The final event of the PITCHER project, co organised by Bibracte and Michael Culture with the collaboration of INHA and the participation of the project partners, took successfully place last 2nd October, at the main auditorium of the INHA, the French National Institute of Art History, in Paris. More than 150 people registered to the event, also streamed online, following the general presentation of the objectives and results of the project, as well as the afternoon discussions involving both the professionals and the policy makers active in this field.
During its three-year activities, PITCHER designed and tested a set of open educational resources focusing on improving the teachers and educators’ capacity in preparing new learning activities to support the fight against looting of archaeological sites and illicit trafficking of cultural goods.
After the welcome address provided by Éric de Chassey, Director-General, Institut National d’Histoire de l’Art, and Vincent Guichard, general director of Bibracte, the coordinator of PITCHER, the crucial challenge of raising awareness among young generations and training education professionals was presented by Morgan Belzic, researcher at the École du Louvre.
The overall educational programme was then highlighted, and all the eight PITCHER partners had the opportunity to focus on some of the Open Educational Resources developed by the project, that are available on the project website, at:
The resources are also accompanied by a useful guide on how to use the materials, addressing teachers and educators, and by a set of recommendations for political policy-makers from local to European level, that were presented by Marine Chanteperdrix, representative of the French National School of Police.
The project's results and its recommendations were then discussed during two roundtable sessions.The first, moderated by Pascale Goutagny, Academy Inspector and Regional Pedagogical Inspector for History and Geography in Bourgogne Franche-Comté, brought together producers of Open Educational Resources: Agathe Le Riche-Maugis from Bibracte, Cristina Canencia, and Carolina Molina Fernandez from IES Albalat, with users of these resources, Sandrine Lafontaine-Roger from Lycée Fénelon, and Vincent Baby from INHA. The discussions highlighted pedagogical approaches in Arts and Cultural Education and STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Mathematics), particularly well-suited to addressing the topics of PITCHER with students, and emphasized the importance of embedding these topics in school curricula.
The second round table, moderated by Corinne Szteinsznaider, coordinator of the Michael Culture Association, put the recommendations made by PITCHER to policy-makers at national level into perspective with existing policies and initiatives, while exploring relevant synergies and collaborations.
Céline Chazelas-Baur, DG Home of the European Commission and coordinator of the European Union's Action
Plan to combat trafficking in cultural goods, emphasized the important contribution made by the PITCHER project to the Action Plan, in particular as regards awareness-raising, education and training, and the extent to which this was a major issue, and outlined the main thrusts of the Action Plan. Jacqueline Pacaud, Head of the Erasmus+ sector at the European Commission's Directorate-General for Education and Culture, presented the possibilities offered by the Erasmus+ programme for developing projects.
Sunna Altnoder, Head of the Movable Heritage and Museums Unit at UNESCO, presented UNESCO's actions, in particular the 1970 Convention, and emphasized the extent to which the PITCHER recommendations echoed the work being done and the importance of awareness-raising and training activities.
Yann Brun, security expert from the French Ministry of Culture, presented the actions taken by the Ministry of Culture to combat trafficking in cultural goods and its commitment at European level, and emphasized the importance of actions involving cross-sector partnerships, as in the PITCHER project. Véronique Chankowski, Director of the French School of Athens and coordinator of the Netcher and Anchise European projects, emphasized the importance of holistic and cross-sectoral approaches to the issue of combating trafficking in cultural goods, given the complexity of the issues involved. She particularly emphasized the importance of research and training for professionals, and the importance of long-term European support for initiatives at European level.
The round table provided an opportunity to outline the areas and frameworks for developing the recommendations put forward by the project.
As well as passing on the results of the project and putting them into perspective with practitioners and political decision-makers, this day highlighted the importance of raising awareness and training young audiences and education and mediation professionals in the fight against the trafficking of cultural goods. It also provided an opportunity to outline future development avenues at both national and European level, in order to meet the strong expectations of these sectors.
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