Four articles share concrete examples of our projects, while highlighting good practices, lessons learnt and collaboration amongst the programme’s partners and many organisations and institutions around the world. Each of the articles addresses at least one if not more of the main goals of the programme: the sustainable preservation, management, accessibility and visibility of cultural heritage that connects the Netherlands with several countries around the world.

DutchCulture, the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands, and the National Archives of the Netherlands, together with the Dutch Embassies and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, worked on and supported international and Dutch partners towards the preservation, management, accessibility and visibility of cultural heritage related to shared histories between the Netherlands and ten priority countries: Australia, Brazil, India, Indonesia, Japan, Russia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Suriname and the United States.

Shared Cultural Heritage is one of the priorities of the Netherlands’ International Cultural Policy, which is a responsibility of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The two ministries used the International Cultural Policy Framework 2017–2020 to provide guidance to efforts in the field of shared cultural heritage.

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