International Cooperation
Bangladesh
Project Overview
The project to enhance capability of Bangladesh in conservation and management of cultural assets was conducted for two years (from 2016), based on the public cooperation agreement between the Korea International Cooperation Agency and the Korea Cultural Heritage Foundation. To improve the capability of Bangladesh’s national museum in preservation and exhibition of cultural properties, the Foundation offered invitational training, local training, essential tools/materials and manuals for preservation processes, and final workshop. These contributed to Bangladesh in establishing its own capability in preservation of cultural assets based on the techniques that Korea had in terms of preservation processes.
Major Activities
The foundation invited seven managers including the Deputy Minister of Culture of Bangladesh to Korea for a week, providing a short-term managerial-level invitational training program, in which they visited sites of preservation of major cultural assets, had theoretical education, and learned the advanced system of cultural property preservation in Korea. In addition, the Foundation invited three working-level employees of the National Museum of Bangladesh, offering a mid-term invitational training in dealing with papers, textiles, and metals, thus supporting establishment of Bangladesh’s capability in preservation processes.
The Foundation performed a local training by dispatching experts to Bangladesh, in order for the Korean system for preservation of cultural assets to be settled in Bangladesh. 73 working-level workers underwent the local training in terms of eight fields including metals, woods, stones, papers, textiles, and pottery & earthenware.
The Foundation supported tools and materials needed for preservation processes so that the techniques and skills offered through the invitational and local trainings would be used even after the project was completed. Those essential tools and materials are going to contribute to Bangladesh’s capability in preservation of its cultural assets in the fields of papers, textiles, and metals.
The Foundation published manuals of preservation processes dealing with a variety of fields including introduction to and ethics of preservation science, metals, stones, woods, papers, textiles, pottery & earthenware, and natural scientific analysis. The manuals were made in a format specific for Bangladesh with Korean experts in each field, enabling the working-level employees in the National Museum of Bangladesh to develop their capability.
The final workshop was held to identify the performances of all the projects for two years and to share the outcome in November 2017. The Korean Ambassador to Bangladesh and the Minister of Science and Technology of Bangladesh participated in the workshop, in which Korean experts and Bangladesh working-level workers exchanged their opinions in preservation of cultural assets in Bangladesh.
