| South
African National Cultural Heritage
Training and Technology Program:
A Program of Collaboration between the U.S. and South Africa
Thursday, July 03, 2008
Welcome
to the web home of the South African National Cultural Heritage
Training and Technology Program. Launched in 2000, our project is
a multi-faceted, three-year, binational, collaborative program to
identify and train a cadre of archivists, curators, scholars and
students to use new media and best professional practices to work
in South Africa on cultural heritage projects. We are supported
by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and Michigan
State University. Our project works in partnership with a broad
sampling of South African and U.S. universities, archives, and museums.
How
do we do it? The project uses a variety of methods
to conduct training, build a professional network among heritage
and cultural workers and administrators, and disseminate information
about new media:
-
Annual Colloquia that bring together
cultural heritage professionals to discuss emerging issues in
the field, develop new projects, and learn about new initiatives
in cultural heritage and technology in South Africa, the United
States, Africa, and around the world. Learn
more
- Training
Institute on cultural heritage and technology, conducted
in July 2000 in the United States, involving our American partners,
Michigan State University, and a cadre of South African heritage
professionals. Learn
more.
-
Project-based Learning through pilot
initiatives in Folk Arts, Oral History Digitization and Dissemination,
and South African Film, Media, and Video, located at partner institutions
in South Africa. Cultural heritage workers learn by working directly
on specific projects in their fields and using their collections.
Learn
more.
-
Internships
that bring American museum professionals, archivists, professors,
and professional staff from Historically-Black Colleges and Universities
to institutions in South Africa for research, study, exhibit development,
and workshops. Learn
more.
-
Short-term Workshops
for professionals, that engage American and South African curators,
archivists, policymakers, and entry-level administrators in professional
development for grant-writing and exhibition design. Learn
more.
- Technical
Assistance that deploys experts from our U.S. partners
to assess and assist with immediate, urgent needs by partners
in South Africa. Learn
more.
Who
are we? As the first American university to divest
its holdings in apartheid South Africa, MSU has a profound commitment
to working with the new South Africa. This project grows out of
the university's strong ties to South African educational and cultural
institutions, and builds upon MSU's internationally-recognized African
studies center, museum and folklife programs, and humanities-based
technology.
The
cornerstone units at Michigan State include the MSU Museum, the
African Studies Center, and MATRIX: The Center for Humane Arts,
Letters and Social Sciences Online. Our other U.S. partners include
the Chicago Historical Society and the Smithsonian Institution's
Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage. Our South African partners
include the UWC/Robben Island Mayibuye Archives, a unit of the Robben
Island Museum, a world heritage site; the National Archives of South
Africa; the South African Museums Association; the University of
Durban-Westville Documentation Centre; Campbell Collections at the
University of Natal-Durban; Wits Historical Papers at the University
of the Witwatersrand; and the Centre for Popular Memory at the University
of Cape Town. Learn
more.
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